Siegburg

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Tübingen

Perched on a rocky spur of the Sommerhalde, the ruin of the Siegburg overlooks a bend of the Neckar in the municipality of Starzach, opposite Sulzau, in the district of Tübingen (Baden-Württemberg). This spur castle is thought to have been built at the beginning of the 11th century by the lords of Siegburg, making it one of the oldest fortified sites in the area. Around 1060, while Berno of Siegburg was on a pilgrimage, his brother Arnold is said to have plundered the fortress. The castle seems to have been abandoned soon afterwards and gradually collapsed; its stones are believed to have been reused to build the nearby Weitenburg castle, to which a legend links it by an underground passage. Today only a section of wall and part of the moat survive, on a trapezoidal platform about 75 metres long. Discreet and wooded, the site will mainly appeal to lovers of castle archaeology and of walks along the Neckar.