Burgstall Sanzenbach

Burgstall Sanzenbach stands on a low hill in the hamlet of Sanzenbach, part of Rosengarten in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The site once held a moated water castle built in the 14th century and first mentioned in 1375. Its owners, the Erer family of Heilbronn and Hall, renamed themselves after the castle and held the local manor until the building burnt down in 1584. The ruins were sketched in watercolours before disappearing, leaving only the memory of a once busy fortress. The castle’s chapel, founded on 25 May 1382 by Kraft von Heinberg and his wife Anna von Sanzenbach, was consecrated the following year. It bore the dedication of the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Saint George, Saint Notburga and all the saints. By 1453 the chapel was recorded as Saint John’s chapel, but both castle and chapel were destroyed in the fire of 1584. Today the visitor finds a quiet field where the moat once circled the vanished water castle. An old cadastral map from 1827 still shows the outline of the water-filled ditch around the vanished buildings. A few metres away stands a modern wayside cross, marking the spot where the castle chapel once rose.