Sausenburg

En un regard

Le château en bref

Sausenburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle at 665 metres above sea level on the Sausenberg, a wooded height on the south-western edge of the Black Forest, north of Kandern, between Sitzenkirch and Malsburg-Marzell. It was the cradle of the Hachberg-Sausenberg branch of the margraves, who took their name from it before making Rötteln their main residence. Of the former fortress, the most substantial remains are a circular keep about 19 metres high, sections of polygonal curtain wall, the ditch cut around the summit plateau and a few traces of the bailey. The restored keep has been arranged as a viewing point: a staircase leads to its platform, from which the view takes in the Markgräflerland, the Rhine plain and, in the distance, the Vosges and the Jura. The ruin is owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg and is freely accessible. It can be reached on foot in about fifteen minutes from a hiking car park near the village of Vogelbach, or by the paths from Kandern and Sitzenkirch; it also lies on the Westweg, a long-distance trail through the Black Forest. The site is not accessible by wheelchair.