France · 11th century
The Château de Ferrette is a ruined castle in the commune of Ferrette in the Haut-Rhin département of France. It is a recognized historical monument since 1930.
It was on a rocky peak reaching 612 m altitude, overhanging the town of Ferrette, that Frederic of Montbeliard, son of Louis IV, count de Monbéliard, built the Château de Ferrette. It is not known if Frederic completely built the castle or simply restored a fortress by building on the ruins of what was an observation tower built by the Romans.
In 1103, Frederic I inherited the lands of upper Alsace, which later became the county of Ferrette. He died in about 1168. His son, Louis, succeeded him but died during a crusade he undertook in 1189.
Louis' son, Frederic II, inherited. He developed his possessions to the point of attracting the covetous eye of the Bishop of Basel, with whom he had many conflicts. Frederic was assassinated in 1233, officially by his son, Louis, who was accused of patricide and excommunicated. His other son, Ulrich, seized power. It was only six centuries later that a parchment was discovered containing Ulrich's consent to the assassination of his father.
This patricide was not a success because in 1271, Ulrich was forced to sell the castle and the town of Ferrette to the Bishop of Basel, thus becoming a vassal of the Bishop, as were to be his son Thiébaut and his grandson Ulrich III.
With the death of Ulrich III, in 1324, Jeanne de Ferrette inherited the County of Ferrette (Pfirt). She married the Archduke Albert II of Habsburg and thus integrated her county into Austria, which had it managed by administrators appointed by the Emperors. Given as a bailiwick to the lords Reich von Reichenstein in 1504, then to the Fuggers of Augsburg from 1540 to 1567, the castle was transformed into a garrison.
In 1600, the castle had three buildings: - The “Oberschloss” or higher castle, comprising six rooms and eleven bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and cellars. This part of the castle had a well 60m deep and a chapel dedicated to the virgin Saint Catherine.
- The bailiff's house had four rooms, seven bedrooms, two kitchens, a stable to house three horses, a cellar and even a bathroom. It also had lofts to store 1000 sacks of grains. A bastion with two dungeons was designed to defend this building.
Text adapted from “Château de Ferrette” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château de Ferrette ranks #7,098 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #654 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded 1100, it is older than 85% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 436 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. 13 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Basel, 22 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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