Château du Wildenstein

Perched at 666 metres on a rocky spur called the Schlossberg, the Château du Wildenstein watched over the road to the Oderen pass towards Lorraine, at the head of the Thur valley. Mentioned in 1312 as the property of the counts of Ferrette, it was bought in the 16th century by the abbot of Murbach, who restored it and built a chapel there. During the Thirty Years' War, it held out for several weeks against French troops in 1634, before being destroyed by the Swedes ten years later.

What remains are sections of wall, traces of towers and steps cut into the rock, as well as a tunnel bored through the rock. The appeal lies above all in the setting and the plunging view over the Kruth-Wildenstein lake and the Vosges summits, at the end of a short climb from the dam.

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