Kaysersberg Castle

Kaysersberg Castle, locally known as Château de Kaysersberg or simply as Schlossberg, lies on a hill above the town of the same name in the Haut-Rhin department in France. This area is also known as the Southern Alsace or the Southern Vosges.

Kaysersberg Castle was built around 1220 for Albin Woelflin, imperial bailiff for Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. It served a strategic role in being able to control a road through the Vosges Mountains towards the Duchy of Lorraine. In 1227 it passed to the Lords of Horbourg and Ribeaupierre.

The round keep is the oldest part of the castle and is one of the first of this type in the Upper Rhine valley, together with the keep at Pflixbourg Castle. At first the curtain wall was connected to the keep but after 1261 it was replaced by a wall enclosing the keep. After a fire had damaged the castle in the 14th century the curtain wall was raised.

In the 2nd half of the 15th century Kaysersberg Castle was adapted to the use of new artillery, even though its importance was diminishing and the amount of stationed soldiers at the castle was brought back.

During the German Peasants' War (1524/25) the castle was besieged. The damaged castle was later restored by Lazarus von Schwendi, baron and owner of Hohlandsbourg Castle, in 1583. After that, it disappeared from historical records. Archaeological excavations showed that it had been abandoned at the end of the 16th century.

At present Kaysersberg Castle can freely be visited. A nice small castle next to a friendly little town.

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