Visit the Hohlandsbourg castle in Wintzenheim

My summary

A castle to be earned!

To get there, you have to earn it! The road goes up from Husseren-Les-Châteaux coming from the south and from Wintzenheim coming from the north and crosses the Vosges forest. Several parking lots are available, and the nearest one takes around ten minutes to reach. It climbs! But generally speaking, when you visit a château, you need good shoes, don’t you?

History of the Hohlandsbourg Castle

Built in 1279 by Siegfried de Gundolsheim, provost of Colmar at the instigation of the Habsburgs, Château du Hohlandsbourg had a number of owners and underwent several extensions before being dismantled at the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648).

Since then, the castle ruins had been left as they were until the Conseil Général du Haut-Rhin bought them in 1985. This was followed by years of work to reconstruct parts of the castle, mainly using materials found on site, with the help of historical documents. Archaeological excavations were also carried out there before it was reopened to the public in 2013.

What to visit in the Hohlandsbourg castle?

The Hohlandsbourg castle is made up of several areas, but you don’t visit any of the former living quarters, as is the case in many castles. Today, there’s a stage with a large courtyard where the big summer events take place from June onwards.

There is a museum space in the old dwelling and kitchen, refurbished with a modern decoration that blends perfectly with the ancient stones.

There’s also the large enclosure, which you can walk around thanks to the covered walkway. It offers a magnificent 360° view!

The visit lasts 2 hours, excluding entertainment and lunch. It’s worth noting that we came across groups of children celebrating birthdays. The château also organizes weddings, and it was tasting day at the brasserie. We were therefore treated to an “exceptional” menu that day, but were unable to try out the usual menu.

We tested the guided tour in family!

We took a tour on our own – in fact, there’s a suggested route on the leaflet we were given at the entrance. But we did have the opportunity to join a guided tour. There are guided tours every hour and a quarter or so. When we arrived at reception, the guide kindly offered to give us a tour just for us, if she wasn’t busy with other visitors. And she’s very adaptable!

Naturally, children are the kings of the castle. She gives us a few anecdotes and tells us stories such as the traces of “flames” on a wall attributed to a dragon…

To find out more, visit theHohlandsbourg museum. Here, you’ll find a temporary exhibition that changes every year, as well as a permanent exhibition. The latter tells the story of daily life at the castle: the uniforms of knights and halberdiers, what people ate during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, how they kept warm, the weapons they used… All this with objects found during excavations. And then there’s the restoration of the château between 1985 and 2000, and the archaeological excavations carried out between 2008 and 2013.