Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Lupfen-Schwendi came into being at the end of the 13th century, when the Habsburgs created the Hohlandsberg seigneury and installed their baili in Kientzheim. The city then becomes an administrative center, and a house, located at the present location of the castle, serves as a residence for the bailli. In 1363, the seigneury was hired to the Ribeaupierre, then passed into the hands of the Lupfen family in 1400, which expanded and redeveloped the site. A major event occurred in 1473, when Jean de Lupfen welcomed Charles le Témeraire, Duke of Burgundy, after he was refused entry to Colmar.

Upon the death of Joachim de Lupfen in 1562, the seigneury and castle were sold in Lazare de Schwendi, which undertook a complete reconstruction between 1564 and 1566. Only the medieval cellar is preserved, while a Renaissance home, accompanied by gardens, is born. In 1609, the castle belonged to Hélène Éléonore de Schwendi, but his marriage to Jacques de Fürstenberg-Donaueschingen triggered a long family trial. During the Thirty Years' War, in 1636, the castle was ransacked by the Colmarians after its owner fled, then remarried to Nicolas de Leyen.

Disputes continued throughout the 17th century: in 1646 an Austrian court restored the castle to the Schwendi, but the Leiden, supported by France, won in 1657. In 1681 Louis XIV dispossessed the Schwendi for the benefit of Joseph de Montclar, who enlarged the park into a French garden. After several hand changes and trials, the castle passed to the Reich of Pfalz in the 18th century. They transform him into a cure and add an amphitheater to the park.

The French Revolution marked a turning point: the Reichs of Pfalz emigrated in 1791, and the castle, confiscated, became a prison before being sold as a national good. In the 19th century, he changed several owners, including the Golbéry and Castex families, who undertook restorations. Damaged during the two world wars, it was repaired after 1945. In 1972, the Saint-Étienne wine association acquired it, setting up a wine museum in 1980 and an wine library in the 1980s. Ranked a historic monument in 1994, it remains an emblematic place of Alsatian heritage.

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