Kleinsteinbach Castle Ruins

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Karlsruhe

East of Kleinsteinbach, a district of Pfinztal in the Karlsruhe district, the Schösslebuckel hill (175.6 m) carries the remains of a small medieval hilltop castle. It was built around 1100 as a tower castle: its core was a keep that also served as a dwelling, on a square plan of about 10.5 m per side. The natural terrain did much of the defensive work. On the valley side a steep slope protected the site. On the side of the ridge spur, where an attacker could approach on level ground, three successive ditches cut the hill off from the plateau. The builders are not known for certain, but the castle is thought to have belonged to the lords of Remchingen, a noble family of the Pfinz and Enz area. It was destroyed in the 14th century and never rebuilt. Today little survives apart from traces of the tower and the earthworks of the ditches, which are still visible in the woodland above the Pfinz valley.