Wolfartsweier Castle Ruin

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Karlsruhe

In the forest above Wolfartsweier, a south-eastern district of Karlsruhe, a few stretches of masonry mark the site of a former hilltop castle, now reduced to a Burgstall. Standing at about 240 metres above sea level, it was probably a tower castle whose core covered only some fourteen square metres and was protected by a moat. Tradition holds that a Roman watchtower first stood here, though this is unproven. In the 15th century the last known owner was the knight Bleich von Waldeck, a vassal of the Margraves of Baden. Until 1973 a wall about 1.5 metres high, the foundations of the core castle and the moat survived; that year the city forestry office levelled the remains, filled the moat and built a playground and a hikers' hut in their place. Since 2009 the Wolfartsweier local history society has been uncovering parts of the structures again, making this modest medieval relic in the heart of the forest legible once more.