Burgruine Hellmath

En un regard

Le château en bref

South-west of Öhringen, in the Löwenstein Hills, the ruin of Hellmat crowns the Schloßbuckel at around 350 metres above sea level, a wooded spur of the Heimberg overlooking the village of Unterheimbach, now a district of Bretzfeld. This hilltop castle was probably built in the thirteenth century for the lords of Heimberg, recorded from 1253. It then passed through several hands, from the Löwenstein of the Calw line to the lords of Maienfels and then of Weiler, before a share fell to the Hohenlohe; it seems to have been destroyed after 1344. The site, some fifty metres in diameter, was artificially levelled and is still surrounded by a deep neck ditch to the south-west and by ring ditches elsewhere. The most telling remain is the base of the keep, about 1.80 metres high, whose inner rubble core laid in herringbone pattern (opus spicatum) is a rarity in castle architecture. According to tradition, the church of Unterheimbach, rebuilt in 1757, reused some of its stones. The ruin, in the forest, can be reached by hiking trails.