Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle: Tickets, Hours, Getting There

Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg stands in Alsace, France, above the village of Orschwiller at 757 metres: 12 km from Sélestat, 26 km from Colmar and 55 km from Strasbourg (official info, November 2026).

You will also see it written Haut-Kœnigsbourg, Haut-Königsbourg, High Koenigsbourg, Koenigsbourg Castle or, in German, Hohkönigsburg. All the same place, and it is not in Germany, even though Germany is just across the Rhine.

The German name is no accident. Alsace belonged to Germany when Emperor Wilhelm II had the ruin rebuilt, and the castle only passed to France in 1919. For the wider picture of the region, see our Alsace guide .

Adults pay €12, ages 6-17 pay €8, students, teachers and other reduced categories €6, and under-6s go free. A family ticket costs €30 for up to four people including at most two adults. A guided commentary adds €2. The ticket office takes cash in euros and cards, but not American Express (official info, November 2026).

Entry is free on the first Sunday of each month from November to March, on European Heritage Days in the third weekend of September and on Museum Night in May, though you still need a zero-price ticket from the desk. Museums-PASS and Pass'Alsace holders walk in free as well.

Our call: in July, August and school holidays, buy before you go; the link is in the table above. We went around Christmas and both the gate and the rooms were busy. If you are coming on the shuttle, do the opposite and buy at the desk: show your shuttle ticket and the adult price drops from €12 to €6.

• November and December: mornings 9:30-12:00, afternoons 13:00-17:00 (official calendar, November 2026)
• January to March: same split, ending at 17:00
• April to June, September, October: 9:30-18:00
• July and August: 9:00-19:00
• Mondays: opens at 10:30

The January to October lines come from the Colmar tourist office listing, because the castle's own calendar currently runs only to the end of December; check again before those months. Last entry is one hour before closing, and the castle shuts on 1 January, 25 and 26 December.

In winter that shapes your day: turn up at 11:30 and you run into the lunch break, turn up after 16:00 and you will not get in at all. On busy days the castle itself advises coming at opening or about two hours before closing, and it publishes a day-by-day crowd forecast on its site.

A car is easiest, a train plus shuttle is cheapest. Hire a car if you want to add the villages, or if you are going on a weekday outside summer, because the shuttle does not run then. We stopped here on our way to Strasbourg and carried on to Obernai afterwards; three stops in a day only works like that.

By car: about an hour from Strasbourg. Leave the A35 at exit 17 via Kintzheim or exit 18 via Saint-Hippolyte; from the other side, take the D1059 via Lièpvre (official info, November 2026). Picking up in Strasbourg: Compare car hire in Strasbourg  Ad. Colmar is closer at 26 km and makes more sense if you want Riquewihr the same day: See Colmar car hire prices  Ad.

By train and shuttle: the TER from Strasbourg to Sélestat takes 18-25 minutes with 13-16 direct trains a day (Omio, November 2026): Check Strasbourg to Sélestat train times  Ad. The castle shuttle, bus 500 (also written L500), leaves from Sélestat station, timed to meet trains from Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse and Basel.

It costs €3 one way, cash only, free under 4. The 2026 calendar: weekends and holidays from 28 February to 3 January, daily from 30 May to 30 August (official info, November 2026). From Colmar it is the same route: TER to Sélestat, then the 500.

On a tour: the cleanest answer if you have no car and it is a weekday. The roughly 7-hour tour from Strasbourg combines the castle with Riquewihr and Colmar (GetYourGuide, November 2026), but you do not set the clock at each stop, so check whether entry is included: See the castle, Riquewihr and Colmar day tour from Strasbourg  Ad. Staying in Colmar: See castle tours from Colmar  Ad.

By air: Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is one of the two nearest airports, with TER trains on to Colmar and Sélestat: Compare flights to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg  Ad.

There are 150 free parking spaces around the castle, plus motorbike and coach bays (official info, November 2026). The castle counted 596,708 visitors in 2023, so that is not many spaces: arrive late on a busy day and you will spend time circling.

From the car it is a 300-metre dirt path uphill, and that is how we walked up too, beside the wooden railing. The restaurant is at the top of the car park.

Porte des Lions and the inner courtyard. The real entrance starts here: the heavy drawbridge chains hang right beside your head as you pass through the gate and under the arches. Step out from the arch and there is the inner courtyard with its green-roofed well. Everyone takes their first photo here, and so did we.

The vaulted exhibition floor. Early on the route there is a long brick-vaulted lower level, its panels hung with black-and-white photos of the castle before and during rebuilding. Do not rush it: everything upstairs makes more sense once you have seen these.

The kitchen. I stopped to talk about this one in the video. A huge hearth, a cast-iron pot over glowing coals, gourds hanging on the wall and an open book on the table. The food and utensils were added later to give you the idea, but you still get a feel for how a castle kitchen was laid out.

The Kaiser's Hall. The showpiece of the whole visit: an eagle spread across the ceiling, coats of arms on the walls, enormous iron chandeliers and suits of armour standing in the corners, with banners hung in front of the murals.

Six of those suits date from the 15th to 17th centuries and returned here in 2022 after nearly 30 years in storage (official info, November 2026). When we visited, the long table was laid and a Christmas tree stood nearby.

The stove and the furnished rooms. The green tiled stove in the hall tapers upward like a small tower, tier after tier of tiny arches.

In the rooms that follow you pass carved cupboards, a wild boar's head on the wall and a wooden cradle lined with fur, then a room with stained-glass windows and a table set out. It feels less like a dim museum and more like somebody's home.

The antler room and the armour room. Next come walls painted with trees and animals and hung with dozens of real antlers, with a chandelier made of antlers too. In the wood-panelled room beside it stand two armoured figures, with a crossbow on the wall and stained glass behind them. If you came for the weapons collection, slow down here.

Walls, rock and the view. Outside, a different castle begins: an open space among bare trees, then a long stone stairway climbing a high wall. From above you see how the fortress sits on the rock, its walls clinging to the sandstone.

A huge wheeled cannon waits under a timber roof. On a clear day the official site promises the Alsace plain, the Vosges, the Black Forest and sometimes the Alps; our day was cloudy, and we still looked out over the plain from up here.

Heading for the exit we walked between mossy boulders and the timber-roofed rampart path; one look at that rock and you see why they built up here.

The route spreads over 21 levels with 300 steps of varying height and direction, and the first staircase starts right at the ticket check (official info, November 2026).

Halfway round I admitted I was tired and thought back to our castle tour in Transylvania; by the end I was muttering that I would be lucky to finish without falling, because they have put stairs everywhere. The edges of the spiral steps have white strips, but wear shoes with grip anyway.

How long to visit Haut-Koenigsbourg? The castle's own figure is about 1 hour inside and an average of 2 hours from car park to car park. We shuffled through busy rooms too, so plan on the 2. Pushchairs are not allowed inside, there is an unattended pushchair room below the ticket office, so bring a carrier.

Wheelchair users can reach the outdoor areas with a companion but not the route itself. Dogs cannot enter and cannot be left outside; photos are fine, tripods are not. From April to October a picnic area opens at the end of the route.

Short version: no car, Sélestat; car and a village feel, Ribeauvillé or Bergheim; Christmas markets, Colmar; at the gate for opening time, Saint-Hippolyte or Orschwiller. The castle takes 2 hours, so it does not justify a night of its own. Pick your base for the rest of the trip.

Sélestat. Who it suits: anyone without a car, since the 500 leaves from here and the town sits on the main rail line. Accept that: on days with no shuttle you will need another plan, and evenings are quieter than Colmar.

B&B Hotel, ibis budget, Best Western Les Humanistes and Hôtel de l'Illwald all come up here: See Sélestat hotels  Ad. For a spa: See Hôtel Vaillant prices  Ad.

Colmar. Who it suits: first-timers in Alsace who also want Little Venice and the Christmas markets. Accept that: 26 km to the castle, and Christmas crowds and room prices. If you are moving by train, stay by the station: Hotels around Colmar station  Ad. We compare the areas in where to stay in Colmar .

Ribeauvillé. Who it suits: drivers who want the castle in the morning and a wine-route village in the evening, roughly halfway between the castle and Colmar. Accept that: hard without a car, with fewer evening options than Colmar. Logis Hôtel de la Tour, Au Cheval Blanc and Le Ménestrel appear on the list: See Ribeauvillé hotels  Ad.

Bergheim. Who it suits: couples after somewhere small and quiet, about 10 km from the castle (Booking, November 2026). Accept that: few hotels, so look early if your dates are fixed. See Bergheim hotels  Ad. For more room and a spa: See La Cour du Bailli prices  Ad.

Saint-Hippolyte, Orschwiller and Kintzheim. Who it suits: drivers who want to be first through the gate, with the castle right above you. Accept that: little to do in the evening and a car for everything.

To see them all on one list: See hotels near the castle  Ad. It includes Logis Hotel Le Parc with its indoor pool and A la Vignette in Saint-Hippolyte, Au Fief du Château in Orschwiller, and Au Parc des Cigognes and Hotel Cigoland in Kintzheim. Saint-Hippolyte on its own: See Saint-Hippolyte hotels  Ad.

Hotels with the castle in their name. Searches for a "Haut-Koenigsbourg hotel" get confusing: the official site lists a restaurant at the castle but no rooms, so these are all in the villages below. Hôtel du Haut Koenigsbourg belongs to Thannenkirch, not the castle: See Hôtel du Haut Koenigsbourg prices  Ad. Domaine du Haut-Koenigsbourg in Orschwiller is the closest, about 2 km away by Booking's figure: See Domaine du Haut-Koenigsbourg prices  Ad. Hôtel Val-Vignes in Saint-Hippolyte is a 12-minute drive (Booking, November 2026): See Hôtel Val-Vignes prices  Ad. Hotel Munsch is in the same village: See Hotel Munsch prices  Ad. The spa hotel people ask about is in Ribeauvillé: See L'Hôtel & Spa Ribeauvillé prices  Ad.

Yes, it is open. In December only the 25th and 26th are closed, and 1 January after that (official calendar, November 2026). But there is no Christmas market at the castle. On December weekends a bookable themed visit called "Noël, Noël!" runs for €16 per adult (in the 2026 programme: 5, 6, 12 and 13 December at 14:00, official info).

In the season we visited, Christmas trees and laid tables had gone into the rooms, with "Au fil de Noël" panels explaining them.

If you are in Alsace for the markets, the castle is a daytime stop between them. Dates and routes are in our Alsace Christmas markets  guide, and multi-country plans in Christmas market routes . In early November the castle's own weather box showed 6-7 degrees by day and 0-1 at night; at 757 metres dress warmly, we toured it in our coats.

Yes, if you are already on the Alsace route. The Kaiser's Hall, the kitchen and the view from the walls earn the stop, and two hours is a small price for them.

Skip it if stairs are a real problem for you, or if you only want untouched medieval stone, because most of what you see was rebuilt in the early 1900s. With one free day and small children, the villages will be easier.

It first appears in the records in 1147, and the name means "royal castle". After being wrecked and rebuilt more than once, it burned in the Thirty Years' War and sat as a ruin for two centuries. Then it gets interesting: in 1899 the town of Sélestat gave the ruin to Wilhelm II, who had architect Bodo Ebhardt rebuild the whole thing from 1900 to 1908 (official info, November 2026).

So what you tour is not purely medieval; it is an emperor's early 20th-century dream of the Middle Ages. Keep that in mind under the Kaiser's Hall ceiling, because that explains the display.

Film people noticed too. Jean Renoir shot "La Grande Illusion" here in 1937, Miyazaki drew on it for "Howl's Moving Castle" and John Howe for his Minas Tirith drawings in The Lord of the Rings (official info, November 2026).

After the castle we went on to Obernai  and then Strasbourg . Heading south, Riquewihr  and Colmar  fit the same day, and Kaysersberg  is a short drive further. With children, the Volerie des Aigles and Montagne des Singes in Kintzheim are very close, and the 500 shuttle stops at both.

The castle also points visitors to the Humanist Library (Bibliothèque Humaniste) in Sélestat.