Gechingen Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Calw

Burg Gechingen, also called Burgstadel or the castle in the Riedhalde, is a former hilltop castle of which only the site survives, near Gechingen in the district of Calw, Baden-Württemberg, close to the boundary with the neighbouring village of Deufringen. It was built in the 12th century by the lords of Gechingen, its construction being attributed to Marquard von Gechingen. The castle was probably destroyed as early as the 13th century, but its ruins long remained in place. After the great fire that struck the village in 1881, the inhabitants reused the remaining serviceable stones to rebuild the burnt houses, erasing almost all trace of masonry. Today the site shows only a rubble mound at the centre of the former enclosure and defensive ditches still clearly visible in the ground. This discreet castle site recalls the presence of the local lesser nobility on the region's heights in the Middle Ages.