Hielock Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Allemagne entière

East of the village of Mägerkingen, on a spur about fifty metres above the Seckach valley, lies the site of Hielock Castle, a small fortress of the Swabian Jura. It was probably built in the early 12th century by Milo and Heinrich of Mägerkingen, ministerials of the Counts of Gammertingen who are recorded before 1138. Today only a platform of about 10 by 22 metres remains, surrounded by a curved ditch and an earth rampart. It holds the metre-thick foundations of a rectangular residential tower, uncovered by Professor Votteler in 1890. The castle was probably abandoned around 1362. It was later pledged to the lords of Rechberg, then held by the Counts of Werdenberg, before passing to the town of Trochtelfingen. A legend tells of the proud last lord, Roßmann, and his daughter, who starved in the ruins. Bronze Age and Hallstatt sherds show the spur was occupied long before the Middle Ages.