Alt-Lichtenstein Castle ruins

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Allemagne entière

Perched on a rocky spur of the Swabian Alb escarpment at around 800 metres, the ruins of Alt-Lichtenstein overlook the Echaz valley and the village of Honau, about 500 metres south-east of the famous neo-Gothic Lichtenstein Castle. Built in the second half of the 12th century, probably under Gebhard von Lichtenstein, it was the first seat of the Lichtenstein family. Troops from the Imperial City of Reutlingen destroyed it in 1311 and again during the Swabian War of Cities (1377-1381). It passed to Württemberg in 1389 as a ruined estate and was never rebuilt; a new castle rose around 1390 on the neighbouring rock. Excavated in the 1990s, the remains reveal an enclosure of roughly 30 by 55 metres with an outer bailey, rock-cut ditches, a shield wall over 4 metres thick, a cistern and steps carved into the stone.