Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Fleckenstein Castle, attested as early as 1165, was built by the family of the Barons of Fleckenstein, close to the emperor, who kept it until 1720. This semi-troglodyte castle, built on a pink sandstone bar 5 km north of Lembach (Bas-Rhin), served as a surveillance post on the road between Bitche and Wissembourg. Its unique 90-metre-long ship-shaped architecture included galleries, halls and tanks dug directly into the rock, as well as an ingenious rainwater collection system.

In the 16th century, the castle was divided between two branches of the Fleckenstein family, governed by a castral peace to organize its condominium. The arms of Frédéric de Fleckenstein and his wife, Catherine de Cronberg, still adorn the staircase tower. In 1674, during the Dutch War, the castle was looted by the French troops of the Marquis de Vaubrun, then destroyed by explosion in 1689 on the orders of Louis XIV, by General Montclar. The last Baron, Henri-Jacques de Fleckenstein, died there without a male heir in 1720.

After the Revolution, the castle changed hands several times: sold in 1792 to a bourgeois in Wissembourg, Mr. Rausch, and then to a mining agent, Mr. Bertrand, before being acquired in 1807 by Jean-Louis Apffel. In 1812, Napoleonic general Olivier Harty, of Irish origin, became the owner and became Baron of Pierrebourg. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1898 under the German administration, it was restored several times, especially between 1997 and 2000 to consolidate its ruins. Today, the site offers educational courses and animations, such as Charbonnier Week, celebrating local forest history.

The castle houses remarkable remains: a tower of the well with medieval foundations, a room of the Knights, a troglodyte prison, and an archive room decorated with the Fleckenstein shields. Archaeological excavations (1992-1997) revealed filtration tanks and living spaces. The children's play area, Fr. Fleck, and the Circuit des Quatre Châteaux (including Hohenbourg, Loewenstein and Wegelnburg) enrich the tourist offer. With around 70,000 annual visitors, it is the second most frequented castle in Alsace after the Haut-Kœnigsburg.

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