The commune of Orschwiller in the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace, France,

Heritage Places, Castles & Architecture

Click on Images for Information

(#CommissionsEarned)

Shades of Current Image

(#CommissionsEarned)

Current Root

@Heritage Places, Castles & Architecture
06-Jun-2025 08 pm

The commune of Orschwiller in the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace, France, is home to the medieval castle known as Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, or occasionally just Haut-Koenigsbourg. Situated in a strategically important location on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, in the Vosges mountains to the west of Sélestat, it was utilized by several nations from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years War, when it was abandoned. Under orders of Wilhelm II, it was renovated between 1900 and 1908. It is now a popular tourist destination, drawing in over 500,000 tourists annually. The Frankish ruler Charlemagne first named the Buntsandstein cliff as Stofenberk in a deed dated to 774. It was then in ownership of the French Basilica of St. Denis and the location of a monastery, having been recertified in 854. When the original castle was constructed is unknown. But in 1147, the monks protested to King Louis VII of France against the illegal construction of a Burg Staufen by the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick II of Swabia. In 1138, younger brother Conrad III of Frederick was crowned King of the Romans. Frederick Barbarossa, son of Frederick, succeeded him in 1152, and by 1192, the castle was known as Kinzburg. Frederick III, the Habsburg emperor, gave the Counts of Thierstein the castle ruins in fief in 1479, and they rebuilt it with a defense system appropriate for the new cannon available at the time. Following the death of the last Thierstein in 1517, the castle was transferred to the property of Maximilian I, the Habsburg emperor at the time. The Protestant Swedish armies besieged the Imperial stronghold in 1633, during the Thirty Years War, in which Catholic forces faced Protestant forces. The Swedish soldiers burnt and pillaged the castle after a 52-day siege. It was abandoned for several hundred years, during which time the ruins were overtaken by the woodland. The castle served as an inspiration to many romantic poets and artists throughout this period. The commune of Sélestat acquired the ruins three years after they were included on the monument historique of the Second French Empire list in 1862. The area became part of the German Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, and the people of that region gave Wilhelm II, the German emperor, what was left of the castle in 1899. Wilhelm wanted to build a castle that extolled the virtues of medieval Alsace. The period of work was 1900–1908. The renovated Hohkönigsburg was opened in front of the Emperor on May 13, 1908. A historic cortege entered the castle in an intricate re-enactment ceremony, all while it poured with rain. #History #Architecture #Castles

This article uses text information from the Wikipedia article -- Château_du_Haut-Koenigsbourg -- [Wikipedia-Article-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_du_Haut-Koenigsbourg ] which is released under the -- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License – [License-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License ] [List of Principal Authors (5 or less) of the Wikipedia-Article on the date of this Article being Created in this Website: - 85.179.136.88, Peregrine981, Emeraude, Nmusic, AnnHK67] [Use the following Authorship tool to find out the author contributions:- https://xtools.wmcloud.org/authorship ] [The Current Article on this Website has been paraphrased from the above linked corresponding Wikipedia-Article and You may redistribute this, verbatim or modified, provided that you comply with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License] [License-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License ]

This article also uses an image from the Wikipedia article -- Château_du_Haut-Koenigsbourg -- [Wikipedia-Article-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_du_Haut-Koenigsbourg ] [Image: A view of the Black Forest and the Alsatian plain from the castle; Wikipedia-Image Author : Drew de F Fawkes] [Wikipedia-Image-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ch%C3%A2teau_du_Haut-K%C5%93nigsbourg,_Alsace.jpg ] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license;] [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en ] [You may copy, distribute and transmit the work (image) or remix the work (image) and attribute the work (image) with proper license link, complying with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license in distribution] [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en ] [Please Also Relate to Original Individual Text and Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Contents]
[Contents on Wikipedia is covered by -- Disclaimer – [Wikipedia-Disclaimer-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer ] [Contents in this Website is also covered by Disclaimer linked at the bottom of the Page] [This website article means no intellectual appropriation by any way and only wishes to contribute in sharing of knowledge]