Ruine Wenzelstein

The Wenzelstein ruin stands on a sheer rock outcrop 951 metres above sea level in the Swabian Alb. It is the last trace of a high-medieval hilltop castle built before the 12th century by the lords of Winzeln. The site overlooks the Lochenstein ridge and lies within the village limits of Hausen am Tann. The castle was abandoned for living quarters around 1200, yet its owners appear in 11th-century charters witnessing monastic foundations. By 1253 the Winzeln estate controlled villages as far as Meßstetten and Tieringen. The Zollern counts held property here by 1300, and in 1345 the Tierberg knights acquired rights in the area. A side-branch of the Digisheim family later took the name Winzeln. Visitors walk along the open northern slope where a ditch and rampart once guarded the approach. The steep rock faces protect the other three sides. Remains of a citadel show low walls and a three-metre-deep cistern cut into the stone. A shallow outer ward may have been lined with palisades rather than buildings. The view stretches across the Alb plateau to the distant Hohenzollern lands.