En un regard
Le château en bref
Above the village of Baerenthal, in the Pays de Bitche and the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park, the ruins of Ramstein Castle cling to a long sandstone ridge on the Schlossberg, at just over 300 metres above sea level. This narrow rocky platform, about 270 metres long with an average width of 6 metres, dictated the shape of the castle: a rock castle typical of the Northern Vosges, where the buildings rested on the rock and many rooms were carved directly into the stone. Built in the mid-13th century to watch over the Zinsel valley, it had a short existence: having become in the 14th century the lair of robber lords, it was besieged and destroyed in 1335 by the troops of the Bishop of Strasbourg and their allies. Remains of keeps, galleries and rock-cut chambers survive, reached by a staircase, along with a vast forest panorama. The rock has been a protected site since 1924.