Ruine Niedergundelfingen

Münsingen, Germany, Germany

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Ruine Niedergundelfingen is the ruins of a summit castle located on the 653-meter-high Schlossberg, a Umlaufberg (meander hill) of the Große Lauter river 800 meters west of Burg Hohengundelfingen near Gundelfingen, a village in Münsingen, Reutlingen district, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Built around 1080 as the ancestral seat of the noble Lords of Gundelfingen, a high noble family first mentioned in 1105 who played important roles in regional history until their extinction in the 16th century, the castle was expanded around 1250 by knight Swigger IX de Novogundelfing into its current form.

The castle lacks a bergfried (tower), which is unusual for a medieval noble castle, and consists of a nearly rectangular ring wall up to 12 meters high that was surrounded by a lower outer ward wall no longer visible today, with a forecourt (Vorburg) at the entrance where only a few wall remains survive.