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Origin and history

The castle of Haut-Hattstatt is a castle built between 1280 and 1282 by the family of Hattstatt, one of the most powerful in Alsace at the time. Its construction, financed collectively by the three branches of the family (at 13, then 10 marcs d'argent années), met a strategic challenge: competing with the Girsbergs for the control of lucrative passes between the plain of Alsace and the Krebsbach valley, notably the Bildstoeckle pass and the Marbach pass. The construction site, perhaps led by the same contractor as Hohlandsbourg, was quickly completed, as evidenced by the hiring of guards as early as April 1282.

The castle remained in the hands of the Hattstatt until the 1430s, when Antoine de Hattstatt transferred half of the estate to the Duke of Lorraine in exchange for the rights on Saint-Hippolyte. In the mid-15th century, the site became a den of robber knights, attracting the lightnings of the bourgeois of Basel (which envisaged its destruction in 1462) and Mulhouse. In 1466, after the imprisonment of the Mulhousian bourgeois by Pierre de Reguisheim, Munster's militia — allied with Mulhouse via the Decapole — was siege and fire the castle from November 5 to 13, before destroying it with powder. The ruins, abandoned, then gradually degrade.

The decline of the Upper Hattstatt is explained by the loss of its strategic interest and the evolution of the lifestyles of the nobility, which now favours urban residences. In the 17th century, the Truchsess (heirs of the Hattstatt) even sold its stones to Colmar between 1646 and 1647. The remaining remains, already reduced to a section of a wall in the 19th century, were further damaged during World War I when the Germans dug trenches there. The last remains of the house collapsed in the early 2000s, sealing the almost total disappearance of the monument.

Built of local porphyroid granite (extracts on the spot during the digging of the ditches), the castle had brickwork of a stuffed type, with an interior and exterior trimming filled with granite and sand. The blocks, coarsely cut to be manipulating by hand (35 to 55 kg), were assembled with a mortar composed of lime and sand. The homogeneity of materials and techniques suggests rapid construction and lack of major modifications prior to its destruction. The house, probably quadrangular (21 × 13 m), consisted of four pierced levels of archery, dust windows, and lighting slots. A courtyard, protected by a enclosure, lay below.

The location of the castle, at an altitude of 797 m on a granite summit, allowed it to monitor the surrounding valleys and the corridors of passage. Its architecture, devoid of dungeon but equipped with a defensive system adapted to the terrain, reflected local rivalries for the control of commercial roads. Despite its ephemeral role, the Haut-Hattstatt illustrates the political and military dynamics of medieval Alsace, marked by competition between noble families and the emergence of urban leagues such as the Décapole.

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