Rabeneck Castle ruins (Pforzheim)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Pforzheim

In the Dillweißenstein district of Pforzheim, the Rabeneck ruin preserves the remains of a castle built around 1240 by the Lords of Weißenstein, who lived there until 1295. Until 1835 it was simply called Burg Weißenstein; the name Rabeneck, unrelated to the Franconian castle of the same name, only took hold later. Held as a fief of the Margraves of Baden, it passed after 1444 to the Lords of Kaltental, Ehingen and Neuhausen, then to Martin von Remchingen. From 1649 a townsman used it as a stone quarry, until the Baden state bought the remains in 1855 and halted the demolition. The small trapezoidal enclosure still shows parts of the shield wall, the residential hall and the northern outer wall. Converted into a youth hostel in 1958–1959, the site received a new building in 1995–1996 that incorporates a rediscovered vaulted cellar.