The Château de Wangen is a destroyed 13th 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 Wangen in the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin () is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) de ...

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. Located within the urban area of Wangen, all that remains is the central space it occupied, its plan is still visible on land maps. The castle appears to date from the 13th century. It was mentioned as an episcopal

fiefdom A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

in 1359. In 1440, when

Armagnac Armagnac (, ) is a distinctive kind of brandy produced in the Armagnac (region), Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni ...

troops crossed the region in a campaign against

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, it suffered some damage. The inhabitants seized the castle in 1514, and the Saint-Étienne abbey of Strasbourg bought it for the Wangen family in 1566, though it is not known if any alterations were made at this time. In 1750, the remaining masonry was used for construction of the ''Freihof'' and was dispersed around the village. Archive documents from 1749 indicate the presence of a castle built on an octagonal plan. Originally, it comprised a central

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 ...

, surrounded by an octagonal ''

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...

'' and a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

. Inside, the residences of the servants and cattle sheds were against the enclosing wall. In the 15th century, semicircular towers were added to each side of the octagon, one of them replacing the keep. The moat was widened to 23 metres and second octagonal fortified wall added, giving a total diameter of 101 metres. The castle site has been listed since 1993 as a ''

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 ...

References

External links

* Ruined castles in Bas-Rhin Monuments historiques of Bas-Rhin {{France-castle-stub

See also

References

External links