Hunebourg

Château de Hunebourg
Hüneburg, Hünenburg
Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel
Château de Hunebourg from the northwest
Château de Hunebourg
Coordinates	48°50′00″N 7°21′51″E / 48.8333°N 7.3641°E / 48.8333; 7.3641Coordinates: 48°50′00″N 7°21′51″E / 48.8333°N 7.3641°E / 48.8333; 7.3641
Type	rock castle
Code	FR-A
Height	425 m
Site information
Condition	partly rebuilt in modern times

Château de Hunebourg (German: Hüneburg or Hünenburg) lies to the west of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne in the French département of Bas-Rhin on a 425-metre-high sandstone rock outcrop. It is accessible from the valley of the Zinsel du Nord. The original castle was built in the 12th-13th century, but very little remains from this period. The castle was reconstructed in a neo-romanesque style in the 1930s. It is a listed historical monument since 2007.

The counts of Hüneburg, who probably came from a branch of the counts of Dagsburg-Metz, were mentioned in records in 1125 which prove the existence of the castle and its two first count, Theodoric and Folmar. The lords of Hüneburg, who occupied the castle until 1225, were patrons or protectors (Schirmherren) of the abbeys of Neuwiller and Honau. The best known member of the von Hüneburg family was Conrad of Hüneburg, Bishop of Strasbourg from 1190 to 1202. In the 14th and 15th centuries the castle was a joint inheritance or Ganerben whose owners included the family of Fleckenstein and the lords of Lichtenberg. In the following centuries they were joined by the lords and counts of Hanau. There are no reliable sources for the condition of the castle after the mid-15th century. It is likely that it fell into increasing disrepair and was no longer occupied.

The ruins were seized during the French Revolution sold "for the good of the nation" (Biens nationaux) and purchased in 1809 by Napoleonic general, Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, who henceforth named himself the Count of Hunebourg (Comte de Hunebourg). He had the medieval bergfried torn down to make way for material for new building work. However, he spent very little time at Hunebourg. The estate was turned into a park with a hunting lodge. After the death of the general in 1818 the Hunebourg was sold by his heirs and was owned by the Feyler family of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne from 1823 to 1932.