Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

A castle on a mountaintop

High on a peak of the Vosges mountains, in the Alsace region of eastern France, the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg rises in warm pink sandstone above a sea of forest. From its towers and walls there is a magnificent view over the vineyards and villages of the Alsace plain, with the river Rhine glinting in the distance and, on clear days, the far-off peaks of the Alps and the Black Forest. Its commanding position made it, for centuries, a fortress that watched over one of the great crossroads of Europe.

A medieval frontier fortress

A castle was first built on this mountaintop in the 1100s, guarding important routes through and around the Vosges, along which wine, wheat, salt and silver were carried. Whoever held the castle could watch over this rich and busy land. Over the centuries the fortress was fought over, damaged and rebuilt as control of Alsace passed between different lords and rulers.

In the 1400s it was even held for a time by robber-knights who preyed on passing merchants, until they were driven out. Later the castle was strengthened to cope with cannon. But during the great upheavals of the 1600s, in the terrible Thirty Years' War, the Haut-Kœnigsbourg was besieged, captured and burned, and afterwards it was left as a ruin, slowly crumbling on its peak for some two hundred years.

A grand rebuilding

The castle's remarkable second life began around 1900. At that time Alsace was part of the German Empire, and the ruined castle was given to the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Kaiser decided to rebuild it as a grand monument to the history of the region and of German castles.

Between 1900 and 1908, the architect Bodo Ebhardt carefully studied the ruins and old records and then rebuilt the entire fortress — its keep, halls, towers, drawbridge and walls — in the style of a great late-medieval castle. Some of the work followed the evidence closely, while some reflected the ideas and tastes of the time. The result is a vivid, complete vision of a medieval mountain fortress.

A castle of two countries

The Haut-Kœnigsbourg's story reflects the history of Alsace itself, a land that has passed between France and Germany more than once. Rebuilt by a German emperor, it became French again after the First World War, and today it is one of the most visited monuments in France, cared for by the region of Alsace.

A window into the Middle Ages

Because it was so completely rebuilt and furnished, the Haut-Kœnigsbourg lets visitors experience what a great medieval castle might have looked and felt like, with its grand hall, its kitchens, its bedchambers, its weapons and its gardens. It is part real medieval fortress, part early-20th-century dream of the Middle Ages — and all the more fascinating for it.

Visiting today

Visitors can explore the castle's halls, towers, drawbridge and battlements, learning how it was built, ruined and reborn, and drink in the spectacular views over Alsace and the Rhine valley. Pink-walled, mountain-high and gloriously rebuilt, the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg is one of the most popular and dramatic castles in France — a fitting end to a journey through the country's great fortresses and châteaux.