Weilerburg

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Tübingen

Perched at 555 metres on the Rotenberg, an outlier hill extending the Rammert massif, the Weilerburg overlooks the district of Weiler and the town of Rottenburg am Neckar. This hilltop castle, formerly called Rotenburg, appears in records in 1225, though it is probably older. Having passed to the Counts of Hohenberg, it is said to be where Gertrude of Hohenberg, the future Queen Anne of Habsburg, grew up. The Hohenbergs sold it to the Habsburgs in 1381. Damaged in 1407 during a raid by Count Frederick XII of Zollern, it was dismantled in 1624 and its stones were used for the Capuchin friary in Ehingen. In 1873-1874, a local history society had the gate and a 24-metre tower rebuilt, conceived as a romantic monument. Owned by the town since 1974, the site is maintained by the local Alpine Club; the tower, open in summer, offers a wide panorama reaching the edge of the Swabian Alb.