Name - Chateau du Spesbourg
Location - Andlau
Department - Bas-Rhin 67
Free Entry
State - Chateau Ruin

The Chateau de Spesbourg is a castle that dominates the valley above the village of Andlau, in the Bas-Rhin department, located on a spur of Rotmannberg it sits at an attitude of 460m.
The castle was constructed between 1246 and 1250 by Alexander of Stahleck-Dicka, Vogt to Andlau Abbey.
1353: the emperor Charles IV assistant of Gauthier de Dicka, hereditary solicitor of the abbey, the vidame Rodolphe d' Andlau like Pierre and Henri d' Andlau by stipulating that Gauthier is authorized to transmit his rights and strongholds to Andlau if he would die without male offspring.
1383: Gauthier institutes the lords d' Andlau as successors to Spesbourg.
1386: Gauthier dies in Switzerland with the battle of Sempach and does not leave a heir. The castle is used then as residence with family members of Andlau but nothing comes to corroborate unspecified installations in order to adapt the openings to the use of the firearms as it was the case in many Alsatian castles with the XVth century. so it became the property of the family Andlau.
On March 29, 1431, Spesbourg is besieged and taken by the duke Etienne de Baviere, but promptly taken again by the Andlau family who brought with them 2000 men.
The castle fell into ruin after the Hundred Years War (1337 to 1453).
In the 16th century angry locals, the middle-class men of Barr (les bourgeois de Barr) set fire to the castle after one of the lords seduced a village girl.
1830/40: The counts d'Andlau sell the ruin to the baron of Hallez empire. About 1890 the widow of the baron sells the building to Dr. Alexis Stoltz.
1904: Alexis Stoltz dies and leaves Spesbourg by will to the town of Andlau.
In 1967 it was registered with the national Inventory of Historic Buildings by the French Ministry of Culture.