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Origin and history

Rothenburg Castle, also known as Rothenburg or Rotenburg, is a medieval castle located in the municipality of Philippsburg, Moselle. Built on a height called Rothenberg, it overlooks the Rothenbach valley, on the border between Alsace and Lorraine. Its origins date back to the early 10th century, according to sources evoking a construction around 906.

According to tradition, the castle was built by Otbert (or Albert), thirty-seventh bishop of Strasbourg. The latter, in conflict with his subjects after supporting King Charles the Simple against Conrad de Franconie, took refuge in this castle around 912-913 before being murdered there. The site, mentioned under various names such as Rothenburg (912) or Rotenburg (1369), became a strategic issue between local lords and cities such as Strasbourg.

In the 14th century, the castle belonged in part to Walram de Deux-Ponts-Bitche, who entrusted half of it to Gerhard Harnasch, a knight accused of looting. In 1369, the bourgeois of Strasbourg, overridden by his abuses, stormed the castle and permanently dismantled it. The ruins were never rebuilt, although the fief remained until the 17th century, linked to the seigneury of Bitche and then to the Hanau-Lichtenberg.

The castle may have inspired the name of the Blick family of Rothenburg, vassal of the Bitche sires, extinguished in 1749. Today, its remains recall the feudal tensions that marked this border region between Lorraine and Alsace, as well as the role of castles in the local conflicts of the Middle Ages.

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