It dominates the Alsace plain, in the heart of the Vosges. The Haut-Koenigsbourg castle has watched over the region for nearly a millennium. Its vocation was to protect the wine and wheat route north and the silver and salt route from west to east. It was reduced to ruins by the Swedish during the Thirty Years' War and then abandoned. The reconstruction of Haut-Koenigsbourg by Emperor Wilhelm II provided a better understanding of the importance and power of this medieval fortress.