GR® 53 : stage 3

This rectangular enclosure, with walls 3m thick at the base, built with stones coming from nearby quarries, would date from the medieval period as the dating of fragments of tiles and pottery found on site would indicate. Historians think that it would be a fortified camp which could have been used in 1398 during the siege of Wasenbourg by the troops of the bishop of Strasbourg.

Typical geological formation of the erosion of sandstone, but which can also be the work of the human hand, they have the characteristic to be with pointed bottom instead of round or flat bottom. Almost always containing water, they are connected by small channels. Matthis believed that the altar stones, consisting of a table and a shallow cup, could have been sacrificial places.

Located on a sandstone peak at an altitude of 410 m, dating from around 1275, the castle, characterized by a 4 m thick shield wall, is strategically placed, right at the entrance to the Falkensteinbach valley. It was inhabited until the middle of the 17th century and was destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV in 1677. It is characterized by a large bay with 9 lancets, unique in Alsace, and by a frieze with a statue of a human head. It was classified as a historical monument in 1898.

Direct neighbor of the Castle of Wasenbourg, this rock still carries the traces of an old sanctuary of the heights devoted to Mercury, the god the most represented in the Vosges of North, dating from the Roman time. The rock may also have served as an observation post to guard the entrance to the valley.

Perched on a rocky ridge 110 m long and 6 to 38 m wide, it dates from the 11th century, although the site has been fortified since the 9th century. Destroyed by the troops of the Bishop of Metz, but rebuilt, it was gradually bought by the City of Strasbourg in 1480. Modernized in the 16th century to resist the emerging artillery, it was finally destroyed in 1676 by the troops of Joseph de Montclar.