Château de Herrenstein

Château de Herrenstein is the ruin of a spur castle in the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace, perched on a wooded ridge about twelve kilometres north of Saverne. Built around 1200 by the Counts of Dagsburg to assert their guardianship over the Abbey of Neuweiler, it later passed through the hands of the Lords of Lichtenberg and other Alsatian noble families before Strasbourg troops seized it at the end of the 14th century and the city purchased it outright. Confiscated during the French Revolution, the castle was left to decay and is now listed as a French heritage monument. Hikers who reach the ruin via forest trails are rewarded with panoramic views across the northern Alsatian plain and the atmospheric silence of crumbling medieval stonework.