Wiesneck Castle Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Wiesneck Castle stand at an altitude of about 537 m above the hamlet of the same name, which belongs to the municipality of Buchenbach, at the entrance to the Dreisam valley and the Zarten basin, east of Freiburg im Breisgau. First documented in 1079, when Berthold II seized it while conquering the Breisgau, the castle belonged at the end of the 11th century to the counts of Haigerloch: in 1096, Count Adalbert took his name from it, and the Haigerloch-Wiesneck line is linked to the founding of the nearby St. Märgen Abbey. Destroyed and then rebuilt by the Zähringen around 1121, it passed to the counts of Hohenberg, who in 1290 placed it under the overlordship of the King of Bohemia before selling it in 1293 to Burkhard Turner, a citizen of Freiburg. The lordship then had many holders, including the Schnewlin von Landeck family and, from 1577, the barons of Sickingen-Hohenburg. Ravaged during the German Peasants' War and then partially restored, it was ruined by the French during the Thirty Years' War and thereafter served as a quarry. It was among the most extensive castle complexes in the region. The lower bailey, the main courtyard and the site of the seigneurial residence can still be made out, along with remains of a tower and the entrance area, which are reached by a path from the Wiesneck Pass.