Winken Castle

Burgstall Winken stands on a hillside terrace 625 metres above sea level above the Hirschbach stream near Röthardt, part of Aalen in the Ostalbkreis. The site was once a medieval hilltop castle built by the Lords of Winken, who later became citizens of Aalen. No written records of the castle survive, but the family appears in local documents from the 15th century. Ulrich of Winkenthal served as provost of Backnang’s Augustinian monastery between 1413 and 1420. The castle was divided into a main ward and a smaller outer ward, each protected by deep ditches cut into the slope. The outer ward measures thirty by forty-five metres and is separated from the hillside by a straight ditch and a low bank. A second, angular ditch three to four metres deep once guarded the main ward, which is thirty-three by forty metres in size. The ditch runs west to east, turns north after forty metres, and ends at the hillside. Spoil heaps at both ends show where soil was dug out. A possible entrance once stood at the south-west corner of the main ward, where a terrace may have been a courtyard. Today the only visible traces are a spoil mound on the eastern edge and a seven-by-nine-metre hollow three and a half metres deep in the north-west corner. A smaller terrace on the northern side could mark the site of a defensive enclosure called a zwinger. The site offers quiet walks among grass and young trees, with views across the valley to Aalen and the surrounding hills.