The Château de Wineck is a ruined
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 Wineckerthal quarter of the ''
commune'' of
Dambach 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. It has been listed since 1985 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 ...
.
[ Château fort, Château Wineck]
History
The castle was built around 1300 for the
Windstein family. It was without doubt intended as an observation post to complete the defensive system of the nearby
Château de Schœneck.
It was dismantled at the end of the 17th century on the orders of the King of France.
Built on a rocky peak, all that remains of the castle are part of the dressed stone walls and the corners of the polygonal
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 ...
, serving originally to protect a modest home that has since disappeared.
The castle is reached through a gallery cut into the rock, with a door halfway up the cliff. The lower courtyard, on the eastern side, is enclosed by a partly conserved ''
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 ...
''.
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 ...
External links
*
Official site of the ''commune'' of Dambach
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wineck, Chateau De
Ruined castles in Bas-Rhin
Monuments historiques of Bas-Rhin
Rock castles