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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of Ittenwiller finds its origins in an Augustinian priory dedicated to St.Christine, founded in the 12th century near a Romanesque chapel. This priory, dependent on the Archbishop of Strasbourg, was fortified after 1530 and served as a wine estate until the Revolution. The convent buildings, including a church, a vaulted cloister and agricultural outbuildings, were partially restored in the 16th century and in 1661, as evidenced by an inscription on the entrance gate.

In 1790, composer Ignace Joseph Pleyel acquired the estate, before he passed in 1798 into the hands of General Louis Jacques de Coehorn. The latter and his son, Louis Eugene, transformed the former priory into a castle in the 19th century, adding round and square towers (1838) while perpetuating the wine tradition. The Romanesque church of St.Christine and its cloister, destroyed in 1793, gave way to a funeral chapel in the nineteenth century. The site, which preserves Romanesque and Gothic remains, was classified as a Historic Monument in 1937.

The castle changed hands by marriage alliances: he entered the Gruvel family in 1891 and then the Andlau family. The outbuildings, rebuilt after 1945, complete an architectural complex marked by its 16th century wall, Renaissance well and cannon guns. Today, the domain embodies both the Alsatian religious heritage and the evolution of local elites, from canons to noble and bourgeois families.

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