Château de Greifenstein

About

The castle of Greifenstein is a 12th century castle in ruins, located on the Vosges massif in the state forest of Saverne in Alsace. The fortifications are built at an altitude of 360 meters on a rocky promontory of the Schlosserhoehe (463 m) which dominates the confluence of the Ramsthal and Zorn valleys whose access it monitored. The site is actually occupied by two castles of different ages: the Old Greifenstein established in the 12th century and the Little Greifenstein dating from the 13th century.

The name of the castle comes from the German Greif-, the griffon, and from -stein, the stone, this suffix seems to be common to many fortresses built of stone on rocky spurs – also called spornburg (de) – from the 12th century as opposed to primitive castral mots. It has been classified as historical monuments since December 1898.