Hunawihr

Hunawihr boasts a much-photographed fortified church sitting on a little hill among the vineyards beside the village and the Center for the Reintroduction of Storks. Just a few years ago the roofs of the picture-book villages of Alsace were topped with shaggy storks’ nests. Alas, in recent years fewer and fewer storks have returned from their winter migration to Africa and the center is dedicated to their reintroduction into the area. Concentrated within the boundary of the park are seemingly hundreds of the birds who build their nests on the multitude of frameworks provided. Storks born in the park are protected and kept until the age of three to establish the instinct of the park being a migratory base to which to return, season after season. It is wonderful that the storks are returning in greater numbers each season and it is truly captivating to travel the region and look up to see the nests and pairs of large white, long-legged birds atop many of the region’s rooftops.