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Visit of Fleckenstein Castle

Castles

Gratuit avec le Alsace Pass

From

20.00 €

10% in your kitty


The fortress was built in the 12th Century and for 600 years it was the family castle of the Fleckenstein family. It was extended and improved over the centuries at the same time as the family increased its social status in the world. Reckoned to be impregnable, it did not live up to its reputation and fell without a fight into the hands of the soldiers of Louis XIV. The ruins impress and charm the visitor at one and the same time as they explore one of the finest castles of the Northern Vosges, a natural phenomenon for some, a sailing ship without a crew for the poets, a world of imagination for aspiring knights and princesses. Visit it as you will and in you own time.

Horaires

8 January to 22 March 2024: Sundays from 12 noon to 4pm, except in snow or icy conditions
Last admission 3.30pm
23 March to 30 June 2024: daily from 10am to 5.30pm
1 July to 31 August 2024: daily from 10am to 6pm
1 September to 26 October 2024: daily from 10am to 5.30pm
27 October to 3 November 2024: 10am to 5pm
4 November to 25 December 2024: annual closure
26 December 2024 to 5 January 2025: daily from 12pm to 4pm

Contact

www.fleckenstein.fr

03 88 94 28 52



Fleckenstein Castle

Fleckenstein Castle was mentioned for the first time in 1174 when Gottfried of Fleckenstein was a member of the court of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. For six hundred years it was held by the Fleckenstein family, one of the most influential in Lower Alsace. From a rock with basic fortifications it became a majestic castle with a reputation as an impregnable eyrie, which inspired the Strasbourg architect Daniel Specklin to picture it as ‘the ideal castle’ in 1589.It was finally taken without resistance in 1680 by the soldiers of Louis XIV, who destroyed it with black gunpowder.

Curtain walls, fortified gates, 13th Century well tower, 16th Century stair tower, wells and cisterns carved from the rock make up the architectural features that justified the castle’s listing as an ancient monument in 1898. They enable the visitor, even if they know little about fortifications, to appreciate the different stages in the development of the medieval castle.