300px, Château de Frauenberg
The Château de Frauenberg is a ruined
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
in the ''
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
'' of
Frauenberg in the
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
'' of France.
[Ministry of Culture]
Château (ruines)
History
The castle dates from 1350 and occupies a site dominating a valley between France and Germany. It was owned by several families, including the lords of Sierck and the counts of Eberstein.
Over time, it was altered and renovated, with significant construction in the 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th centuries.
It had been dismantled by
Cardinal Richelieu
Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...
in 1634 and was partly destroyed by fire in 1786. On the eve of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
, the land was bought by Count Gravier de Vergennes (1719-1787), minister of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
. The castle housed two pottery kilns which operated in Frauenberg from 1785 to 1791 and were the origin of the notable ceramics company,
Villeroy & Boch
Villeroy & Boch (, ) is a German manufacturer of ceramics, with the company headquarters located in Mettlach, Saarland.
History
The company began in the tiny Lorraine village of Audun le Tiche, where the iron master François Boch set up a pott ...
.
[
It has been classified since 1921 as a '' monument historique'' by the ]French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual ...
.[ A restoration project was launched by the commune and the ''Association pour la Sauvegarde du Château et du Patrimoine de Frauenberg'' in 2018.][
]
See also
*List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Region and Department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are properly called palaces, mansions or viney ...
References
External links
Ministry of Culture listing for Château de Frauenberg
Ruined castles in Grand Est
Monuments historiques of Moselle (department)
Buildings and structures in Moselle (department)
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