Frauenberg Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Allemagne entière

On the hill above the Feuerbach valley in northern Stuttgart, a small enclosure protects all that is left of Frauenberg Castle: the massive base of its central tower, with walls 3 to 3.8 metres thick. It was built in the Staufer period, around 1220 to 1250, as mason's marks on its rusticated stones show. The castle controlled a trade route through the valley. Around 1390, the tower's small chamber was used as a prison for Cologne merchants captured by the robber knights Wilhelm and Peter von Helmstatt. The castle was later shared among several families and passed wholly to Württemberg in 1481. It was demolished in the early 16th century, and its stones went mainly into the Stuttgart city wall. The remains were rediscovered during building work in 1971 and secured in 1973 at the end of An der Burg street.