Riquewihr (Reichenweier in German and Rïchewïhr in Alsatian) is a French commune located in the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region. This town is located in the historical and cultural region of Alsace.
Remains of Bilstein Castle
The ruins of the fortified castle
located on the road to Aubure, east of Ribeauvillé, are to the south
of the Strengbach valley, between the Haut de Ribeauvillé pass and
the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines valley. They stand on a rocky ridge of
the Schlossberg at an altitude of 700 meters. This castle is
mentioned for the first time in 1217 in the chronicle of Richer,
monk and abbot of Senones. It then belonged to the Duke of Lorraine
who ceded it as a fief to the Horbourg family.
To distinguish
it from another castle with the same name but located in the Val de
Villé near Urbeis, it has been added the name of Bilstein d'Aubure
castle. The latter kept it until 1324 then it was sold to their
uncle, Count Ulrich III of Württemberg. In 1387 he transferred the
miraculous image of the Virgin to the Notre-Dame church in
Riquewihr. The keep and the lodge probably date from the 12th -
early 13th century and the high door which was rebuilt in the 14th
century. This castle was restored several times in the 15th, 16th
and 17th centuries. In 1388, the united Swabian and Alsatian cities
declared war on the Duke of Bavaria and his allies, including Count
Eberhard of Wurtemberg. They were asked to spare Bilstein Castle.
In 1424, Ferry, bastard of Charles II of Lorraine, obtained the
use of it. The inhabitants of Beblenheim paid a royalty in 1472 so
that the lord could watch their forests. In 1547, the emperor was at
war with Württemberg and laid siege to the castle. During the Thirty
Years' War, from January 10 to 13, 1636, it was occupied and
destroyed by the imperial troops of the Count of Schlick. A fire in
1640 completely ruined it. The last bailiff of the castle who took
possession of the ruins took office in 1655. Faced with the scale of
the repairs, he was gradually abandoned and served as a career for
the population of Riquewihr. Bilstein Castle was to serve as a
prison on various occasions until 1489.
An ancient Roman city
The origins of Riquewihr date back to
Roman times4. The remains of a "speculum" (observation tower), the
remains of a wall and a tower, prove the passage of a road going up
through the valley to Aubure passing near an ancient pagan wall. It
is very probable that there existed at this place a dump before the
entry of the mountain; the culture of the vine suggests a small
fortified agglomeration. Tombs found in the surroundings prove the
existence of a locality around the 7th and 9th centuries.
A
property of the Dukes of Alsace
Around the year 1000, Riquewihr
was with its Reichenstein castle the property of the Dukes of Alsace
and Eguisheim-Dabo. He is mentioned for the first time under the
name of “Richovilare” in 1049 in a donation to the monastery of
Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine, near Colmar. In 1094, the abbey of
Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine had vines in Riquewihr. The eleventh-century
village of Richovilare passed into the hands of the counts of
Eguisheim-Dabo.
The Reichensteins and the destruction of
Reichenstein castle
From the 13th century, the estate fell into
the hands of a noble family, the Reichensteins, but its members made
a bad name for themselves as lords-brigands. In 1269, in order to
restore order and security, Rodolphe de Habsbourg, the future
Emperor of Germany, besieged Reichenstein castle with the assistance
of troops from the city of Strasbourg and Colmar. The lords, the two
Gislin brothers, were condemned to death and hanged from an oak tree
near the castle, the remains of which and the keep are still
visible. After the execution of the knights, Rodolphe went to the
village of Riquewihr where he shared a glass of wine with the
inhabitants. The next day, returning on horseback with his tenant
farmer from Guémar, Roldolphe proclaimed that the village of
Riquewihr deserved to be built into a town because, thanks to this
"devil of wine", he had been tutored by the elders of the council
and did not want anyone to reproach him for being so familiar with
the peasants. The disappearance of the castle became for the city
the starting point of a prosperous period.
The lords of
Horbourg and the construction of the surrounding wall
The city
and the castle having become the property of the lords of Horbourg
within the seigniory of Riquewihr, Burkhardt II of Horbourg made, in
1291, raise walls and surround the borough of a broad and deep
ditch. Thus Riquewihr became a small fortress 300 m long and 220 m
wide, which could, if necessary, shelter the inhabitants of several
neighboring villages. Access to the city was provided by two gates,
the lower one, destroyed in 1804, and the upper one, known as the
“Dolder”. This gate overlooked by a five-storey tower is 25 meters
high. The passage could at the time of danger be closed by a very
solid door with two leaves and by a harrow. The bell in the small
steeple served as an alarm signal in the event of an approaching
enemy from the plain. The interior of the Dolder was once used as a
dwelling place for the village keeper. This enclosure still exists
in part in the twenty-first century. We can still see the northern
and western perimeter walls and the emblematic towers of the city:
the Dolder and the Thieves Tower. A glance along the surrounding
wall, to the right and to the left of the Dolder and along the
Semme, gives an idea, alongside its picturesque aspect, of the
solidity and importance of these fortifications. In 1320, the
Horbourgs obtained the authorization to raise their domain in
“city”, thus giving a certain importance to the city.
The
Counts of Württemberg and the Reformation
Without posterity, the
lords of Horbourg sold their lands in 1324 to Ulrich X of
Württemberg. In 1397, Count Eberhard IV of Wurtemberg took as his
fiancée the heiress of the county of Montbéliard, Henriette d'Orbe,
still a child. Riquewihr having become the capital, the two
families, the Württemberg-Monbéliard, wisely governed their domain
which then experienced great prosperity until the Thirty Years' War.
The flourishing trade in wine which was exported throughout the
Empire and the Hanseatic countries brought great prosperity, as
evidenced by the remarkable residences dating mainly from the
sixteenth century.
In 1420, the inhabitants expelled the Jews
from the village "not by a decision of the magistrate but by the
hatred and fury of the people". In 1525, Riquewihr was drawn into
the peasant war. In 1534, Count Georges de Wurtemberg, Lutheran,
introduced the Reformation into the seigneury.
The Thirty
Years' War
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), armies under different
banners swept over Alsace and devastated most of the towns and
villages. In 1635 and 1652, Riquewihr was besieged, taken and
pillaged by the troops of the Duke of Lorraine. Since 1607, the
burgvogt, known under the name of Johann Conrad Krämer, resided
there until 1626. During his reign, restoration and consolidation
works were undertaken and allowed the population of Riquewihr to
find refuge inside the fortified walls. During this period, Alsace
had to face all kinds of armies which pillaged and ransomed the
population. In 1626 the new burgvogt was called Michel Hauweber. He
was charged by the Duke of Württemberg to respect draconian
specifications, such as defending the castle and the woods around
the fortress at all costs. In 1635, the town of Riquewihr was
occupied by a French detachment of sixteen men from Colmar. The
burgvogt had many works done and fortified the walls.
The
city was bombarded by six pieces of artillery. The little garrison
who had taken refuge in Bilstein's castle resisted valiantly. It was
then that the commander-in-chief of Colmar, Manicamp, decided to
send reinforcements to Riquewihr to break through the walls of the
castle but the detachment got lost in the woods and the troops sent
as reinforcements were dispersed by the peasants of the Val d
'Orbey. However, a small column eventually found itself in front of
the castle and opened up breaches in its defense system. The assault
became inevitable. The commander then asked the defenders of
Riquewihr to give up protecting the village by promising the life of
the population if they opened the doors to them. The inhabitants
ended up opening them on June 26, 1635, but the troops did not
scrupulously respect their promise and there were summary executions
and settling of scores. The murders were followed by famine and
epidemics of plague, cholera and typhus which decimated a large part
of the population; Riquewihr had great difficulty recovering from
these desolations, the passage of the armies of the King of France
in 1675 not helping the situation. In 1680, Louis XIV's emissaries
took possession of Riquewihr, which however remained subject to the
laws and customs of the Holy Roman Empire and to the orders of the
Counts of Württemberg.
The pre-revolutionary period
Riquewihr was then definitively attached to France in 1786, an
attachment ratified by the Treaty of Paris of May 21, 1786 between
the King of France and the Duke of Wurtemberg. During the
Revolution, the Württemberg family had to give up its other
possessions in Alsace, in particular the principality of
Montbéliard.
The Second World War
Unlike other villages in
the region (such as Mittelwihr, Bennwihr or Sigolsheim), Riquewihr
miraculously escaped the destruction of World War II because of its
dead end position. This preservation of its ancient heritage makes
it one of the most visited villages in Alsace, especially in summer.