Pfannenstiel Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Pfannenstiel Castle occupy a wooded ridge at an altitude of around 800 metres. They overlook the Bära valley shortly before the river joins the Danube, above the Reinfelder Hof, within the municipal area of Beuron. The site lies in the Upper Danube Nature Park (Naturpark Obere Donau), a region of limestone cliffs where medieval castles are numerous. It is a hilltop castle divided into two parts. A triangular bailey, now almost obscured by vegetation, precedes a cut ditch that isolates it from the main castle. The latter was organised around an imposing residential tower, built on a rock and also serving as a shield wall facing the exposed side. Below lay a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. The most visible part of the remains is the stump of this tower: its walls reach about 2.5 metres in thickness and still rise up to some 5.5 metres. The castle was probably built in the second half of the 13th century and appears to have been abandoned around 1400. It subsequently passed through the hands of several noble families, then to Beuron Abbey, before returning to the princely house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. A local legend attributes its end to a fire caused by lightning. The remains are modest and heavily overgrown, but the site's commanding position above the valley attracts walkers.