The Château du Nideck is a ruined castle located in the commune of Oberhaslach. Situated on the heights of the road from Oberhaslach to Wangenbourg, the castle was first mentioned in a charter in 1264, as the property of sire Bourckard, burgrave of Nideck. In 1336 there is mention of a second castle, below the first, fief of the Bishop of Strasbourg and held by the landgraves of Basse-Alsace.
Nideck then became the property of the seigneurs of the region, in the 14th and 15th centuries, according to the various regional conflicts and other events of the time. It was besieged by the Strasbourgeois in 1448. The Müllenheim family took possession of the castle and kept it until 1509. It was finally destroyed by a fire in 1636.
The castle overlooks the Nideck waterfall and is easily reached on foot. The castle has been listed since 1898 by the French Ministry of Culture as a monument historique and is owned by the state.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.