Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There:
A €4 shuttle bus runs to the castle from the Séléstat train station
(10/daymid-April-mid-Mayandmid-June-mid-Sept,weekendsonlyoff-season,noneJan-
mid-March, 30 minutes, timed with trains, call château for schedule or check website).
Your shuttle ticket saves you €2 on the château entry fee. If driving in high season, expect
to park along the road well below the castle (unless you come early). Parking can be a zoo
in the summer since it's limited to roadside spaces.
Visiting the Castle:
While the elaborate castle was rebuilt barely 100 years ago, it's
a romantic's dream, sprawling along its sky-high ridge and providing helpful insight into
this 15th-century mountain fortress.
Started in 1147 as an Imperial castle in the extensive network that served the Holy
Roman Empire, Haut-Kœnigsbourg was designed to protect valuable trade routes. It was
constantly under siege and was destroyed by rampaging Swedes in the 17th century. The
castle sat in ruins until the early 1900s when an ambitious restoration campaign began
(which you'll learn much about—a model in the castle storeroom shows the castle before
its renovation).
Today's castle—well-furnished by medieval standards—highlights Germanic influ-
ence in Alsatian history with decorations and weapons from the 15th through 17th centur-
ies. Don't miss the top-floor Grand Bastion with its elaborate, wooden roof structure and
models showing its construction. There are cannons and magnificent views in all direc-
tions.
Vieil-Armand WWI Memorial (Hartmannswillerkopf)
This powerful memorial evokes the slaughter of the Western Front in World War I, when
Germany and France bashed heads for years in a war of attrition. It's up a windy road
above Cernay (20 miles south of Colmar). From the parking lot, walk 10 minutes to the
vast cemetery, and walk 30 more minutes through trenches to a hilltop with a grand Alsa-
tian view. Here you'll find a stirring memorial statue of French soldiers storming the
trenches in 1915-1916, facing near-certain death.
