En un regard
Le château en bref
The Heidenschloss of Neidingen is a vanished castle in the upper Danube valley, sometimes identified with the Jagberg castle of the lords of Ramsberg. It lies about 500 metres north-west of the hamlet of Neidingen, in the municipality of Beuron, in the district of Sigmaringen. At around 758 metres above sea level, the site occupies a sloping spur bordered by limestone cliffs that overlooks a side gorge of the valley. The popular name ‘castle of the heathens’, often given in southern Germany to ruins whose history has been forgotten, reflects the fact that neither the original name nor the builders are known. Surface sherds suggest a foundation in the first half of the twelfth century; rusticated stonework points to an enlargement in the thirteenth century, and abandonment is dated to around 1300–1350. The terraced layout remains legible: a broad ditch cuts across the spur, a thick rampart precedes a second ditch, and the upper platform probably carried a residential tower. A fan-shaped lower bailey extends along the cliff edge. Heavily eroded and largely buried, these remains belong to the dense constellation of castles in the Upper Danube Nature Park.
