The Château du Nouveau-Windstein (german: Burg Neuwindstein) 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 ...

located on a hill west of 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

Windstein Windstein is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department of France. The commu ...

in the

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 ...

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.

History

Previously it was assumed that the castle had been built after 1332, probably in 1339, by William of Windstein as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) 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 f ...

of the

bishops of Speyer The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, formerly known as Spires in English, (German: ''Hochstift Speyer, Fürstbistum Speyer, Bistum Speyer'') was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Würt ...

after the destruction of

Château du Vieux-Windstein The Château du Vieux Windstein is a ruined castle in the '' commune'' of Windstein, in the Bas-Rhin ''département'' of France. History The first documented mention of the Château de Windstein is dated 1205. It was built at the end of the 12th ...

. This record of the construction of a castle, however, probably refers to one on the northern site of Vieux-Windstein. The late Romanesque and early

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style of Vieux-Windstein by contrast, proves that the castle must have already existed in the first half of the 13th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was the joint property of the lords of Windstein with other families, such as the lords of Lichtenberg, the

counts of Leiningen The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Imper ...

, the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...

and the Eckebrechts of Dürkheim. The lords of Windstein was extinguished when Hans Ostertags of Windstein died in 1480. From the second half of the 17th century the castle was the sole possession of the Eckebrecht family of Dürkheim, but was destroyed in 1676 by the French after an unsuccessful defence by the Electoral Palatine colonel, Wolf Friedrich von Dürkheim. It was not rebuilt.

Site

Today there are still extensive ruins, such as the (no longer accessible)

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') 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 ...

of the upper ward with its shield wall, the remains of buildings in the lower ward and a

barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe In the Middle ...

. Unlike many other

rock castles A rock castle (german: Felsenburg) is a type of medieval castle that directly incorporates natural rock outcrops into its defences to such an extent that the rock formations define the structure of the castle. Topographically, rock castles are cl ...

, only a few elements have been hewn out of the

Bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

rock on which it is built. The foundation rock is also not as large as that of a typical rock castle. As a result, there are still massive walls made of

rusticated ashlar Two different styles of rustication in the Florence.html" ;"title="Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence">Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below. Rustication is a range of masonry techniques used in classic ...

. It has been classified since 1983 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 ...

References

Literature

* Thomas Biller: ''Die Burgengruppe Windstein und der Burgenbau in den nördlichen Vogesen.'' 30. Publication by the Department of Architecture of the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Cologne, Cologne, 1985. * * Michel Vogt: ''Das goldene Zeitalter der Elsässischen Burgen.'' Ed. Cayelles, Barr 2001, . * Felix Wolff: ''Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon.'' Weidlich, Frankfurt/Main 1979, .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nouveau-Windstein, Chateau du Rock castles Monuments historiques of Bas-Rhin Ruined castles in Bas-Rhin