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Origin and history

The castle of Upper Ribeaupierre, also called Altenkastel ("old castle") from the 13th century, is one of three castles overlooking Ribeauvillé in the Upper Rhine. Mentioned for the first time in 1254 under the name Rabaldi Petra alto, he was francized in Upper Ribeaupierre after his German name Hohe Rappolstein (1361). Built on a site potentially occupied since Gallo-Roman times, it was originally owned by the Counts of Eguisheim before moving to the lords of Ribeaupierre in the 12th century. Its circular dungeon and courtesies date in part from the 13th century, while the house, used as a prison in the 15th and 16th centuries, was added later.

The castle played a strategic and symbolic role for the seigneury of Ribeaupierre. In 1280, 1284 and 1286, Emperor Rodolphe I of the Holy Empire stayed there, and a treaty was signed between King Charles VII of France and the Sir of Ribeaupierre, urging him to keep the fort accessible to French troops. In the 14th century, Brunon de Ribeaupierre imprisoned the English knight John Harleston (1384–87) for his hatred of the English, then Philip I of Croÿ, ally of Charles the Temerary, in 1477. The castle, abandoned after the 16th century (probably during the Thirty Years War), was restored in the 19th century by architect Charles Winkler, who consolidated the masonries and rebuilt the merlons of the dungeon.

Today, in ruins and overgrown by vegetation, the Upper Ribeaupierre consists of a double-door entrance building (XVI century), a circular dungeon in pink sandstone supported by a broken arch, and a northern courtine pierced with rectangular openings. The remains also include a lower courtyard, a vaulted cistern, and traces of medieval houses. Ranked a historic monument in 1841, it was regularly consolidated, including a complete restoration in 1999–2000. His iconography, rare before the 19th century, comes from a drawing of 1643 (copy of 1844) and from engravings by Merian, showing its progressive decline.

Ribeaupierre's family, who had held the castle since the twelfth century, made it a symbol of power before it became a prison for illustrious or marginal characters (sorcerers, Jews). Its architecture reflects successive adaptations: the west court and dungeon date from the 13th century, the 15th-century house-prison, and the fortified entrance of the 16th century. The excavations and studies (especially by T. Biller and B. Metz) suggest a continuous occupation until its abandonment, followed by modern restorations to preserve this testimony of Alsatian history.

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