Burg Hahnenkamm

The Burg Hahnenkamm stands as the remains of a hilltop castle at 606 metres above sea level, south of Bissingen an der Teck in the district of Esslingen. Built between 1250 and 1280 by the dukes of Teck, it once guarded the larger Teck castle with a ring of smaller forts. The first written record of Hahnenkamm itself appears in 1303, when Duke Hermann II tried to sell it to the House of Habsburg. The deal never went through, and by 1326 the counts of Württemberg took possession, only to pawn the site later. By the 15th century the castle was already abandoned, leaving little more than grassy slopes where walls once stood. Visitors today see only fragments of the 1973 reconstruction of the outer curtain wall. The rest is open ground, but the site still commands wide views across the Swabian Alb. A short climb from the edge of Bissingen brings walkers to the plateau where the keep once rose. The name Hahnenkamm, meaning ‘cock’s comb’, refers to the jagged ridge on which the castle perches. The path is easy and takes less than half an hour from the village centre. From the ruins there are clear sightlines to the Teck massif and the distant towers of Kirchheim. The silence and the wind are the main sounds, broken only by the occasional hiker. The castle’s story is told in a few information boards near the entrance to the plateau.