from the 13th to the 17th centuries
The Hohlandsbourg Castle was built in 1279, at the behest of Rudolf of Habsburg to watch over the imperial city of Colmar as well as the western borders of Further Austria. The upper part of the castle dates from this period, also called the “Château-Haut.”
From Rudolf of Habsburg to Lazarus von Schwendi
It was progressively modernised during the 14th and 15th centuries by the Counts of Lupfen, then during the 16th century by Lazarus von Schwendi, a military man and imperial advisor to Maximilian II, who bought it in 1563 and had it equipped with the northern bastion, thus adapted for defence by the artillery. The Castle was destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War and besieged by the Swedish in 1633. The French garrison which succeeded them ended up demolishing this “Château-Haut.”
