The Château de Meywihr is a ruined 10th century
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
in the ''
commune'' of
Ammerschwihr
Ammerschwihr (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Its inhabitants are called ''Ammerschwihriens''.
Geography
Ammerschwihr is a small town located on the W ...
in the
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
'' of France.
The castle is also known as Minnewiller or Meiwihr.
[ on website of L'association Châteaux forts et Villes fortifiées d'Alsace ]
History
Having belonged initially to the
abbey of Murbach, it was seized by the
Counts of Ferrette. In about 1279, it was besieged by the lords de Ribeaupierre, who were awarded it in 1291 in a judgement by
Rodolphe de Habsburg.
After several changes of ownership, the ruined castle was used a quarry in 1782, to provide stone for the building of a
presbytery in the town.
[ Of limited strategic value, especially following the fortification of Ammerschwihr, the castle was already in ruins by 1353.]
Ruins
The remains of the castle had been thought to be the ruins of a Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties
* Francia, a post-Roman ...
fort. They appeared as a circular mound 66 metres in diameter surrounded by a ditch. At the centre of a hillock formed by remains of the castle, excavations in 1959 revealed the base of a square keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
with 8 metre sides, with no more than 2 m height remaining,monument historique
() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
'' by the French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...
.
See also
*List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Regions of France, region and Departments of France, department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are p ...
References
External links
*
*
* on website of L'association Châteaux forts et Villes fortifiées d'Alsace
Monuments historiques of Haut-Rhin
Ruined castles in Haut-Rhin
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