Mandach Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruin of Mandach, also known as Burg Weiler, lies hidden on a rocky spur overlooking the valley of the Mettma, in the municipality of Ühlingen-Birkendorf, in the heart of the Hotzenwald and the southern Black Forest. The site lies near Riedern am Wald and Berau, along a walking trail that follows the stream; the remains, overgrown with trees, are easily overlooked. The castle, a spur castle that appeared in the fourteenth century, had a fairly eventful manorial history for such a modest site. After the probable lords of Ühlingen, it is associated with the Mandach family, originating from the Zurich region, and then with the lords of Erzingen until their extinction around 1501. It then passed to the junker Lukas von Reischach, who ceded it to St Blasien Abbey, which had it administered by bailiffs. The visible remains are limited to sections of walls amid the vegetation: the foundations of a circular corner tower, the piers of a bridge, possibly a drawbridge, and part of the southern curtain wall. The granite base at the cliff edge caused masonry to slide down the slope. It can be reached on foot by a hiking loop of about ten kilometres starting from Berau.