Kocherburg

The Kocherburg is a ruined hilltop castle near Unterkochen, a district of Aalen in the Ostalbkreis of Baden-Württemberg. It stands on a broad plateau called Schlossbaufeld, about 572 metres above sea level, between the headwaters of the Weisser Kocher and its tributary the Häselbach. The site rises roughly 80 metres above the Häselbach-Stadion below. Bronze- and Hallstatt-period ramparts cross the plateau’s western edge, showing earlier defences reused in the 11th century when the medieval castle was built. The castle first appears in records in 1136 with the Lords of Kochen, who probably lived here as ministeriales of the Counts of Dillingen or Ellwangen Abbey. By the 13th century it served Ellwangen as an administrative centre for the upper Kocher valley. After a dispute with the Counts of Oettingen, the abbey regained control and installed its own vogt, who lived here until the 15th century. In 1627–32 Fürstpropst Johann Jakob Blarer von Wartensee commissioned a Renaissance palace designed by Hans Alberthal, but it was burned by the Swedes in 1645. Stone was later taken for an Amtshaus and for Unterkochen’s new parish church. Since 1813 the ruins have been hidden in dense beech woodland. Visitors follow an archaeological trail that winds through the site’s three main phases. The medieval core is marked by a surviving south wall of buckelquader masonry and traces of a three- or four-winged complex around a courtyard. A rock-cut neck ditch, now a forest track, and the partly standing shield wall defended the eastern approach. A lower outer ward west of the main plateau is reached by the old Burgweg from the valley, passing a round tower and the inner gate into the inner ward. Recent work by the Ruine Kocherburg initiative has exposed a 12-metre stretch of shield wall and stabilised further sections, while 3-D reconstructions reveal how the Renaissance palace would have looked.