Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg

The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg overlooks the Alsace plain at 757 metres' altitude, in the Vosges massif, in the commune of Orschwiller (Bas-Rhin). It lies about 12 km west of Sélestat and 55 km south of Strasbourg. Founded at the end of the twelfth century by Frederick I of Swabia, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, it is mentioned in writing as early as 1147. Swedish troops destroyed it in 1633, during the Thirty Years' War, and it remained in ruins for nearly three centuries.

It was rebuilt between 1901 and 1908 by the architect Bodo Ebhardt, and inaugurated on 13 May 1908. This very free restoration, carried out when Alsace was German, remains debated, but it lets you see today a complete castle, with its bastions designed for artillery.

The visit leads to the square keep, the great hall with imperial eagle decoration, the hexagonal spiral staircase, the chapel and the armoury. A high garden links the residence to the great bastion. A listed historic monument, the castle has belonged since 2007 to the département of Bas-Rhin and receives about 550,000 visitors a year.

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