Untere Burg Hardheim

Hardheim, Germany, Germany

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Untere Burg Hardheim (also called Niederes Schloss or Lower Castle Hardheim) was a medieval lowland castle in Hardheim, a town in the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and today only its imposing square tower, known as the "Steinerne Turm" (Stone Tower), remains.

The tower was built around 1200 and stands 30 meters tall with a width of 6.4 meters and wall thickness of 2.1 meters, making it one of the tallest buildings in the town. The castle was first mentioned in written records in 1323 when it was owned by the Herren von Hardheim noble family as a Wertheim fief, while the nearby Obere Burg (Upper Castle) was a Mainz fief.

The lower castle served as the ancestral seat of one lineage of the von Hardheim family but suffered destruction in 1344 and was largely destroyed in 1444 after Würzburg troops stormed it in retaliation for the Horneck von Hornberg's raids using the castle as a refuge. By 1595 the castle was described as an old, ruined, desolate building, and in 1607 the von Hardheim noble line died out.