A mountain castle in Alsace

If Haut-Koenigsbourg castle was built on this site, it was first and foremost because, a very long time before, the forces of nature had prepared an ideal location...

The site - a rocky promontory of predominantly pink sandstone - on which Haut-Koenigsbourg castle was built is the product of a long geological history of the region.

Hundreds of millions of years of tectonic forces, followed by erosion, have shaped a site that now stands at over 700 metres and stretches out - sometimes steeply - towards the plain. 
A site from which, on a clear day, you can see for dozens of kilometres, and almost 360°.

But a site is only occupied if its location is favourable, i.e. if its environment is conducive to the settlement of a human group. For this to happen, a certain number of criteria must be met, including the essential presence of water, communication routes, etc.

Written evidence of the existence of a fortified castle built by the Hohenstaufen family dates back to 1147. Called Castrum Estuphin at the time, it dominates the Alsace plain at an altitude of over 700 metres.

Situated on a rocky promontory, the castle was in fact an ideal observatory for the region's main trade routes, which crossed in the vicinity of the town of Sélestat: the wheat and wine route linking Italy to what is now the Netherlands, and the salt and silver route linking the provinces of Lorraine - via the passes of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Urbeis and Steige - to the Germanic regions east of the Rhine.

The castle was also a strategic retreat point. This was undoubtedly one of the castle's main roles when it was built.

This castle takes the name of Koenigsburg (royal castle) from 1157.