Château de Schœneck
Encyclopedia
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...
situated 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 Dambach
Dambach
Dambach may refer to:* Dambach, Bas-Rhin, France* Dambach-la-Ville, Bas-Rhin, France* Dambach, Germany, a municipality in Landkreis Birkenfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate* and many others settlements and several streams in Germany...
, in the French département of Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...
.
History
The castle, probably built at the end of the 13th century, is on a rocky crest at an altitude of 380 m. It was certainly built at the instigation of the Hohenstaufens for hunting brigands taking refuge in the area. Destroyed around 1280, it was rebuilt in 1286 and is mentioned in 1287 as the property of the Bishop of Strasbourg, ally of the Habsburgs. He entrusted the upkeep to the Lichtenbergs and pledged its allegiance to Schœneck.The castle was restored between 1335 and 1390 to adapt it to the progress of artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
. It was modernised between 1545 and 1547 by the Exkbrechts of Durckheim, who had held the fiefdom
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
since 1517. The castle was finally destroyed in 1680 by French troops, on the order of Louis XIV and, after the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the ruins were bought by the Dietrich family.
The castle has been listed as a monument historique
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...
by the French Ministry of Culture since 1985.
Description
A small vaulted door and a larger entrance flanked by two 16th century bastions with cannon holes are still visible. The remains of the manorManor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
buildings appear as a Lombard
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
frieze, notably because of the bay windows on the upper level outside the western curtain wall, with their narrow semi-circular arches. To the west, a rectilinear curtain wall closes the lower courtyard while, in the east, a long wall is flanked by two towers.
The castle has been the subject of consolidation works by the association Cunulmergrun since 2000.