Schloss Hornberg

Schloss Hornberg stands on a steep rocky spur above the Jagst, a river in Hohenlohe. Built in the 13th century by the Lords of Sulz, it began as a Staufer-era shield-wall castle. After damage in the 16th-century Peasants’ War, the core buildings were rebuilt in early Baroque style. The castle’s strategic position once guarded a ford on the Jagst, a key route between Hall and Rothenburg. It passed through many hands—Hohenlohe, Würzburg bishops, Crailsheim and Hund families—before the Crailsheims became sole owners in 1504. The Crailsheims rebuilt the damaged parts, added a Renaissance west wing and a Baroque staircase tower, and laid out a formal garden in the outer courtyard. Visitors enter over a stone bridge on the south side and pass the tall bergfried built of bossed ashlar. A broad neck ditch separates the castle from the village below. Inside the ring wall lie the restored living quarters, the former great hall, and a walled garden on the spur’s tip. The surviving shield wall and high courtyard walls frame views across the Jagst valley.