Turmhügel Hechenberg

The Turmhügel Hechenberg stands in the village of Hechenberg, part of Dietramszell, in the Bavarian countryside. It was once a small water castle built on an artificial mound surrounded by a moat five to seven metres wide. The lords of Hechenberg probably raised it in the 11th or 12th century, though the first written records date from 1033 and 1045. The castle was destroyed in the 15th century and finally dismantled in the 19th century. A later stone castle, Burg Hechenberg, was built about 200 metres west on a ridge around the 13th century. Today only faint traces of the original earthworks remain, marked as a protected archaeological site. Visitors find a quiet grassy rise where the tower once stood. The site is easy to reach from the village church and offers a view across the rolling foothills of the Alps. There are no buildings left, just the low, rounded mound and the faint line of the old moat. The place gives a sense of how small medieval strongholds once controlled the surrounding land.