The Château de Ramstein is a ruined castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 in the commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

of Baerenthal

Baerenthal

Baerenthal is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.The village forms a part of the natural park of the northern Vosges.-Geography:...

, in the Moselle

Moselle

Moselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

 département of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

History

This 13th century castle was built by the lords of Falkenstein

Château du Falkenstein

The Château du Falkenstein is a ruined castle in the commune of Philippsbourg in the Moselle département of France, at the heart of the Parc naturel régional des Vosges du Nord. This semi-troglodyte castle dominates the Zinsel valley.- History :...

 on the instructions of the bishop of Strasbourg to control the Zinselbach valley, probably in 1292. During the course of the 14th century, the lords of Ramstein transformed it into a den of brigands and it was destroyed in 1355 during a punitive expedition

Punitive expedition

A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...

 by the Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

eois and their allies from Berne

Berne

The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...

.

Below the castle can be seen two underground passages dug in 1936 by French military engineers as part of the Maginot Line

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...

. They were used as shelter by the local population during the battles of winter 1944-45. This site is currently closed to protect a colony of bat

Bat

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

s.

The site is protected since 1938 by the French Ministry of Culture.

External links

• French Ministry of Culture database entry for Château de Ramstein
• Château de Ramstein

Source

• French Ministry of Culture database, accessed 14 January 2010