Château du Fleckenstein

Looking down from the Fleckenstein by the High Castle

The Fleckenstein, French Château du Fleckenstein, is a medieval castle rock in Northern Alsace (France) near the border of Rhineland- Palatinate. She gave as an ancestral castle of the noble family of Fleckenstein the name.

Location

The Fleckenstein is only about 200 meters southeast of the border with Germany at 370 meters height between Lembach on the French and deer valley on the German side. It is easy to reach via the link road Hirschthal - Lembach and via hiking trails. Next to the castle there is a parking lot.

1 kilometers southwest of the Fleckensteins, beyond the mentioned link road, next to the river Sauer flows, the French also Froensburg collected; 2 km north-east, but on a ridge in significantly greater height, each 500 meters apart the High Castle, the Lowenstein (also called Linde Schmidt ) both. On French territory, and the Wegelnburg on German soil All these castles can, if sufficient time is available to be visited on a day trip in succession.

History

The historical data for Fleckenstein castle are quite poor. 1174 was one of Gottfried Fleckenstein, who belonged to a family of Reichsministerialen, first mentioned and thus indirectly the castle. A capital which was found in the castle ruins, however, dates from the early 12th century, so that it is clear that the castle was built later than that time, more than 50 years before the first mention. At the time of its construction the castle was on a road that linked the imperial palaces of the Hohenstaufen in Haguenau and Kaiserslautern; therefore came to Castle Fleckenstein strategic importance.

1276 besieged King Rudolf of Habsburg Heinrich von Fleckenstein, to free the jailed by this Friedrich von Bolanden, the Bishop of Speyer; However, it is not known whether the siege concerned the Fleckenstein castle or other medieval castle of this extensive network of influential family. Similarly important was the Ministerialengeschlecht of Dahn, which had its headquarters, 15 km north. His castle Altdahn was destroyed in 1363 for the first time in the course of a feud with the stain Steinem. 1407 and 1441 are construction testifies on Fleckenstein, whose events are not mentioned. Presumably it was to create comfortable living conditions by expansion.

In the Thirty Years' War and shortly thereafter three brothers from the knights of Fleckenstein made ​​a talking point: Gottfried Fleckenstein - Windeck fell in 1639 at the siege of the city of Vesoul, which lies in the boundary region Burgundy / Lorraine. His brother Georg Heinrich became general in the Bavarian troops. The youngest brother, Friedrich Wolfgang, entered French service and was later appointed by Louis XIV to the Maréchal de camp. With Friedrich Wolfgang's nephew Heinrich Jacob died in 1720, the last Fleckenstein.

Twice in the late 17th century, the Fleckenstein was occupied by French troops. 1674, this was done under Marshal de Vauban, without resistance was offered. 1680, however, the castle was completely destroyed under General Montclar. Thereafter, only further awarded by Fleckenstein as legal and property titles.

By 1890, the castle fell into disrepair as a ruin. 1898 she came under monument protection, which was confirmed in 1933 by the French State. In 1960 it was opened by the Syndicat d'Initiative de Lembach for visitors, but remained in private ownership. In 1998, she became the property of the municipality Lembach who acquired the surrounding forest areas Thalenberg and Fleckenstein.

In the 1990s, extensive restoration work to secure the walls and to facilitate access to the main castle for the visitors took place. On 8 September 2002, the castle Fleckenstein was didactically - dokumentatorisch part of the Interreg program with support from the European Regional Development Fund and has been a special attraction for families with children.

Plant

Basis of Fleckensteins is a 90 meter long, 6 to 8 feet narrower and 30 meters high rock from red sandstone, a so-called "cash ", peaking impressively from the forest. The entire facility, including measures of the lower castle partially preserved on the north side about 120 meters in length and 60 meters in width; the buildings covered the entire plateau in the 16th century.

Are preserved remains of walls of various residential and commercial buildings, parts of the stair tower and the fountain tower ( with hewn in the rock room for the treadmill ) and parts of the curtain wall to the lower castle and the gate with remains of two towers. Particularly impressive are the numerous on the upper castle carved into the rock Barre basements and staircases in the rock. The wall remains still preserved today come mainly from the late Middle Ages ( 15th/16th. Century ), while the ring wall still dated from the 13th century to the northwest. The most interesting note on the appearance of the castle in the High Middle Ages deliver small remnants of walls and foundation footprints of the keep in the middle of the top rock plateaus. This tower was demolished in the late Middle Ages in favor of residential buildings.

On the south side of the rock Barre was built in 1500 by a high wall with two semi-circular, slender towers. The main purpose of this elaborate construction project was probably to protect the overhanging rock with the upper castle against further weathering. The south-western of the two small towers also has a small postern.

The fortress textbook " Architectura of Vestungen " Alsatian military architect Daniel Hamstead from 1589 shows a castle, apparently of Fleckenstein served as a model for; However, the high and slender proportions are heavily oversubscribed.

Conservation and tourism

The Fleckenstein is the only This tourist castle in its immediate vicinity. With 79,000 visitors (2005) he is after Hohkönigsburg the second most haunted castle in Alsace.

In the years around the turn of the century, the castle was fully secured. So you have reinstalled levels in the stair tower from the 16th century and provided the highest rock platform with railings. Inside the castle there is a tiny museum with finds from the area of the castle. Also a medieval Tretradkran was reconstructed. Set back from the castle ruins, a former forester's house has been turned into an information center.

Leading figure of the guided tour is the returned knight of Willy Fleckenstein, the family requests at predetermined distinctive points to stop and the children can solve various tasks and puzzles. So want, for example, found in the entrance area error in Fleckenstein 's coat of arms identified in the reconstructed Hall of Knights with players and musicians a not to the Middle Ages belonging game, discovered a hawk in falconry or the bottom of the well are calculated in the rope based on the node. Tell the castle be backfilled, formerly 70 meter deep well told, magic formulas discussed with the herbs of the Middle Ages in the Witch's Kitchen, finally opened secret passages, where the young " robber barons " to follow.

From the terrace on the main castle rock opens up a view down into the valley of the Sauer and the surrounding wooded elevations of the Northern Vosges.