Turckheim travel guide

Turckheim is a walled wine town 6 km west of Colmar, at the mouth of the Munster valley on the Alsace wine route. It has three medieval gates still standing, a serious grand cru on the slope above it, and — the thing that makes it different from every other village on the route — a night watchman who still does his rounds.

It also has a railway station, which on this route is close to a luxury.

The night watchman

From May to October, every evening at ten, the veilleur de nuit walks out of the Porte de France in a tricorne and cloak with a lantern, a horn and a halberd, and sings his call at each corner of the town — telling people to bank their fires and go to bed. It has been done here since the Middle Ages, and it was revived rather than invented for tourists.

It takes about half an hour, it is free, and anyone can follow him. This is the reason to stay the night in Turckheim rather than pass through.

The three gates

The town keeps its complete triangular plan with a gate at each corner:

• Porte de France — the largest, with the storks’ nest on top and a fresco of the town’s history
• Porte de Munster — facing the valley
• Porte du Brand — facing the vineyard that gives the grand cru its name

The town

Inside the walls: the Place Turenne with the eighteenth-century town hall, the Corps de Garde with its Renaissance gallery, a fountain, and streets of timber-framed winegrowers’ houses with dates carved over the doors. It is compact — an hour covers it — and noticeably less crowded than Riquewihr or Kaysersberg.

The name on the square is Turenne: the marshal won a winter battle here in January 1675 that kept Alsace French, and the town has not forgotten it.

The wine

Turckheim’s grand cru is the Brand — the name means “burnt”, for how the granite holds the heat — and it is one of the most respected sites in Alsace, planted mainly to Riesling and Gewurztraminer on a steep south-facing slope right above the town.

The Cave de Turckheim, the growers’ cooperative, is one of the better ones in the region and takes visitors without an appointment; several independent domaines are in the town itself. There is a marked sentier viticole up through the Brand — an hour round, with interpretation panels and the whole plain of Alsace behind you.

Getting to Turckheim

• By train — on the Colmar–Metzeral line up the Munster valley, about 8 minutes from Colmar, with regular services. The station is beside the walls. This makes Turckheim one of the very few wine-route towns you can do without a car.
• By bus — services from Colmar.
• By car — 10 minutes from Colmar. Park outside the gates; the centre is tight. See parking in France.

Around Turckheim

• Niedermorschwihr — 2 km, tiny, with a twisted church spire
• The Munster valley — up into the Vosges behind the town, with the cheese, the mountain farms and the ridge road
• Kaysersberg — 8 km north
• Eguisheim — 10 km south
• Colmar — 6 km, and the base for the region

When to go

May to October, so that the night watchman is doing his rounds. September and October add the harvest. The Christmas market is small and pleasant. Turckheim is one of the few places on the route where the evening is better than the day — most visitors have gone back to Colmar by six.

See Alsace and the cooking of Alsace.

Weather in Turckheim

Updated: 4 September 2026