Burg Linzenberg

Burg Lenzenberg stands on the Lenzenfelsen, a 790-metre rock outcrop above the hamlet of Neumühle near Beuron in the Sigmaringen district. The spur castle was built in the 12th century, probably by the Counts of Montfort, who later held Sigmaringen. By 1216 a local knight named Algozo of Linzenberg is recorded as their vassal, and in 1228 Albero of Linzenberg appears in the same role. The stronghold was almost certainly destroyed by the great Friaul earthquake of 1348. By 1362 the Lenzenberg lands and the nearby Falkenstein castles had passed to the Lords of Magenbuch, who sold them in 1390 to Heinrich von Bubenhofen. The ruins are divided into a large, roughly horseshoe-shaped outer ward covering about 700 square metres, protected by an 8–12-metre-wide neck ditch on the south-western approach. Behind a second trench at the northern end a massive shield wall, 2.8 metres thick and 19 metres long, once guarded the inner ward. At the highest point of the rock stood a trapezoidal building, probably a keep, measuring 12.5 by up to 7.1 metres; only scattered masonry and isolated quoin stones remain. Scattered hollows and stone blocks suggest further structures once stood here. Visitors walk along the surviving sections of wall and the two ditches that cut across the spur. The north-eastern tip of the inner ward is a levelled rock ledge that serves as a viewing platform. From this point the eye follows the twin ruins of Falkenstein, the Schaufelsen rock with its Schauenburg ruin, the Neidinger Heidenschloss crag, and the distant Burgstall Auchtbühl. The exposed position gives wide views across the Alb plateau and the valley below.