Abandoned-France, Les trois Chateaux d'Eguisheim

Name -

Location -

Department -

State -

The Chateau du Dagsbourg, Chateau du Wahlenbourg and Tour du Weckmund in Eguisheim make up the Les trois Chateaux d'Eguisheim

The three towers which are drawn up above Eguisheim and Husseren-les-chateaux are perched on a small top which culminates with 591 meters in the east of Husseren-les-chateaux and the west of Eguisheim. One can join the three towers of the castles from the village of Eguisheim by joining the "Route des cinq chateaux" (Road of the five castles) which it is enough to traverse to the carpark which is well signposted. For this place it is necessary to go to the top that takes one 10 minutes. One can also join the three castles by leaving Husseren-les-chateaux. While skirting the way behind the church, a forest road makes it possible to join the chateaux in 30 minutes. The path is very steep. It is thus not advised to those with medical conditions.

The three castles are called in the old titles, Dagsbourg, Wahlenbourg and Weckmund. This last was set up to the XIIIth century and was probably built by the duke Ulric de Vaudemont, grandson of Gerard d'Alsace. Actually they are indicated under the name of Trois-Chateaux, die drei Exemer Schloesser. Wahlenburg, oldest is known since 1006. It would have been the subject of an attack in 1026 by the duke of Souabe, Ernest de Souabe. Le Dagsbourg was that which was most imposing of the three and the least old. The counts d' Eguisheim are the most former lords of the area. Descendants of Etichon, they have in their line several sovereign houses of Europe. This castle, castrum Hegensheim, mentioned for the first time in the Bulle de la Rose d'or (1049) owes her origin according to the chronicle of Ebersmunster, with the count Eberhard, the founder of the abbey of Marbach. One allots the foundation of it to the count Hugues who according to Berler, had established his residence there, with the countess Heilwige. Between 1049 and 1054, Brunon d'Eguisheim the future pope Leon IX would have devoted a vault castrale which was located in the castle enclosure dedicated to saint Pancrace.

Dagsbourg and Wahlenbourg were surrounded by a particular ditch. Weckmund, placed at the outpost was used of watchtower and rampart to both others to which it was connected by a pont- levis. Beside Weckmund a round tower, called was Nellenbourg, whether Billing names the tower of lapse of memory or the prison of the fortress. In the common enclosure of the Three castles, it had there a vault dedicated to Saint Pancrace and devoted by the pope Leon IX. All these constructions, except the vault, were ruined in 1466, at the time of the war which the miller Hermann Klee caused against the town of Mulhouse.

If one believes an old legend of it, the Three-Castles would be one a source of fire, the other a source of water, and the third a gold mine. Elsewhere it was affirmed that the three turns were used as sundial to the workers of the plain. At eleven hours, the shade of the castle covered the frontage of Dagsbourg completely, at midday that of Wahlenbourg, at one hour that of Weckmund. At three hours the Three-Castles projected their shade very right in front of them on the declivity of the mountain.

Eberhard was the grandson of Etichon and the son of Adalbert. This last the two branches left Luitfridigènes which were the counts of Sundgau and Eberhardigenes, the counts de Nordgau. One of those, Eberhard IV, founder of the abbey of Altorf, had several children, inter alia Adalbert I, stock of the house of Lorraine, and Hugues III chief of the Eguisheim-Dagsbourg line. His/her son Hugues IV had married Heilwige, girl and heiress of the count Louis de Dabo. It is of this marriage that was born that which became the pope Leon IX. Eguisheim were combined by the female descent with the counts de Vaudemont and the counts de Metz. the small nephew of Leon IX, the count Hugues VI, was called the small soldier of Saint Pierre, indefessus S.Petri miles, because of the zeal which it deployed to defend the cause of Gregoire VII against the antipape Guibert. He was assassinated by treason in the bed of the Othon bishop, with whom he had just reconciled himself in Haselach. The last which carried the title of count d' Eguisheim, was Ulich de Vaudémont, grandson of Gerard of Alsace and small nephew of Leon IX. It founded the abbey of Pairis and died without children in 1144. His/her sister Stephanie having married the count Frederic de Ferrette, and thus part of the county of Eguisheim passed to Ferrettes, just as a marriage was one century later to bring the field of Ferrettes in the house of Habsbourg-Austria.

As for Eguisheim-Dagsbourg, they died out in the person of Gertrude, daughter of Adalbert, count de Metz and of Muha and Gertrude of Baden. This one married three times: firstly in Thiebaut, duke of Lorraine, secondly in Thiebaut count de Champagne and thirdly in Simon, count de Linange. With its death in of 1225, its goods échurent with the bishops of Metz, Liege and Strasbourg. This last inherited the grounds of Dabo and mainly of those of Eguisheim. In 1251, the castle of Eguisheim had become a stronghold castral of the bishop of Strasbourg and the old seigniory was built-in Haut-Mundat, forming a third bailliage made up of the communes of Gueberschwihr, Gundolsheim, Ossenbihr, Orschwihr, Soultzmatt with the valley, half of Westhalten, Wittelsheim, Obermorschwihr, Osenbach, and Weinfelden (Swiss) with Eguisheim like chief town.

The three castles were several times devastated and repaired. The first of the three buildings is destroyed first once in 1026 during an attack of the duke Ernest de Souabe. It will be the subject of a new attack in 1144 and one third time in 1198. In 1298, the village of Eguisheim attends the impotent seat of the emperor Adolphe de Nassau, but resists nevertheless. In front of so much of valiancy the troops of Adolphe de Nassau raised the seat. It is following these attacks that the village was surrounded by a wall, octagonal like that of the castle under Rodolphe de Habsbourg. The castle and the village are again plundered between 1370 and 1380 by the English, then in 1444 by the Armagnacs led by the dauphin de France, the future Louis XI.

In 1466 at the time of the war of the Six Deniers, Wahhienbourg and Weckmund are destroyed by the militia of Turckheim and Kaysersberg. A miller at that time had claimed its had at the town of Mulhouse. He complained to Pierre de Reguisheim. This last alerted the Alsatian nobility and imprisoned nationals of Mulhouse. As a sign of reprisal, the middle-class men of this city, helped of people of Kaysersberg and Turckheim came to put the seat at the castles which they set fire to. The castle was then occupied by Pierre de Régisheim. Haut-Eguisheim will never be concerned any. Dagsbourg is abandoned two centuries later.