Hohengeroldseck

Hohengeroldseck is a ruined hilltop castle standing 523.9 metres above sea level in the Black Forest. It sits on a spur between the Kinzig and Schutter valleys, in the Schönberg district of Seelbach within the Ortenaukreis of Baden-Württemberg. The castle was built between 1240 and 1250 by Walter I of Geroldseck as the family’s main stronghold. For nearly four centuries it served as the centre of the Upper Herrschaft Hohengeroldseck, controlling lands that stretched from Lahr and Mahlberg to Schiltach and several monasteries. The fortress changed hands repeatedly, passing from the Geroldseckers to the Margraves of Baden, then to the Counts of Cronberg and finally to the Princes of der Leyen in 1697. The site witnessed several sieges and battles that shaped regional history. In 1486 the Palatinate’s gunner Martin Merz directed a six-week bombardment that forced the castle’s surrender. During the Thirty Years War, Emperor Ferdinand II granted the ruins to Count Adam Philipp of Cronberg as a reward for military service. The castle was destroyed again in January 1689 by French troops in the War of the Palatine Succession. Later owners preserved what remained, installing a new spiral staircase in the rear palace tower in the 1950s and carrying out major restorations in 2011 and 2013. Today the ruins offer a clear view of the castle’s original layout. About ten metres of the outer curtain wall still stand, enclosing the upper ward where the main buildings once rose on a porphyry rock. The two-storey great hall, roughly fifty metres long and twenty wide, retains much of its façade. Visitors can walk the restored battlements and climb the tower to see the Kinzig valley and Schuttertal below. A smaller building nearby once housed the kitchen and storage rooms, while the Ritterhaus contained the eighty-square-metre knights’ hall on its second floor.