Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The town gate of Wihr-au-Val, called Untertor, is the last significant vestige of the medieval fortifications of the village, built in the 13th century (mentioned in 1279). It was part of a 2.2-hectare octagonal enclosure with two main gates (Untertor to the south, Obertor to the north), two secondary gates, and four semicircular towers. These defensive works protected the town, then designated as oppidum, and were linked to the castle Sonnenbourg, the seat of conflicts between local lords such as the Ribeaupierre and the Colmarians.

The enclosure and the castle, partially dismantled after the siege of 1293 led by Cuno de Bergheim (large bailli of Adolphe de Nassau), were restored in 1303 by Henri de Ribeaupierre. Fortifications lost their military role in the 18th century: the Obertor was demolished, while the Untertor suffered fires (1806, 1859) and successive reconstructions. The present tower, only the ground floor of which dates back to the Middle Ages, was badly damaged when the Germans destroyed the village on 18 June 1940 and restored between 1958 and 1960.

Sonnenbourg Castle, located west of the village, served as a residence for the widows of the Ribeaupierre in the 16th-17th centuries before falling into ruins after its sale as a national property in 1796. His last remains disappeared in 1881. The Untertor, listed as a historic monument in 1934, housed a Schwilgué clock (installed in 1841) and a bell, both destroyed in 1940. Its architecture mixes coated masonry, wooden panels, and pink sandstone, with defensive elements like a broken arch door.

Today, only traces of the enclosure remain in the route of the streets (rue des Écoles, rue du Château) and the base of a few towers. The gate, a communal property, remains the symbol of the conflicts and reconstructions that marked Wihr-au-Val, from medieval times to modern wars.

External links