Burgstall Maihingen

The Burgstall Maihingen is an archaeological site in southern Germany. It stands on the Klosterberg near Maihingen in the Donau-Ries district of Swabia. The hilltop was occupied from the Neolithic period through to the late Middle Ages, before quarrying and material removal damaged much of the remains. Excavations led by Ernst Frickhinger in 1921 uncovered traces of settlement from the Altheim phase of the Old Stone Age. Finds such as brooches and coins show continued use during the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods. Remains of fortifications suggest an early medieval expansion, possibly linked to the Hungarian invasions, later enlarged into a high medieval stone castle. The local nobility first appears in written records in 1273 as vassals of the powerful Counts of Oettingen, but they likely left the hilltop by the early 14th century. In 1336 the counts enfeoffed another ministerial family, who took the name Friedrich von Maihingen and held the castle until the early 15th century, when it was abandoned and used as a quarry. The defences follow the steep slopes of the Klosterberg, a wedge of land jutting northwards into the Mauch valley. The plateau, about 40 metres above the river, is now deeply scarred by modern quarries and pits. Only the western and northern ramparts survive; the rest have slipped away or been destroyed. Traces indicate a roughly trapezoidal layout of about 150 by 100 metres. The curtain wall and internal buildings have vanished through stone robbing, leaving faint earthworks and the memory of a once substantial fortification.