Upper Diepoldsburg

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Allemagne entière

Perched at around 780 metres on a wooded rocky spur on the northern edge of the Swabian Jura, the Obere Diepoldsburg overlooks the Lauter valley in the municipality of Lenningen. Together with its neighbour, the Untere Diepoldsburg known as "Rauber", it forms a remarkable pair of castles set on the same ridge. Probably built in the early 13th century by free nobles, among whom Ulrich de Diepoltsburc is recorded around 1210-1215, the fortress later passed to the Dukes of Teck and then to the Counts of Württemberg. The upper castle, some 165 metres long, was divided by a network of rock-cut ditches into several terraces: a core of about 38 by 22 metres at the highest point, defended by a shield wall facing the plateau, and two outer baileys. Apparently abandoned around 1400, it now retains only its ditches and fragments of masonry, but the freely accessible walk along the ridge offers a fine reading of medieval fortification on the Albtrauf.