Name - Chateau du Pflixbourg
Location - Wintzenheim
Department - Haut-Rhin 68
Free Entry
State - Chateau Ruin

The Chateau du Pflixbourg (from german Blicksburg or 'castle with a view') is a castle located in the commune of Wintzenheim, near Colmar in the Haut-Rhin departement of France. It sits at an altitude of 454m, dominating the entry of the Valley of Munster.

Blueprint

It was built between 1212 and 1219 by Woelfelin de Haguenau, governor imperial of Frederic II of Hohenstaufen. It is then called Blicksberg. Its first mention appears in a dated charter (May 7, 1220), confirming its donation in favour of Frederic de Schauenbourg, minister of the empire. In 1276, it becomes the main home of the imperial baillif Conrad Werner de Hattstatt, whose woman, Stephanie de Ferrette, dies here on September 23. The castle is engaged by the emperor in 1298 with the lord de Usenbourg, in 1316 in Otto d' Ochsenstein, 1330 with king Jean de Boheme, into 1375 with the lords de Hus, then in 1433 with the vice-chancellor Caspar Schlick who sells it in 1434 to Maximin de Ribeaupierre. It is seriously damaged about 1446, in the conflict which opposes Hattstatt to Ribeaupierre for the domination of central Alsace. It does not seem any more to be inhabited thereafter. It is the subject of an inscription under the historic buildings act since December 17 1968. The castle, is appeared as a hexagonal enclosure girdled by a ditch and ordered by a circular solid mass keep. Its system of entry (in the west) is single in Alsace. The door, disappeared, is placed at the end of a "corridor", 12 meters length delimited by returning curtains. It is defended by two archeres. The 23 meter in height cylindrical keep is one of the first of this type in Alsace. Its main door is broken, placed at the first stage (at approximately 9 meters), dominates the access passage of the enclosure. The keep is provided with a archere on the opposite side.
The home take support against the enclosure in the west and the north of the site with the stables and the dependences. In order to ensure the water supply of the garrison, an underground cistern was cut in the rock, close to the keep. It measures 5 m out of 7 m and its barrel vault amounts to 5 m.
The castle, today in a state of ruin, was the subject of important work of restoration in 1864, then more recently in 1983 and 2006.