Medieval Ribeauvillé

Ribeauvillé (Rappoltsweiler in German) lies on the Alsace wine route between Colmar and Sélestat, under three ruined castles on the spurs above the town: Saint-Ulrich, the 12th–13th-century seat of the lords of Ribeaupierre, Girsberg on its rock beside it, and Haut-Ribeaupierre higher up the ridge. The Ribeaupierre (Rappoltstein) family ruled the town from the 11th century until the line died out in 1673, and held from the 14th century the office of ‘king of the pipers’, protector of the brotherhood of travelling musicians of Upper Alsace; the Pfifferdaj, the fiddlers’ festival on the first Sunday of September, is Alsace’s oldest festival and still commemorates it.

The walled town runs along a single main street, the Grand’Rue, from the lower town to the upper, through the Tour des Bouchers, the 13th-century gate tower that divided the two. Along it stand Renaissance and half-timbered houses, fountains, the town hall and the Gothic parish church of Saint-Grégoire; the vineyards begin at the last houses, with the grand cru slopes of Kirchberg, Geisberg and Osterberg above. Ribeauvillé station, about 3 km from the centre on the Strasbourg–Colmar line, and the Christmas shuttles from Colmar and Riquewihr serve the market weekends.