The Château Saint-Sixte is a 12th-century

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in the '' commune'' of Freistroff in the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of France. The Château Saint-Sixte stands on a small plain between Freistroff and

Rémelfang Rémelfang () is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography It is located in the Rhine catchment area and is drained by the Bettange stream and the Esbach stream. See also * Communes of the Moselle ...

. It was built in the 12th century by the

seigneur A seigneur () or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of ...

Wirich de Valcourt. During the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, it was transformed into a residence and was altered again in the 18th century. It was saved from ruin by the Gehl family in 1986. Separated from the village on the left bank of the

Nied The Nied (; ) is a river in Lorraine, France, and Saarland, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Saar. It is formed where two streams converge: the ''Nied allemande'' ("German Nied") and the ''Nied française'' ("French Nied"), which join in C ...

, it has a strange oval plan, surrounding by ancient

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

s. The six originally separate buildings are roofed with two slopes of tiles and arranged around an entirely enclosed courtyard. In each corner, a polygonal

staircase tower A staircase tower or stair tower (, also ''Stiegenturm'' or ''Wendelstein'') is a tower-like wing of a building with a circular or polygonal plan that contains a stairwell, usually a helical staircase. History Only a few examples of staircase ...

gives access to the upper storeys. The château is open to visitors every afternoon from April to October, with guided tours at weekends. Organised groups may visit throughout the year. The castle is privately owned. In 1986, the Gehl family bought the castle and the estate around it. Their sons Dominique, Philippe and Luc undertook the thorough restoration of the castle. In 2007, Philippe Gehl bought the castle from his two brothers, and continues the work with the assistance of a restoration association. It has been listed since 1991 as a ''

monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...

References

External links

*
Official web site
Castles in Grand Est Châteaux in Moselle (department) Monuments historiques of Moselle (department) {{France-castle-stub