Name - Chateau de Kaysersberg
Location - Kaysersberg
Department -Haut-Rhin 68
State - ChateauRuin
The chateau was built about the year 1200 by the lords of Ribeaupierre. It was aquired thereafter, in 1227, by Henri VII of Hohenstaufen. Located at a strategic point with the outlet of the valley of Weiss on the plain of Alsace, the imperial baillif Woelflin was left in charge to strengthen and increase the chateau in 1235. The enclosing walls of the manor house were widened in order to include the small town located against it.
At the time of the war which opposed the Germanic Empire to the duchy of Lorraine, the duke Mathieu de Lorraine succeeds in taking the castle by surprise in 1248. He will be reassigned soon after, in 1260, with the bishop of Strasbourg, Guillaume de Geroldseck. will preserve the chateau until 1263, on a date which it will pass under the arms of Rodolphe de Habsbourg. The chateau during the XVth century of will undergo deep modifications intended to increase its comfort and to reinforce military defenses of the city.
In 1525, it will be seriously damaged at the time of the guerre des Rustauds (war of the Bumpkins). It is Lazare de Schwendi who undertakes the recontruction of the chateau in 1573 but the general state of the manor house was already badly degraded. In 1632, the Swedes take possession of the chateau. finally giving up on its inhabitants consequently the chateau will fall slowly in ruin. A legend tells that the emperor Frederic Barberousse hid treasure in the Chateau de Kaysersberg. This legend, seriously caught by the middle-class men of the city in 1864, resulted in a frenzy of wild excavations which contributed to the dilapidation of the chateau.
