Burgruine Riegelstein

The Burgruine Riegelstein stands on a wooded ridge in the Fränkische Schweiz, a limestone plateau north-east of Nuremberg. The ruins sit on a narrow crest 589 metres above sea level, reached by a footpath that leaves the village of Riegelstein and climbs through beech woods. The path ends at a shallow neck ditch that once divided the upper and lower baileys, now overgrown with ferns and moss. The site is worth the journey for anyone interested in medieval fortification. The Burgstall was built around 1200 by an unknown noble house and later held by the Türriegel family, who made it their seat in 1403. In 1502 two-thirds of the castle was pledged to the Margrave of Bayreuth, and after the family died out in 1619 the fortress was demolished by Bavarian troops in 1642. The remaining rock outcrop still shows the outline of a keep and curtain wall. Visitors find a quiet clearing on the summit. A narrow rock ledge marks the former keep platform, while below it the lower bailey retains fragments of a two-metre-thick ring wall and the round base of a cistern. A second, crescent-shaped ditch once acted as a zwinger, its edges softened by centuries of leaf-fall. The whole ridge is now a nature spot where climbers test their fingers on the weathered limestone.