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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Hohenstein, built in the early 13th century, rises on a rocky spur at about 440-500 m above sea level, near Oberhaslach in Alsace. It was erected by the Hohenstein family, with the bishop of Strasbourg as a partial co-owner at the end of the thirteenth century. Its remains include a collapsing dungeon, ruined houses and a circular flanking tower, reflecting a defensive architecture characteristic of the era.

In 1279, part of the castle was hired to the bishop of Strasbourg for fifty years, marking a period of tension. The climax of the conflict arose in 1337, when Rodolphe de Hohenstein held Bishop Berthold of Bucheck there for four months. Released in 1338, the latter stormed the castle, destroying it permanently. The building, never reoccupied, was classified as a historic monument in December 1898.

Subsequent excavations and descriptions reveal a site divided into two castral sets: the first, medieval, includes the square dungeon and houses, while a second, later and less documented, occupied the southern end of the spur. Today, the ruins offer a fragmentary but precious testimony of Alsatian castral architecture and power struggles between local nobility and clergy in the Middle Ages.

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