Granegg Castle (Burg Granegg)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Ostalbkreis

On the Graneggle, a rocky spur about 200 metres long facing west at the edge of the Kaltes Feld plateau, at an altitude of 688 metres, the remains of Granegg Castle lie hidden in the woods. Located within Wißgoldingen, in the municipality of Waldstetten, very close to the boundary with the Göppingen district, it watched over the nearby Christental pass. Its rusticated (bossed) stones suggest construction in the 13th century, but neither its builders nor its owners are known with certainty: the lords of Stoffeln or the vom Holtz family, ministeriales of the Rechbergs, have been suggested. The castle seems to have had a short existence and was probably abandoned by the 14th century at the latest; absent from the map of 1572, it is only mentioned as a ruin in 1674. The enclosure, measuring 60 by 22 metres, was cut off by a ditch four metres deep; the circular keep, more than eight metres in diameter with walls 2.5 metres thick, survives only as foundations, its stones having been reused in neighbouring villages. The woodland site can be discovered on a hike.