Toppler Castle

The Topplerschlösschen is a small late-medieval residential tower beside the Tauber valley near Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It stands on a circular stone base only 5.4 m across, topped by two overhanging timber-framed storeys under a steep roof. Once surrounded by a moat 55 m wide fed by a spring, the site now shows the dry pond and a 16th-century stone bridge that replaced the original drawbridge. Heinrich Toppler, Rothenburg’s most influential mayor, built the little water-castle between 1388 and 1390 as both a summer house and a safeguard for the valley’s mills. After his downfall in 1408 the town took it over, and later owners included several Rothenburg families before the Boas family acquired it in 1861. The building remains fully furnished with pieces from the 16th to the 19th century, offering a clear picture of late-medieval and early-modern domestic life. Visitors find two timber-framed upper floors, a walled forecourt, an 18th-century dwelling house, a well and an outbuilding. The interior shows everyday rooms arranged around a central chimney, while outside the old moat and the stone bridge recall the site’s original defences. The whole ensemble survives almost unchanged since the late 14th century.