Schloss Kalteneck

Schloss Kalteneck is a small water castle on an island in a spring-fed pond near Schwenningen in Swabia. The first written mention of the name, ‘Kaltenegk’, dates from 1425 and refers to the cold east winds that blow around the corner in winter. The castle and its surrounding moat are protected as a historic monument, while the water castle and both banks form a registered natural monument. The castle was built about 1570 by Kaspar Schenk zum Schenkenstein, a knight who held sway over Bissingen in the Kess valley. Its oak-trunk foundations were driven into the gravel bed of the pond, and over the centuries it passed through many noble hands. In 1830 a tavern opened in the castle, serving beer from the nearby private brewery built by the then owner, Baron Franz Xaver von Linder. The brewery closed in 1982, but the castle remains in the hands of the original brewmaster’s descendants. The three-storey Renaissance building has a pitched roof, two corner oriels at the west gable and a third at the south-east corner. A round turret projects from the west gable above the ridge, flanked by small windows and plain pilasters. A wooden bridge crosses the moat to the entrance, and on the east side a six-storey square stair turret rises, its upper stages chamfered to an octagon and capped by a six-sided pyramid roof. The moat, banks and building together form a protected natural site.