En un regard
Le château en bref
Fürstenstein is the site of a small, abandoned hilltop castle in the municipality of Rietheim-Weilheim, in the Tuttlingen district, on the steep western edge of the Allmend plateau, at about 877 m above sea level and some 200 m above the valley of the Faulenbach. Its name is thought to refer to its position as the "most projecting rock". Neither the founder nor the date of construction is known: the castellologist Günter Schmitt places it in the 11th or 12th century, while the archaeologist Hans-Wilhelm Heine dates it to the 12th–13th centuries. Older literature regarded it as the seat of a branch of the lords of Hirschberg/Konzenberg; a Konzenberg urbar presents it as the seat of a family of minor nobility. The most likely owner is Bertholdus de Vuristinstein, mentioned in 1211, brother of Abbot Heinrich of Reichenau, who came from the Hohenkarpfen family. It was a castle of a single part, of which little now survives: a masonry core on the highest point, a cavity cut into the rock and an artificial ditch. Since 2017, an illuminated summit cross has stood near the site and offers an extensive view over the valley.