Château de Hohenbourg, Rock castle in Wingen, France

Château de Hohenbourg is a semi-troglodytic ruin on a sandstone outcrop at 551 m, built into the rock. Its surviving walls include a horseshoe-shaped artillery bastion with walls 3.60 to 4.60 m thick, pierced by two wide doors and two gun ports, and a Renaissance door. A metal railing caps the rock above the masonry.

Built in the early 13th century, the castle was first documented in 1262 as the seat of Konrad and Heinrich von Hohenburg. After passing to the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1389, it was enfeoffed to Konrad Puller von Hohenburg in 1401. Franz von Sickingen refortified it in 1504, but it was largely destroyed in 1523 and rebuilt in Renaissance style in 1542. French troops under Joseph de Montclar razed it completely in 1680.

The horseshoe-shaped artillery bastion at the entrance has walls between 3.60 and 4.60 m thick, pierced by two wide doors and two gun ports. A Renaissance doorway from the early 16th-century rebuilding also survives. The site is a classified monument historique since December 1898.

You can reach the castle from Lembach by heading toward Bitche and following the white diamond markers inside red circles along the forest trail. The path goes through wooded terrain and requires moderate footing stability on the rocky sections.

The fortress has a well carved directly into the rock and connected to a cistern through an underground passage. This ingenious water system allowed residents to remain self-sufficient during sieges.