Turmhügel Baumburg

Baumburg stands on a plateau above the Danube near Hundersingen, a village in Herbertingen. The site rises 603 metres above sea level and measures thirty by thirty-four metres. Archaeologists believe the plateau began as an Iron Age burial mound. Below it the land drops steeply to the river, close to the prehistoric Heuneburg settlement. The view from the plateau looks across the valley to the distant Alb hills. The castle was built late in the 12th century by the Lords of Baumburg-Hundersingen. Among them was Ulrich von Buwenburg, a noted Minnesänger. In 1282 Dietrich von Baumburg sold an estate to the nuns of Heiligkreuztal. By the late 13th century the castle was abandoned and by 1344 it was called a Burgstall, a deserted site. In the 16th century the convent forbade any rebuilding. A low, grassy mound seventy-five metres wide still rises nine metres above the surrounding ground. A shallow ditch marks the old perimeter. The mound is all that remains of a motte-and-bailey fortification. Visitors walk the quiet field paths and see the Danube glinting below. On clear days the silhouette of the Heuneburg’s ramparts appears on the opposite ridge.