Hunawihr travel guide

Hunawihr is a village of about 600 people on the Alsace wine route, between Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé. It is on the list of the Most Beautiful Villages of France, and it has the one thing its famous neighbours do not: almost nobody in it.

Two kilometres from Riquewihr, and a completely different experience.

The fortified church

The church of Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur stands alone on a rise above the village, inside a hexagonal defensive wall with six bastions, entirely surrounded by vineyards. It is the image of Hunawihr and one of the most photographed buildings in Alsace, and it is quite unlike a normal parish church: the wall is a real fortification, built in the sixteenth century so the village could shut itself in.

The tower is fourteenth-century. Inside are wall paintings from around 1500 showing the life of Saint Nicholas, uncovered in the 1930s under later plaster.

The church is simultaneum — shared between Catholics and Protestants since 1687, the Catholics in the choir and the Protestants in the nave. Alsace has a few of these arrangements left; they are a direct inheritance of Louis XIV’s settlement after the region became French.

The walk up from the village takes five minutes and the churchyard is open.

The village

One long street of winegrowers’ houses, courtyards with the press still in them, geraniums, and a fountain named after Saint Huna — the noblewoman who, the legend says, washed the villagers’ clothes with her own hands and gave the place its name. Her spring is still there.

There is not a great deal else, and that is rather the point. Twenty minutes covers the village; you come for the church, the vines and the quiet.

The wine

Hunawihr has the Rosacker grand cru on the slope above — limestone and dolomite, and the source of one of the most celebrated Alsatian Rieslings, Trimbach’s Clos Sainte-Hune, which comes from a walled parcel of a little over one hectare inside it.

Several growers in the village take visitors without an appointment. The marked vineyard path runs from the church out through the Rosacker.

The butterfly and stork centres

Two attractions sit at the edge of the village and both are aimed at families:

• Centre de Réintroduction des Cigognes et des Loutres — the stork reintroduction centre. Alsatian storks had collapsed to a handful of pairs by the 1970s; this centre was central to bringing them back, and there are now hundreds across the region. Also otters, and a fishing display.
• Jardin des Papillons — a tropical greenhouse of live butterflies, open spring to autumn.

Getting to Hunawihr

• By car — on the wine route between Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé, 15 km from Colmar. Parking is easy, which cannot be said of the neighbours. See parking in France.
• On foot — the vineyard path from Riquewihr takes about 40 minutes and is the best way to arrive.
• By bus — services from Colmar and Ribeauvillé, sparse. Check the return.

Around Hunawihr

• Riquewihr — 2 km, and the reason most people are in the area
• Ribeauvillé — 3 km, with three ruined castles above it and the Pfifferdaj festival in September
• Zellenberg — the next village on the ridge, with a view down both sides
• Kaysersberg — 12 km south
• Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg — 20 minutes north

When to go

The church in low sun, morning or evening, with the vines around it — that is what you came for, and it works best in September and October when the leaves turn. Spring is green and quiet. Even in high season Hunawihr stays calm while Riquewihr two kilometres away is solid with people.

See Alsace and the cooking of Alsace.

Photo credits

Photographs on this page come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences:

• The fortified church — Rolf Kranz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• The village below the church — Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• The church among the vines — Psu973, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Weather in Hunawihr

Updated: 4 September 2026