Castle Hohlandsbourg
26 May 2018
Much like Ribeauville, Eguisheim is also overlooked by a trio of castles. We visited them last time, and they were beautiful still though completely in ruins. If you were to take the road up to those castle ruins and continue up the mountain past them, you would eventually come to another, much larger castle a bit further away from town. We hopped in the car and made our way out to Castle Hohlandsbourg!
But first, a picnic!
Hohlandsbourg is a reclaimed ruin I guess you could say. It sat abandoned and forgotten for a long time, where it fell into obvious ruin before it was eventually found, and an effort was put forth to preserve it. It isn’t like many of the other castle ruins we’ve seen, which are just standing there left to the elements. This ruin though has had a lot of preservation work done, including a full rebuild of the castle gate. You needed to purchase tickets to gain access, but after seeing the effort they put in to stabilize and preserve the castle, the price is a very worthy investment. Good portions of the castle were long gone, but the walls and some main interior structures were still intact. Some of the buildings along the walls were converted into a museum showcasing the history and restoration of the castle, and another section displaying lots of info on the local wildlife and habitat of the area. You could walk atop all of the outer walls, getting a feel for the strategic position of the castle along with seeing incredible views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, from the town of Turckheim all the way to the Balloon Mountain peaks in the Vosges. All throughout the castle and atop the walls were plaques mounted on chain mail giving details of the history of the part you were looking at, and they had speakers pumping out some awesome medieval music! I absolutely loved that touch, the music completely set the atmosphere to really feel where we were. I believe they hold period events like Renaissance Fairs at Hohlandsbourg Castle, and wow that would be impressive to see!
We could have stayed so much longer walking along those walls, learning the history, and listening to epic music. Unfortunately, there were some dark clouds over the valley complete with flashes of lightning in the not-so-distance. It felt really vulnerable on top of the walls, and we didn't want to be up there should the storm turn our way. Still, we spent a good bit of time at Hohlandsbourg overall and it is a visit I would highly recommend.
Around the castle are a number of hiking trails. As the rain had yet to fall, we walked along one for a bit, breathing in that fresh mountain air…
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