Wehrstein Castle

Sulz am Neckar, Germany, Germany

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Wehrstein Castle is the ruin of a medieval hilltop castle located about 480 meters above sea level on a ridge above the small village of Fischingen, a district of Sulz am Neckar in the Rottweil district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, overlooking the beautiful Neckar valley.

According to legend, Charlemagne met his wife Hildegard, a Swabian, at this castle in 752, and the site is first mentioned in 752, though the noble family (Edelfreien) of Wehrstein was first documented around 1100. The castle was the ancestral seat of the Lords of Wehrstein, who presumably died out in 1409 with Benz von Wehrstein, after which the castle changed hands many times, including owners like the Counts of Hohenberg, the Lords of Santach, and the Counts of Württemberg, before coming under Austrian sovereignty from 1381 to 1806 and eventually becoming property of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1806.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was largely destroyed in 1643 by Bavarian troops, later rebuilt, but then mostly demolished around 1830, with major repairs attempted in 1842 to prevent further decay.