Stufenburg

The Stufenburg stands on the long ridge of the Stiefenberg, 396 metres above Baunach in the Haßberge hills. The hill rises in clear steps towards the 400-metre mark, giving the site its name. The remains lie two kilometres northwest of Godelhof, a district of Baunach. The summit once held a small rectangular core castle protected by a shallow eastern ditch. A much deeper inner ditch and three outer ramparts ran along the western slope, designed to keep mounted archers at bay. Historians link the western earthworks to early medieval defences built in the 10th century. Karl Krimm argued that the same pattern appears near Kemmern and at Baunach itself, where a presumed refuge later became a moated castle. Georg Lehnes saw the Stufenburg, Baunach and Taschendorf as a chain of frontier forts against Slav raids. The bishops of Bamberg took over in 1397 and ran the Stufenberg estate until 1803. During the Peasants’ War of 1525 insurgents burned parts of the castle before fleeing from advancing troops. Today the plateau shows low sandstone foundations and deep ditches cut into the slope. Two to three metres below the surface lie further trenches and ramparts, their gravel still visible. On the western edge a small quarry marks where builders once dug for stone. A second, smaller fortification lies 1 500 metres west of the main site. The view stretches over the wooded Haßberge ridges towards the valley of the Baunach.