Hertenstein Castle

Hertenstein Castle stands on a steep hill above where the Billingsbach and Rötelbach streams meet. It is a ruined spur castle about 900 metres southwest of Billingsbach, a village in the municipality of Blaufelden. The hill rises to 442 metres and is covered by dense woodland. An 80-metre-long artificial moat once protected the main approach from the north-east. The moat is between five and six metres deep and leads to the remains of an outer ward and a lower inner ward.

The castle was built in the early 13th century but first appears in records only in 1314. At that time Eberhard von Hertenstein, lord of Billingsbach and vassal of the counts of Hohenlohe, was named in a charter. By the late 14th century the House of Billingsbach had died out and the castle returned to Hohenlohe control. A map from 1578 already shows it as a ruin. Excavations in 1948 and 1950 found medieval and 16th-century pottery, suggesting the site remained in use into the early modern period.

Today nothing of the castle walls remains above ground. The moat is the clearest visible feature, cutting across the hillside. Inside the inner ward a flat triangular area marks where the keep once stood. The keep’s remains form a mound up to five metres high with an eight-metre diameter. A historic trading route from Künzelsau to Rothenburg passed nearby, and the castle once guarded this crossing to protect travellers.