Schönenberg Castle Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Schönenberg stand on the rocky ridge that overlooks, to the south, the village of Burg im Leimental, on the French border. Built around 1230 by the counts of Ferrette, the castle was granted in fief to their seneschals, one of whom, Werner, is the first to call himself "de Schönenberg" in a deed of 1239. In 1271, when the counts handed over their domain to the Bishop of Basel, the castrum Schonenberc was expressly excluded from it: this is its first mention. This vast fortress, some 160 metres long and divided by five ditches, comprised an outer work to the west, a large lower bailey with a cistern cut into the rock and, to the east, the main core protected by the two deepest ditches; a keep probably occupied the highest point. It was built beside the much older Alt-Biederthal, at roughly the same time as Neu-Biederthal. The Schönenbergs served both the Habsburgs and the bishop. The Basel earthquake of 1356 probably damaged the castle so severely that it was abandoned. Overgrown with vegetation, the ruin remains freely accessible.