Straubenhardt Castle Ruins

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Enzkreis

Set on a wooded spur above the Enz valley south of Pforzheim, the remains of Straubenhardt Castle lie within Dennach, a district of Neuenbürg in the Enzkreis. The lords of Straubenhardt appear as early as 1090 in the records of Hirsau Abbey, and again in 1148 at the founding of Herrenalb Abbey. The castle later became a Ganerbenburg, shared with the lords of Schmalenstein, their in-laws. This alliance drew it into the conflicts of the Martinsvögel knightly league, which in 1367 tried to seize Count Eberhard II of Württemberg near Wildbad; the fortress was subsequently captured and destroyed in the late 14th century. Surviving on site are a deep angled ditch partly cut into the rock, remains of a shield wall and the base of the keep, along with a field of rusticated blocks. Freely accessible, the site gave its name to the neighbouring municipality of Straubenhardt, created in 1973.