Burg Altwildenstein, Donautal

Burg Altwildenstein stands as a medieval ruin on a narrow rock needle high above the Danube valley near Leibertingen. It belongs to a group of castles including Wildenstein, Unterwildenstein and the Hexenturm. The site sits about thirty metres below its larger neighbour Wildenstein at roughly 780 metres above sea level. The castle’s origins reach back to the twelfth century, possibly founded by two Wildenstein brothers first recorded between 1168 and 1174. Buckelquader masonry shows a thirteenth-century rebuilding phase before the line died out in 1263. By 1300 the place had already been abandoned, leaving only sparse traces of its brief life. Visitors follow a narrow ledge to the small upper ward where a rectangular stone tower once stood. A shallow ditch separates this core from the lower ward below, where faint wall lines mark where stables and a forecourt once stood. On the east side a tall retaining wall of rough stones still rises, and at the south-east corner a two-metre-high remnant preserves the original quader facing. Beneath the tower a shallow hollow may once have held a cistern, its lime-mortar lining still hinting at waterproof work.