Breisach Castle

Breisach Castle is a vanished hilltop castle at the northern end of the elongated Breisacher Münsterberg near the town of Breisach am Rhein in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district in Baden-Württemberg. It is located at an elevation of around 198 meters above sea level.

The castle was built in the 12th century by Berthold V of Zähringen, expanded by the Habsburgs in 1294, and elevated to an Imperial Castle in 1315. Emperor Charles V appointed Lazarus von Schwendi as castellan in 1552, who continued to fortify the structure until his death in 1583. The castle suffered damage in 1633, when Rheingraf Otto Ludwig besieged Breisach, and in 1638 (as a result of the Battle of Wittenweiher).

After the French crossed the Rhine on October 12, 1733, at the beginning of the War of the Polish Succession, Austrian troops from Freiburg and other locations were concentrated in Breisach. The garrison of Breisach thus increased to 8,000 men with 84 cannons and was able to repel all attacks and sieges.

When, in 1741, during the First Silesian War, Maria Theresa did not have enough soldiers available to defend the three fortresses of Philippsburg, Freiburg Fortress, and Breisach, she had the castle razed under the command of Christian von Rodt. In 1745, the castle was destroyed.

The former castle complex featured a keep, a palas, a bergfried with a height of 28 to 30 meters on a base area of 24 by 17 meters and a wall thickness of 3 meters, as well as a neck ditch with a width of 20 to 24 meters and a depth of 12 meters. Of the complex, wall remnants and the neck ditch are still preserved. A castle model is exhibited in the city museum in the Rheintor.