Burgstall Hohenegg

Burg Hohenegg once stood on the 750-metre Hoheneggerberg above the Eistobel valley of the Upper Argen. The spur castle overlooked the valley from its rocky spur north of the hamlet of Schüttentobel in Grünenbach. It belonged to the Herren von Rettenberg, who later called themselves Herren von Trauchburg. By 1240 the family had split, and the Hohenegg line made the castle its main seat. Rudolf von Trauchberg signed himself ‘nobilis vir de Hohenegge’ in 1244. The Hoheneggers sold their Herrschaft Hohenegg and the castle in 1359 to Count Wilhelm III of Montfort-Bregenz. In 1451 Gräfin Elisabeth of Montfort-Bregenz passed it to Duke Sigmund of Tirol, who pledged it to Kaspar von Laubenberg in 1456. During the Peasants’ War of 1525 the castle suffered heavy damage. It was mentioned for the last time in 1559 and left to decay in the Thirty Years’ War. By 1730 only the stones remained, reused to build a foundry in Schüttentobel. Today a few low stretches of wall mark the 15-by-50-metre site. In the north-east corner of the bailey a small chapel built in 1897 still stands. The ruins lie on a quiet hilltop above the Argen valley, reached by a short walk from the hamlet below. The surrounding beech and spruce woods frame views across the Allgäu hills. Visitors can trace the vanished walls and imagine the medieval fortress that once commanded the valley.