Château de Pflixbourg

About

The castle of Pflixbourg is a fortress in ruins, which would be haunted according to various legends, located on a top of the Ehrberg, in the south of the territory of the current municipality of Wintzenheim, Alsace. Built in the 1210s by Frédéric II and residence of the bailli of Haute-Alsace in the 13th century, it is a garrison castle whose missions are to protect Colmar and to serve as a support point for the imperial ost. He lost this role after the Habsburgs acquired Hohlandsburg Castle in the 1280s and became a simple seigneurial fief.

It was abandoned in the mid-15th century without ever being attacked. The castle has been listed as historic monuments since 1968 and has been the subject of several restoration campaigns, the most important of which took place in 1864, the 1980s and 2006-2008. The Pflixbourg has typical characteristics of a garrison castle, including an intramural space and a large tank to accommodate many soldiers, elements found in Hohlandsburg and Girbaden.

Its dungeon is also typical of the imperial castles of the decade 1210, the...