Castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg

The castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg (in German Hohkönigsburg ) is a Château Médiéval which is located in the Commune Frenchwoman of Orschwiller in the department of the the Low-Rhine in Alsace.

History

Hohenstauffen

In 774, Charlemagne makes gift of the Stophanberch or Staufenberg , (name of the mountain where the castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg was built) and of the grounds contiguous to the Prieuré of Lièpvre dependant on that of Saint-Denis.
In 1079 Frederic de Hohenstaufen is named duke Souabe by the emperor Henri IV. It makes build the Stauf castle on the Hohenstaufen mount close to Göppingen, from where the surname.
In order to reinforce its capacity in Alsace, it created a line of defense, it makes build many castles and, some of them on grounds which do not belong to him. One says of him that it constantly has a castle fixed on the tail of its horse. It thus makes build in all illegality the castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg on the grounds entrusted to the monks of the abbey of Lièpvre.
In 1147, Eudes de Deuil, monk of Saint-Denis press Louis VII to intervene with the king Conrad III of Hohenstaufen in order to repair this injustice. It is the first mention of the castle in a written document. On this date, the site comprised already two turns making it possible to supervise the road of Alsace north in the south, one pertaining to Conrad III, the other with its nephew Frederic de Hohenstaufen known as Barberousse, future emperor of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire. The name of Königsburg (castle of the king) appears as of 1192.

Dukes of Lorraine

In first half of the 13th century, benefitting from the weakening of the Hohenstaufen, the dukes of Lorraine take possession of the castle. This one is entrusted to the lords of Rathsamhausen then to the Hohenstein which reign there until the 15th century.

Become a reference mark of knights brigands, the castle is conquered and set fire to in 1462 by a coalition gathering the towns of Colmar, Strasbourg and Basle, strong of 500 men and parts of Artillerie.

Thierstein

The remainders of the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg are then entrusted to the family of the Thierstein in 1479, which rebuild it and improve its defenses by adapting it to the Artillerie.

They make build on the west coast, a formed bastion of two turns of artillery and a wall shield equipped with powerful walls. The low court is protected by two horseshoe turns and curtain with thick walls. The castle is surrounded by a first wall of protection in order to obstruct the setting out of battery of enemy artillery.

In 1517, the last of the Thierstein, collapsing under the debts, dies out. The family not having a descent, Maximilien Ier takes again possession of the castle. Neither the emperor, nor the successive owners will face the maintenance costs. The more so as the first does not finance the seconds for these achievements. It is however at that time that will be produced the star bastion in the east of the castle.

Destruction

In 1633, the War Thirty Year old opposing the Swedish to the Austria, the Alsace is devastated. In July, the Swedish besiege Haut-Kœnigsbourg which is nothing any more but one dilapidated fortress. Forts of gun S and mortars, they take the castle after fifty-two days of seat. Little time after, the fortress is destroyed by a fire. The castle is then left with the abandonment.

The gift in Kaiser

Since 1871 and the Treated of Frankfurt, the Alsace became German. The May 4th 1899, then ruins some, the castle and the grounds surrounding it are offered by the town of Sélestat to the German Empereur Guillaume II, which wishes to create a kind of éco-museum praising there qualities of the medieval period of the Alsace and more generally of the world Germanique.

The direction of the restoration of this strong Château is entrusted in 1900 to Bodo Ebhardt, Architecte and archeologist Berliner 34 years old. It starts with the clearing of the site and the statements of old constructions. The restoration will be spread out 1901 with 1908. The objective of Bodo Ebhardt is to restore it such as it arised to the day before Guerre of Thirty Years, but source lack, it must improvise on many parts of the castle, accentuating even as soon as possible the elements most picturesque and answering the taste of the Kaiser, but thus moving away from the historical fidelity of the reconstitution.

The new castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg is inaugurated the May 13rd, 1908. At the conclusion of the First World War, goods of the emperor, whose castle, are recovered by the French State.

Today

This historic building profits today from a very strong tourist frequentation . The blazon of Guillaume II is always visible within the castle. There remains thus one of the symbols in Alsace of the German presence between 1871 and 1918, divided between the restoration mainly credible of the architect and the romantic vision of the Moyen-âge of Guillaume II.

Belonging at the French State since 1919, the Haut-Kœnigsbourg castle was transferred by the State to the General advice from the Low-Rhine in January 2007. This transfer was the first patrimonial good transferred by the State to a structure decentralized among a list of 176 transferable goods stopped in 2004.

The castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg is one of the tourist sites most visited in France, with nearly 500.000 visitors per annum. It dominates the Rhenish plain.

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