Château de Lutzelbourg

The Château de Lutzelbourg — known locally as Vorder-Lützelburg — is the ruin of an early 13th-century hilltop fortress above the village of Ottrott in the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace. It forms part of the Ottrotter Schlösser, a cluster of neighbouring medieval castle sites that once controlled the strategic passes of the northern Vosges foothills. Listed as a French historic monument, the ruin is reached via forested hiking trails typical of the Alsatian hill country, with remnants of the keep offering open views toward the Rhine plain on clear days. The combination of crumbling medieval masonry and dense woodland gives the site a quiet, atmospheric character well removed from the more visited castles of the region.