Burgstall Molkenstein

The Burgstall Molkenstein stands in the quiet countryside near Michelfeld, a vanished water castle whose last traces lie 1.7 kilometres south-west of the village. A small pond fed by the Herrenbach still fills the old moat, while the left headstream of the Bibers trickles past the site. The remains belong to a fortress first recorded in 1442 when the lords of Molkenstein held the land. The castle passed into Haller Lehen hands by 1523, when Wilhelm von Wittstatt and Sigmund von Morstein appear as its vassals. Archaeologists have documented the earthworks and the pond’s outline, linking them directly to the medieval stronghold. Alois Schneider’s 1995 study of the region’s castles devotes a page to Molkenstein, confirming its place in local history. Visitors today walk a farm track to the field where the moat once defended the tower. The pond glints under open sky, and the sound of water replaces the clatter of arms. A single farmhouse stands nearby, its walls echoing the names once written in the castle’s charters. The scene is peaceful, the past reduced to grassy banks and a quiet stream.