Wasigenstein Castle

Wasigenstein Castle, locally known as Château du Wasigenstein, lies in the woods west of the village of Wengelsbach, in the Bas-Rhin department in France. This area is also known as the Northern Alsace or the Northern Vosges.

The site of Wasigenstein was first mentioned in a 10th century Latin poem; the 'Waltharius', where the hero of the story; Walter of Aquitaine, single-handedly fights off his pursuers in a fault between 2 rocks.

Wasigenstein Castle actually consists of 2 castles built upon 2 narrow sandstone spurs, separated by a fault. The larger and older castle occupies the east spur and the smaller and more recent castle on the west spur.

The castle itself was first mentioned in 1270. It was probably built earlier that century and consisted of only the older castle. In 1299 the Wasigenstein family divided the property amongst themselves and the smaller castle was built upon the west spur.

During the 14th century the castle was split up into several different parts that were then owned and inhabited by different families or family branches, amongst them the Lords of Fleckenstein and the Puller of Hohenbourg. In 1358, however, it came to a feud between 2 co-owners; Werner von Ramberg and the Lords of Ochsenstein. The Ochsensteiners besieged and took the complete castle. After that, the castle was again split up. Several feuds between co-owners led to sieges in 1410, 1435, 1447 and 1464. In 1468 it was besieged by the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg.

Because of all these sieges, the castle was in a bad shape and thus finally abandoned during the 16th century, after which it fell to ruin. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) the ruin was set on fire and it was finally destroyed in 1680, during the Nine Years' War, by French troops led by the cavalry general Joseph de Montclar.

Wasigenstein Castle is a beautiful small castle ruin with lots of nice architectural elements partially carved out of the rocks. It is freely accessible.

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