Baldeck Castle ruins

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Allemagne entière

Above the upper Erms valley, on a limestone rock rising to 628 metres, about two kilometres south-west of Wittlingen (Bad Urach), lie the discreet traces of Baldeck, a former rock castle of the Swabian Jura. Its name is thought to come from the Middle High German "baldw", meaning bold or daring, a well-chosen word for an eagle's nest clinging to the cliff. Around 1250, the lesser nobility of the Lords of Baldeck, vassals of the Counts of Urach, established their seat here. As early as 1256, a charter records the siege led by Counts Rudolf of Tübingen, Ulrich of Württemberg and Hartmann of Grüningen. Abandoned at the latest in the first half of the 16th century, the site earned among local people the ominous nickname "Mörderschlössle", the little murderers' castle, and is said to have been razed around 1700 so it could no longer serve as a robbers' hideout. Only a few sections of wall and steps cut into the rock remain, in a spectacular natural setting.