Haut Koenigsbourg castle Orschwiller Alsace France
The château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (German Hohkönigsburg) is located at Orschwiller, Alsace, France, in the Vosges mountains just west of Sélestat. The castle is nestled at a strategic location on a high hill overlooking the Alsatian plain; as a result it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. In 1900 it was restored under the direction of Emperor Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist attraction, located on the Alsace wine is unknown when a castle was first built on the site. The first explicit mention that is known was in 1147. It took its name from the original Königsburg (German, "King's Castle") in 1192. In the early thirteenth century the castle passed from the Hohenstaufen family to the Dukes of Lorraine who entrusted it to the Ratsamhausen family who held the castle until the fifteenth century. A coalition of cities attacked and burned the castle in 1462. The ruins passed to the Thiersteins who rebuilt them after 1479 with a defensive system suited to the new artillery of the time. In 1517 the Thierstein died without an heir and the castle came into the possession of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. It was abandoned after the Thirty Years' War because it had been burned and pillaged by Swedish troops after a 52-day siege. For a few hundred years the castle was left unused and became overgrown by the forest. Various romantic poets and artists were inspired by the castle during this time. It was given by the city of Sélestat to the German emperor Wilhelm II in 1899. Wilhelm wished to create for himself a castle lauding the qualities of the medieval time of Alsace and more generally of German civilization. He hoped it would reinforce the bond of Alsatians with Germany, as they had only recently (1871) been incorporated into the German Reich. The management of the restoration of this fortified castle was entrusted to Bodo Ebhardt. Work proceeded from 1900 to 1908.
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Location: Haut Koenigsbourg castle Orschwiller Alsace France
Photo credit: © QEDimages / Alamy / Afripics
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