Burg Rotwasserstelz

Burg Rotwasserstelz stands on a 343-metre-high coral-reef rock in the village of Hohentengen am Rhein, overlooking the Swiss town of Kaiserstuhl. The fortress was built in the 12th century by the von Wasserstelz family and first mentioned in 1163. A Ludwig von Rötteln appears in records in 1185 as a retainer of the Zähringen dukes. By 1362 the Habsburgs had installed Hans von Rötteln as their vassal. In 1294 the Hochstift Konstanz bought the lordship and expanded the castle, giving it its present form in 1787. The castle served as the seat of the Obervogt for the Herrschaft Kaiserstuhl, which included Kaiserstuhl, Lienheim, Hohentengen, Herdern, Weisswasserstelz, Schwarzwasserstelz, Fisibach and Weiach. Konrad IV. Heggenzer von Wasserstelz became Obervogt here in 1507. After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1801 the estate passed to Baden, and the last Obervogt, Geheimrat von Würz, left in 1823 when the property was sold. The tower, customs house, barn, stable, rock cellar and the red cottage once belonged to the site, together with meadows and arable land. A late-Gothic St. Antonius chapel stands 100 metres east of the castle walls. Nearby are the ruins of Burg Weisswasserstelz and, in the Rhine, the remains of Schwarzwasserstelz where a Second World War bunker now stands on the rock. The Rhine bridge at the castle dates back to 1294, with later reconstructions in timber, stone and iron after fires and floods.