Auros, France
9th century AD
Les Herbiers, France
1130
La Chapelle-Launay, France
c. 1160
Cizay-la-Madeleine, France
1129
Saint-Fromond, France
1154
Duhort-Bachen, France
1140
Dragey-Ronthon, France
1137
Masseilles, France
1124
Les Hauts-Talican, France
1147
Talus-Saint-Prix, France
c. 1142
Rouans, France
1135
The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
The first records of a castle built by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. The fortress changed its name to Koenigsburg (royal castle) around 1157. The castle was handed over to the Tiersteins by the Habsburgs following its destruction in 1462. They rebuilt and enlarged it, installing a defensive system designed to withstand artillery fire.
The fortification work accomplished over the 15th century did not suffice to keep the Swedish artillery at bay during the Thirty Years War, and the defences were overrun.