Painted half-timbering, inner courtyards of winemakers, grand crus born from limestone and marl soils... From Riquewihr to Hunspach, here’s how to explore these villages and taste their wines, path by path.
Painted half-timbering, inner courtyards of winemakers, grand crus born from limestone and marl soils... From Riquewihr to Hunspach, here’s how to explore these villages and taste their wines, path by path.
Located in the Haut-Rhin, about twelve kilometers from Colmar, at an altitude of 222 meters, Riquewihr has just over a thousand inhabitants. Yet, this village was elevated to the status of a town as early as 1291, at a time when it was part of the Duchy of Württemberg.
The phrase that best describes it? A town behind its ramparts, besieged only by tightly packed vineyards. The hills surrounding it bear two names well-known to enthusiasts, Sporen and Schoenenbourg, from which powerful aromatic wines emerge.
What makes this place unique is the long-standing marriage between the quality of the wines and that of the architecture. People come for one, but leave marked by the other. For a first visit, arrive on a Friday morning: it's market day, and the village then breathes something beyond mere decor.
A delightful detail: some shop signs were designed by Jean-Jacques Waltz, known as "Hansi," an Alsatian illustrator and caricaturist to whom the village dedicates a museum. So, look up while walking.
In the alleys, take the time to look at the volumes: they are impressive, even on modest houses. From the wealthiest bourgeois residences of the 15th and 16th centuries to the simplest homes, we are faced with true masterpieces, and the decorative vocabulary remains the same.
Four elements to systematically identify:
the colorful half-timbered facades, where the framework creates geometric shapes on the painted plaster,the flower-filled balconies that extend the facade towards the street,the decorated windows, often small and leaded,the roofs made of round tiles known as "beaver tail," laid in scales.
Nota Bene: half-timbering (or timber framing) is not an ornament added later; it is the very structure of the building. The carpenter assembles a framework of beams, then the gaps are filled, in Hunspach for example with wattle and daub, a mixture of clay soil and fibers. The color comes from the plaster and paint applied afterward: this explains why the same type of house can be multicolored in the south of the vineyard and strictly black and white in the north of Alsace.
In Riquewihr, the walls have not disappeared; they have been absorbed by the village. The best way to understand their purpose is to visit the Tower of Thieves: the former prison has retained its torture instruments, which serves as a rather brutal reminder that this charming town was also a place of power and justice.
Good news for hurried visitors: the same tour leads into the interior of a 16th-century winemaker's house. So, in just a few meters, you go from the dungeon to the living room and the tools of a family that worked the vineyard. This is exactly the kind of connection that helps one understand a village better than a long sign.
Complete your visit with the Dolder Museum, which unfolds the history of the town from the 12th to the 17th century. And above all, push open the carriage doors when they are open: the homes of Riquewihr hide splendid inner courtyards, invisible from the street. This is where the press, the cellar, the well, everything that made a winemaker's house function, was located.
Just two kilometers from Riquewihr, Hunawihr plays a different tune. With 587 inhabitants, at an altitude of 285 meters, it is a particularly flower-filled village, literally nestled among the vineyards that rise from all sides.
The circuit to explore fits in a pocket. Locate the Sainte-Hune fountain with its washhouse, then the town hall, which is none other than the former grain hall, and the Schickhardt house, in Renaissance style. Add the half-timbered houses and the bourgeois residences from the 16th and 19th centuries, and you have a condensed version of three centuries of village architecture in one stroll.
In July and August, a guided tourist circuit departs every Wednesday at 6:15 PM in front of the church: meet there, and a playful version is available for children from 4 years old. For more information, contact the tourist office of the Pays de Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr at 03 89 73 23 23.
Two additional stops if you come with family: NaturOparC, a center for the reintroduction of storks and otters, a 5-hectare wildlife park set in the heart of former marshes dedicated to the preservation of local species, and the Butterfly Garden, where several hundred exotic butterflies from Africa, Asia, and America flutter amidst lush vegetation.
Hunawihr owes its name to Huna, a holy laundress who, according to legend, lived there in the 7th century with her husband, the Frankish lord Hunon. This is the origin of the village, and for the fountain that still bears this name.
The church, built in the 15th and 16th centuries, occupies the hill that overlooks the rooftops. Inside, look for the 15th-century frescoes: they depict the life of Saint Nicholas, a very popular figure throughout Alsace. Surrounding the building, the cemetery is fortified and flanked by six bastions, a feature that speaks volumes about the troubled times the region has experienced.
This fortified church on its hill is also the best viewpoint over the vineyard: one can grasp the logic of the place at a glance, the village below, the sloping plots above. The Camino de Santiago passes through here, which partly explains the ancient importance of the town.
In the northern part of the region, in Hunspach, the religious landmark takes on a different appearance: the houses are organized around a temple with a pink sandstone steeple, a mark of a village with a Protestant tradition.
Change of scenery and department: Hunspach is located in the Bas-Rhin, in Northern Alsace, in what is known as Green Alsace. With 637 inhabitants and an altitude of 160 meters, it is a village where, as is beautifully said locally, the carpenter remains the master of the place.
History explains the landscape. Almost emptied of its inhabitants at the end of the Thirty Years' War, Hunspach was saved by a few French refugees and especially by Swiss immigrants, to whom land was granted for cultivation. With the wood and clay they had on hand, they built half-timbered houses like those back home.
The result: houses made of wattle and daub and wood, with hipped roofs extended by awnings, which align harmoniously along the main street. Don’t look for a medieval maze; the beauty of Hunspach lies in this regular, almost theatrical alignment.
To go further, there are two concrete options: a guided tour of the village, offered year-round in French, English, German, Spanish, and Russian (03 88 80 89 70), and the Musée d'Antan, located in a converted barn, which tells the story of the village and rural life of yesteryear. The associated shop introduces visitors to Kelsch, the traditional fabric of Alsace.
Here, forget the ochres, blues, and reds of the vineyard: in Hunspach, black and white dominate. The dark wooden framework stands out against light panels, and this graphic rigor, repeated from house to house along the street, gives the village its picturesque charm.
The other signature is more discreet, and you have to look for it: the windows are adorned with curved glass panes. Like a funhouse mirror, this glass reflects an unfaithful image back to passersby and prohibits any view into the interior. Behind their windows, the inhabitants see without ever being seen... An old trick of village intimacy, which explains the somewhat unsettling impression of facades that seem to watch you.
To experience the village rather than just photograph it, aim for the highlights: the Folklore Festival in June, the last weekend of spring, the folk and summer events in July-August, and the rural Christmas market on the second Sunday of Advent. A carriage ride and a walking trail around the village complete the discovery.
And since we’re talking about wine: northern Alsace has its own wine route, with Steinseltz, Riedseltz, Rott-Cleebourg, and Wissembourg located 7 to 10 kilometers away. The Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park is right next door.
If the villages are so closely linked to wine, it is primarily a matter of soil. Hunawihr is known for its limestone and marl terroirs, on which the vines thrive and produce its grand cru, the Rosacker.
Nota Bene: marl is a rock intermediate between clay and limestone. Specifically, for the vine, this changes everything: each nuance of soil imparts its character to the grape, which is why an Alsatian wine is named after a specific slope, sometimes just a few hectares, rather than an entire region.
Hence this mosaic of names found from village to village along the wine route: Sporen and Schoenenbourg in Riquewihr, Altenberg and Kanzlerberg in Bergheim, Eichberg and Pfersigberg in Eguisheim. Bergheim, by the way, has earned a reputation as the "capital of Gewurztraminer" and dedicates an annual festival to this grape variety.
Eguisheim, at the gates of Colmar, is considered the cradle of the Alsatian vineyard. Its winemakers' and coopers' houses, adorned with large courtyards, clearly indicate that the architecture of the village has been shaped by the work of wine, and not just decorated by it.
The grand cru Rosacker, in Hunawihr, expresses itself through three grape varieties: gewurztraminer, riesling, and pinot gris. Three very different profiles on the same hillside, making it an excellent learning ground for those who want to understand what "terroir" concretely means.
Alongside the grand crus, local production covers Alsace AOC wines, crémant d'Alsace, this sparkling wine made using the traditional method, and eaux-de-vie, a steadfast specialty of the region.
To taste all of this in a village atmosphere rather than in a queue, there are two events in Hunawihr: the 8-kilometer gourmet walk in June, which combines effort with tasting stops, and the Hunafascht in August, Alsatian evenings under lanterns and stars, on the first Friday and Saturday of the month.
On the dining side, each village has its pairings. Riquewihr claims green sauerkraut, Hunspach the Dickerkuche, a brioche, and its cheeses. And in Riquewihr, a producers' market takes place on Tuesday evenings in July and August: it's where you can buy what you need to accompany the bottles brought back from the cellar.
This is the most useful point of this article: in these villages, you don't have to choose between a walk and a tasting. The Grand Cru Wine Trail can be enjoyed in Riquewihr as well as in Hunawihr, independently and year-round, with signs explaining the plots, grape varieties, and vineyard work.
In season, the format changes: in Hunawihr, the visit is accompanied by a winemaker and concludes with a free tasting in the summer. In Riquewihr, visits with a winemaker and a cellar tour are also offered. In both cases, contact is made through the tourist office of the Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr area at 03 89 73 23 23.
A few kilometers away, two other trails are worth a detour, with specific time slots to note:
Bergheim: self-guided wine trail with explanatory panels, and guided tours by a winemaker on Wednesdays from 9:30 AM to 12 PM in July-August (03 89 73 23 23),Eguisheim: guided tour of the wine trail followed by a commented tasting, by reservation with the winemakers, on Saturdays from mid-June to mid-September and Tuesdays in August (03 89 23 40 33).
To connect all of this, cycling is an excellent idea: Hunawihr offers cycling tourism, hiking, and a marked mountain biking circuit, and the distances between villages are measured in kilometers, not hours of driving.
What strikes you, in the end, is that these villages are not just set pieces under a bell jar. The vineyards are working, the cellars are open, the markets are bustling, and the festivals return every year on the same dates. Riquewihr remains a high place of Alsatian heritage and art of living, and Hunawihr, with its 587 inhabitants, continues to live at the pace of its hills.
For a first itinerary, the simplest option is to radiate around Riquewihr: Hunawihr is 2 kilometers away, Bergheim is 6 from Hunawihr, Eguisheim is 19, Mittelbergheim is 37, and the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle is about fifteen kilometers away. Colmar and Sélestat are within immediate reach, making accommodation easier.
If you want to see the other face of Alsace, that of the black and white houses and the curved glass, head towards Hunspach and Alsace Verte, on the outskirts of the Northern Vosges Regional Natural Park. The contrast between the two architectures, just a few dozen kilometers apart, is one of the most beautiful lessons in heritage that the region can offer.
One last piece of advice, and the most important: book your vineyard trail visits before you leave, as most guided tastings take place on specific days and time slots, especially in summer. A quick call to the tourist office, and you transition from being a visitor to being a guest.
Author Audrey on 30 October 2024
Travel and Tourism : Hotel by city
Author Audrey on 16 December 2020
Travel and Tourism : Hotel by region