The Thieves' Tower
A 13th-century watchtower with its cell.
Jean-Pol GRANDMONT — CC BY 4.0 · Jean-Pol GRANDMONT — CC BY 4.0 · 0x010C — CC BY-SA 4.0 · 0x010C — CC BY-SA 4.0
**Mornings before 10** or **evenings after 5**. The village is very small and takes coach parties that arrive around midday and leave in the late afternoon; in between, the main street is packed and hard to photograph. By season: **May, June, September and October** are far better than July and August, and October in particular is harvest time, when the vineyards turn gold and the village is at work. December is lovely for the Christmas markets but is the most crowded time of all.
There are **regional buses** linking Colmar with the wine-route villages including Riquewihr, the cheapest option, but timetables are thin, especially on holidays and weekends — check the schedule and plan the return before you set out. The commonest alternative is a **half-day organised tour** from Colmar taking in three or four villages with a tasting stop, which is convenient if you only have a day. The third option, for anyone who likes moving: **by bike** — about 11 kilometres on nearly flat ground through the vineyards, and one of the most enjoyable ways to see the area.
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A village still ringed by its complete medieval wall, set among vineyards on the Alsace wine route about eleven kilometres north of Colmar. It is listed among the **most beautiful villages in France**, and deserves it without exaggeration. Riquewihr's secret is that it **survived**. Many wars crossed Alsace, the last being the fighting of 1944–45 that destroyed whole villages in this valley — but Riquewihr came through almost without a scratch. So what you see is not modern reconstruction but the sixteenth-century houses themselves: coloured timber frames, windows of small square panes, stone stairs, inner courtyards, and doorways with dates carved into them five hundred years ago. Its main street climbs from a gate up to the **Thieves' Tower** at the top — a thirteenth-century watchtower that held a cell and a torture chamber, and can be climbed today. The vineyards surround the village on every side and come right up to the last houses. This is a working wine village: families have made Riesling and Gewürztraminer here for generations, and their cellars are open for tasting.
A 13th-century watchtower with its cell.
Original coloured frames with dates carved on the doors.
Families making Riesling for generations; tasting available.
68340 Riquewihr, Haut-Rhin