Visisting The Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

If you have seen my two posts MonoColorSepia - French Street and Sepia Saturday in The Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg you already know that I have visited the picturesque part of Alsace, France and these posts were just a glimpse of what I have seen.

Let me show you more of that beautiful place.

To start with how I got there. I have a very dear friend from Switzerland with whom we worked together while I was in procurement. I have visited Switzerland many times on business trips and twice on his invitation. First time I was together with my son and another friend -Julia. Second time my friend and I was invited again to stay with this nice Swiss couple for a week. It was in 2009 and we had again fantastic time. My Swiss friends had prepared a plan where to go each day and since they are living near the French border it was easy to pop up in France for a day. That is how we went in the beautiful town of Riquewihr and the marvelous Haut-Koenigsbourg castle.

The castle

Yes, this is the original photo, which I converted in sepia tone in my previous post. And here are the other two.

The view is from the Grand Bastion.

As much as I like sepia, I still prefer the coloured photos.

The castle is big and one can find distinctive features from the past times.

This is me, posing in front of the solid wooden door in inner yard.

And on the next one I am together with my friend Julia sitting on the stairs.

A little history.

The castle was build in 12th century as a fortress. In 17th century the castle was distroyed and abandoned for two hundred years. In 1900 German keiser Wilhelm II appointed the architect Bodo Ebhardt to restore the castle.
Restoration work took 8 years. In 1919 it became a property of the French government.

Now look above our heads and you will see the inscription in German.

That high tower from the first picture caught my eye with the metal eagle on the top of the roof.

Look at the drawbridge on the next picture.It leads to the iñer yard.

My friend taking pictures. I must admit she took more than me.

If I am not mistaken this painted wall was seen in inner yard.

Regretably I made very few pictures from the living quarters. But this chandelier with the deer scull was quite impressive, I could not miss to spot it and to capture it. Of course I did not know how to photograph the light, so the photo is not the best.

Another wall covered with trophies.

And Julia posing in front of the fireplace.

Honestly I don't remember where exactly this wooden barrel was, but it was remarkably carved.

The great bastion and the artillery platform. Now I noticed the fire-extinguisher in the bottom right corner. Safety first.

Anothe stunning view will end the tour.

Looking from the top in clear day you can see the beautiful landscape of Alsace, the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest.

Next time I will show you around of the town of Riquewihr.

Thank you for visiting.

If you like to share your thoughts you can leave a comment.

@nelinoeva