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Marko
Senior Member
posted 06-21-2002 09:58 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Marko   Click Here to Email Marko     Edit/Delete Message
Next weekend I'm going to the Alsace/Vosges region in France for some castle hunting. Does anyone have some tips about must-see locations? I'm going by motorcycle and I've got the following castles already on my list: Spesbourg, Ortenbourg, Haut-Andlau and Bernstein.

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ipflo
Moderator
posted 06-21-2002 01:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ipflo   Click Here to Email ipflo     Edit/Delete Message
hi

i have been there last year in the alsace, in the northern part. i especially liked Lichtenberg and castle Fleckenstein (great views), around fleckenstein are more ruins like vieux and nouveau windstein which are also nice to visit (these castles are aout 30 - 40 kms north of andlau and spesbourg). Other great castles in the northern alsace, which i couldn't visit , are Falkenstein and Haut-Barr.
http://home.t-online.de/home/j.fleckenstein/main_d.htm
http://www.burg-fleckenstein.de/

somewhat south of ortenbourg you have sankt ulrich and guirsberg, in mine book about alsatian castles (l'âge d'or des châteaux d'alsace) sankt ulrich looks great

and ofcourse if you like 19th century burgenromantik you have hoch-königsburg (thx to this castle and Chillon (in switzerland) i fall in love with castles, but i know it is disputable if you can call this a real castle) nar ortenbourg and berwarstein somewhat north of fleckenstein in germany

15 kms west of fleckenstein is big fortress by vauban on a big hill, als nice to visit.

have a great castle hunt

ipflo
Moderator
posted 06-21-2002 01:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ipflo   Click Here to Email ipflo     Edit/Delete Message
for schloss lichtenberg
http://www.theatre-lichtenberg.com/indexfr.html

and for i forget near haut-barr you have the fine castles of ochsenstein and geroldseck

Marko
Senior Member
posted 06-21-2002 07:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Marko   Click Here to Email Marko     Edit/Delete Message
Thnx ipflo for the suggestions. I was already considering both Haut Koenigsburg and Fleckenstein. I haven't decided yet on the 1st because of its 19th century "restaurations" and the 2nd because of the distance (I'm staying in a hotel just south of Strasbourg).

Have you visited Ochsenstein? Is it worth the detour? Can't find any info on it on the web.

Also the castle book; did you buy it on location? Because I'm looking to buy one with pics/plans and historical info of the Alsatian castles.

Btw I've found this site very helpfull; http://ggehenn.free.fr/menuchph.htm

Kastelein
Member
posted 06-22-2002 01:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kastelein   Click Here to Email Kastelein     Edit/Delete Message
Hi Marko

I have put some photos of castles in Alsace on webshots. You can find it on http://community.webshots.com/album/41364658AfSmUu
There are a lot of castles in the west of Strasbourg.

There is also a small book about the castles I have bought long time ago (1990). It's called "Circuits des Chateaux forts d'Alsace" ISBN 2 85669 021 1 It's in French, but it's very usefull for looking castles in the surrounding of the Alsace.

Greetings and a nice castle hunt

Albert

ipflo
Moderator
posted 06-22-2002 07:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ipflo   Click Here to Email ipflo     Edit/Delete Message
i think it depends how long your weekend will be in alsace if you should go to hoch königsburg, if you stay only two days you shouldn't go to hochkönigsburg. because the problem there is, it is the tourist attraction of the alsace. when i was there, i had to wait an hour in the queue before i could get in. it was definitly worth it, but if you staying not so long in the alsace i think you shouldnot do that, than it is a wast of time and you should go for all those fine ruins. but if you go longer than about two days you should definitely go there, but early in the morning on a monday or a tuesday when the great masses of tourist aren't there.

i think the 19th century restaurations aren't a problem. it is (fortunately) not a neuschwanstein. in the 19th century you had two types of restorations the castelled mansion type like cochem, laxenburg near vienna and sczodre/ sibyllenort in silesia (and ofcourse its most extreme that awful castle of neuschwanstein) and the 19th century idea of how castle (should have looked) liked in the middle ages, of which hohkönigsburg, coucy-le-châyeau (i mean the donjon which was once retsored, but already destroyed again) and pierrefonds are examples. William II of germany, the 'restorer' of the castle, never meant hohkönigsburg as a palace, he wanted an authentic castle and i think Bodo Eberhardt, the architect, (for the 19th century ideas of authenticity) succeeded in that. ofcourse we in the 21st century wouldn't do a restoration like that (if we already would do restoration of a ruin) because of we have other ideas what is authenticity. and i think if you the time (more than 2 days or so) you should really go there.

for fleckenstein, if you stay short in the alsace, than i agree you maybe shouldn't do that because of the distance (those 40 kilometres are long, because of those little smal curved roads, for example i did the ~40-50 kms from saverne to dahn (germany) through the alsace in about 2 hours) and you should save that castle for a later weekend or so. (but if you go: a another nice site for ruines in the northern part is http://www.felsenburgen.de/ )

i didn't visit ochsentein, but the book i have has a chapter about it. it is good example of a 'felsenburg'(but i think much smaller than fleckenstein and comparable to wegelnburg http://www.felsenburgen.de/pfalz/wegelnburg.html (near fleckenstein, been there nice castle)), high on hill, rooms made in caves and with high steep firemanstairs and great views (probably a walk to it from about 15-20 minutes). i don't think it is detour worth on itself, but if you go to haut barr and geroldseck, than i think it is good third one to visit.

ochsenstein is shortly mentioned on http://www.radmarathon-kehl.de/Radmarathon-kehl/streckenbeschr_tour/beschreibung_burgen.htm and there is one pictures on http://membres.lycos.fr/theitman/ochsen.htm

but if it is only the weekend, than i should go to sankt ulrich, guirsberg, haut ribeaupierre, kintzheim and ramstein which are not far from ribeauville and i think are really great castles (and what bigger ruins than ochsenstein).

the book (two volumes) i bought in saverne, there are versions one in french and one in german, but that i found out when i already had bought the french version, otherwy's i would have bought the german version, easier to read . it is nice book, good historical info of the castles and really good pictures, but has no plans and the layout is sometimes what to 'loud', but these are only small minusses (the book is i think on my scale 8 out of 10). it was the best i could find.

Marko
Senior Member
posted 06-22-2002 05:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Marko   Click Here to Email Marko     Edit/Delete Message
Albert
Those are some nice pics you've got there and indeed very recently uploaded.

Ipflo
I'm going on Friday and returning on Tuesday, so I'll have 3 full days. And well about Fleckenstein and its surrounding area, I think I'm going to leave that for another time.
And I think I will go to Haut Koenigsburg on the Monday morning even although I'm more a castle ruin fan. Thnx for the suggestions.
I've now added Haut-Barr, the 3 Ribeauville ruins and the 2 Ottrott ruins to my list.

I'll be looking for the books you both suggested.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

[This message has been edited by Marko (edited 06-22-2002).]

Merlin
Senior Member
posted 06-28-2002 08:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Merlin   Click Here to Email Merlin     Edit/Delete Message
Marko: I did already two castle-tours in the Alsce and my absolute favourites are: Landsberg (near Barr and not far from Andlau, a typical castle of the Hohenstaufen-era), Grand Arnsbourg, Wasigenstein, Waldeck and especially Falkenstein (all impressive and mostly untouched ruins on red-sandstone-rocks in the wilderness of the northern Vosges). You'll find plenty of good pictures and plans at:
http://www.burgenwelt.de

Marko
Senior Member
posted 07-04-2002 04:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Marko   Click Here to Email Marko     Edit/Delete Message
Hi there,

I've returned from my castle trip to the Alsace. I've managed to visit 14 castles in the middle and southern Alsace. My favorite was, by far, castle Ortenbourg, because of its dramatic location and great architecture. All castles will appear on my website in due time.
I decided not to go to the northern Alsace because of the time, so I now have a reason to go back sometime! I also decided against Haut-Koenigsbourg because of the busloads of tourists I encountered when arriving. I just like to explore a lonely ruin on my own more.
About books;
If you go visit the area be sure to visit one of the tourist info offices in the northern Alsace; they provide a great, free, tri-langual (eng/germ/french) folder with colour pics, history info and visitor info of almost all important sites in the northern and middle Alsace.
Furthermore I've bought a great book titled "Chateaux Forts d'Alsace" printed by G4J in the Découvrir-serie. 150 Pages of beautifull colour pics, history and present descriptions of virtually all castles in the entire Alsace region.

All times are PT (US)

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