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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of Breuschwickersheim, located in the Bas-Rhin in Alsace, finds its origins in the 13th century as an episcopal fortress mentioned in 1246. Infed with the Wickersheim Knights, this stronghold was initially composed of four wings surrounding a courtyard, flanked by four round towers and protected by a ditch fed by a spring. A castral chapel and a 9th–X century necropolis (discovered in 1851) attest to an ancient occupation of the site. The castle was repeatedly the target of conflicts: taken by the Strasbourgs in 1261 and 1420, then destroyed and looted by the Armagnacs in 1444 before its reconstruction in the 15th century, adapted to firearms.

From 1435 to 1640, the castle belonged to the Sturm family of Strasbourg, which undertook major modifications, notably in 1566 (date engraved on a console). In the 16th century, it became a meeting place for Alsatian humanists. Upon the extinction of the Sturms, the property passed to the Weitersheims in the seventeenth century, which removed two towers and added a floor, gradually transforming the fortress into a residence. A pepper cover was added to a tower around 1622, and an inventory of 1714 mentions five towers. In the 18th century, new windows and doors were pierced, while the north and east wings, destroyed after 1830, were replaced by agricultural outbuildings.

Ranked a historic monument in 1929 for its facades and roofs, the castle retains defensive elements (murder, foothills) and architectural elements (renaissance window, 18th century staircase). Today, it is used as an agricultural farm, and it bears witness to the military evolutions (adaptation to cannons) and social (passage from fortress to residence) of medieval and modern Alsace. The traces of the chapel, the Merovingian sarcophagi and the use of Romanesque stones (like a carved 13th century head) underline its historical and archaeological importance.

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