Lauterburg Castle ruins (Ruine Lauterburg)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Ostalbkreis

Perched above the village of Lauterburg, part of Essingen, the ruins of Lauterburg occupy a spur of the Albuch, on the north-eastern edge of the Swabian Jura, with views towards the Rems valley. The castle is said to have been built around 1100 by the counts palatine of Dillingen: in 1128 Count Albert styled himself "Albertus palatinus Luterburch" there. It then passed to the Hohenstaufen, to the Haken of Wöllstein, to the counts of Oettingen, and then to Württemberg by pledge. From the 15th century the von Woellwarth family made it the centre of their lordship: Rennwart enlarged it and then bought it around 1479, and in 1594 Georg Wolf replaced the medieval upper bailey with a three-storey Renaissance palace. A fire devastated it in 1732; the owners left for Neubronn and the building was subsequently used as a quarry, notably after the village fire of 1842. Consolidated in 1928 and again from 1968 to 1974, the ruin retains substantial curtain walls and an outer bailey measuring 75 by 25 metres, still partly inhabited. The upper bailey remains closed to the public because of the risk of collapse.