The castle Schwarzenbourg

The hill on which lie the ruins of this castle was incorporated in the monastery by Louis le Débonnaire, who gave the abbot Godefroid, June 12 823, a forest which included mountain Swarzumberg.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, avouerie Val St. Gregory is owned by the Hohenstauffen. Later, Gauthier Géroldseck, father of the famous bishop of Strasbourg of the same name becomes bailiff and built the fortress in 1261 on land belonging to the abbey. The abbot protested unsuccessfully against this theft.

In 1262, the avouerie with "das hus Swarzenberc zi" is sought and obtained (1271) by the Church of Basle which had been intermittently, owner of the abbey in the XIIth and early thirteenth century.
In 1293, the castle will serve as a prison Walther Roesselmann, Schultheiss (Provost) Colmar from 1282, which had opened the town of Colmar the pro-rebel against the Habsburg Emperor Adolf of Nassau. He died in a dungeon of the castle in 1294.

(Ph. : S. W.)

In early fifteenth century, the castle is in poor condition and work is undertaken by 1496 to 1522.
Reduces the state of relic during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), it gradually falls into disrepair and is then uninhabited.
The castle and the mountains are purchased by the abbey on December 14, 1725. The ruins are sold as national property in 1793.
The Hartmann family bought the property in the early nineteenth century and puts it into his property as part of its English garden-inspired romantic.

During the First World War, it is used as an observatory artillery by the German army.
This building has lost its prestige when it was regarded as one of the military constructions the most successful of Alsace in the Middle Ages.

A legend says that these remains are haunted by the ghost of a woman and a white owl bewitched. In an underpass, which has not been discovered, would be preserved priceless treasures…