Burg Meßstetten

Burg Meßstetten stands on the Schlossberg above the town of Meßstetten in the Zollernalbkreis of Baden-Württemberg. The site once held several small castles built by the Tierberg lords, including the Hülbgässle tower and the now vanished Neuentierberg and Altentierberg keeps. Old maps mark the Burgstall Schlössle ruin behind the Kählesbühl transmitter, while traces of the old Bschorner Weg and its associated farmyards survive in the Heuberg training area. The town’s history is tied to the Scherragrafschaft and the nearby St Lamprechtskirche, where the Tierberg family buried their dead. The Tierberg lords played a key part in regional power struggles during the 14th and 15th centuries. Heinrich von Tierberg expanded his rule to include Meßstetten, Hossingen and Tieringen, and his family supported the rebuilding of St Lamprechtskirche after the 1911 earthquake. Konrad von Tierberg founded the Margrethausen convent in 1338, which later acquired several Meßstetter farmsteads. The town’s militia kept watch from the Schlossberg castle, and names such as Hans Bartlin and the Decker family appear in the 1521 muster rolls. Visitors today find a quiet hilltop with scant remains of the old walls and the foundations of the farmyard. The path from the town leads past the transmitter to the Burgstall Schlössle viewpoint, where the valley of Zitterboch and Feldboch stretches below. The nearby Burgschule and the Burg lane recall the site’s medieval past, while the Heuberg training area preserves the wider landscape once controlled by the Tierbergs.