Once upon a time Ferrette castle
Ferrette fortress, in Alsace, is 612 metres at its highest point.
It's in ruins, nowadays, but a manuscript described the castle as it was in the Middle-Ages.
We found three main buildings:
- the Oberschloss ("Upper building"), with 11 rooms, kitchens, steam room and cellar. Also, we found a well and a chapel dedicated to Sainte-Catherine;
- the Bailiff's house, with 7 rooms, two kitchens, a stable for three horses and vast cellars;
- Knight's dwelling, with a room flanked by cellars.
The first mention of the castle dates back to 1104, with Frederic I: the man inherited Ferrette land from his father, count of Montbéliard.
He and his descendants would later take the name of Ferrette.
Frederic raised the keep on the foundation of a tower put up by Romans.
In 1324, the castle fell to the House of Austria, when Jeanne de Ferrette married one Hapsburg man.
Emperors Maximilian I and Maximilian II reinforced the fortifications.
Ferrette was demolished and burnt by the Swedish during the Thirty Years War.