Landskron

History and description

Founded at the end of the 13th century, the Château de Landskron had the first modern upgrading carried out at the start of the 16th century. Besieged multiple times during the Thirty Years War, the castle became the property of Louis XIV in 1663. Vauban was tasked with modernising it following the siege of 1673, during the War of Holland, as a strategic site facing Switzerland. The modernisation included the addition of defensive redoubt to protect the access road, a covered way around the medieval castle and a glacis with two bastions and a curtain wall on the western flank. Two other redoubts were added to the west of the castle on the hill. As for the medieval keep, a floor was removed to accommodate an artillery platform and its thick walls housed a garrison of three hundred man. However, from 1684, during the construction of Huningue, the site declined in strategic importance. The construction got underway in 1690, during the war of the League of Augsbourg and continued during the 18th century.