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Origin and history

The castle of Lutzelbourg was founded in the 11th century by Pierre de Lutzelbourg, son of Count Frédéric de Montbéliard, on a rocky promontory overlooking the Zorn valley. Born from a noble line linked to the house of Savoy, Peter inherited the magraviat of Suse in 1091, but had to settle on his ancestral lands between Philippsburg and Zorn after conflicts with Emperor Henry IV. The name Lutzelbourg ("Petit Château") appeared only in 1126, in an act of founding the convent of Saint-Jean-Saverne by Peter, who adopted this name by taking possession of the site. Around 1100 he exchanged the priory of Saint-Quirin against the castel with the Abbey of Marmoutier, marking the beginning of his local influence.

On the death of his son Reginald in 1142, the county passed to the bishop of Metz Stephen, who entrusted him with the custody of the first lords of Lutzelburg. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the families of Fénétrange and Lutzelstein shared the estate, introducing fees such as tolls, before being ousted around 1450 by the Palatine Counts. In 1523 Louis the Pacific ordered the partial destruction of the castle to counter the ambitions of Franz of Sickingen. The ruins, threatened with demolition in 1840 for the construction of a railway line, were saved by the notary Adolf Germain.

In the 19th century, Eugène Koeberlé, professor of medicine in Strasbourg, acquired the site around 1900 and undertook excavations, consolidating the remains and building a neo-Romane room. His research, published in 1909 in Les Ruins du château de Lutzelbourg, revealed architectural elements such as the large 12th century square tower (24 m high, 2.40 m thick walls), built by Pierre and Reginald. The castle, classified as a historic monument in 1930, also retains a bridge of access and a lintel decorated with an apotropaic face, testimonies of its medieval past.

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