The Château de Lichtenberg is a

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 ...

built on a singular prominence in the northern

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

at the end of the village of Lichtenberg,

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

department in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it ha ...

in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. The castle was first mentioned in 1206 and is most well known as the home of the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. It was left in ruins in 1870 after bombardment by

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Wür ...

troops during the Franco-Prussian War, but was restored in the 1990s and is open to the public.

History

The castle is first mentioned in 1206, as home to the Lords of Lichtenberg. The Lichtenberg line passed to the Hanau family, who became the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. In the late 16th century, Phillip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg hired

Daniel Specklin Daniel Specklin (or Speckle or Speckel) (1536 – 18 October 1589) was an Alsatian fortress architect, engineer, and cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and p ...

, who had designed the fortifications of Strasbourg, to turn the castle into a fortress to use and protect against a new weapon: the

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder duri ...

. In 1678, the castle capitulated to French troops after an eight-day siege. Like most of the castles in the

region, it came under the control of the Kingdom of France. On 7–9 August 1870, during the course of the Franco-Prussian War, the Château de Lichtenberg was bombarded by artillery of

troops. A large fire broke out on the evening of 9 August, which destroyed much of the castle and forced its capitulation. In May 1871, the surrounding region was transferred to the newly formed German Empire. The castle became a French national historic site ('' monument historique'') on 1 May 1878, although it remained within German territory until the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, when it was returned to France. The ruins of the Château de Lichtenberg were left for over a century, until a 52 million-

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

(€8 million) restoration effort began in the early 1990s. From 1996, two architects, Andrea Bruno and Jean Pierre Laubal, led a long campaign of work to restore the old parts and to create a new space for cultural activities, shows and exhibitions. The castle is owned by the commune of Lichtenberg and is run by the Pays de la Petite-Pierre community of communes.

References

External links

*
Château de Lichtenberg
- official site Castles in Bas-Rhin Monuments historiques of Bas-Rhin Historic house museums in Grand Est Museums in Bas-Rhin {{Alsace-castle-stub

History

See also

References

External links