Steinegg Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Enzkreis

Above the village of Steinegg, part of Neuhausen in the Enzkreis, Steinegg Castle traces its origins to Adalbert von Steinegg, a ministerial of the Counts of Calw mentioned around 1150, who raised a first hilltop castle of which only foundations remain. In 1407 the lordship was sold to Diether V. von Gemmingen; his son built a new castle below the old one, which became the administrative seat of the lordship, a fief of the Margraves of Baden. A chapel was added in 1520 and Hans Pleikard von Gemmingen enlarged the residence in Renaissance style at the end of the 16th century. Spared by the Thirty Years' War, it burned in 1694 and was rebuilt the following year. After 1840 its roofs were removed and it fell into ruin, before St. Clair von Gemmingen-Steinegg campaigned from 1928 for its rescue. Since 1958 the Protestant parish of Pforzheim has run it as a youth and leisure centre.