Burg Rusbühl

The Burg Rusbühl stands on a narrow ridge above the Zeller See in the Schiener Berg, part of the Höri peninsula on Lake Constance. The ridge slopes steeply to the lake on one side and to the valley of the Bankholzer Dorfbach on the other. A marked footpath follows the ridge from the water reservoir in Bankholzen, passing directly over the former castle site. The castle was probably built in the 11th or 12th century by the lords of Bankholzen or their ministerial relatives from Constance. It served as the predecessor to the nearby Schlossbühl castle. Today only a small oval plateau, 44 by 23 metres, remains, surrounded by a ring ditch that is deeper on the landward side. Visitors walk along the ridge path and see the shallow remains of the ditches and a small rectangular depression on the plateau. An information board at the highest point mistakenly calls the site a Celtic hillfort, but archaeologists recognise it as a modest early medieval castle. No visible stonework survives, showing how small and lightly built the original structure must have been.