\b0 Overlooking the plain of Alsace from its perch on a spur at a height of over 800
m (2600 ft), the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg was built by the Hohenstaufen family in the twelfth century. Rebuilt by the Habsburgs in the fifteenth, it was burned down in 1633 during the Thirty Year War and it seemed fated to remain in ruins forever. But
at the time of the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to the German empire after the war of 1870, Wilhelm II decided to restore the castle as a tribute to the German dynasties that had been involved in its creation. In fact this was a complete reconstruction
of the building carried out in accordance with the current ideas of what a medieval fortified castle ought to be, with the result that historical accuracy was sometimes neglected.\par
