Burgstall Burstel

The Burgstall Burstel stands on the Heiligenbühl ridge north-north-east of Seelfingen, a district of Stockach in the Landkreis Konstanz. It was a hilltop fortification from the 11th or 12th century, built by the local noble family whose name appears in records from 1050 until the mid-14th century. When that family died out the castle was abandoned and left no written history. The ruins occupy a small, artificially steepened mound about thirty metres long and twelve to sixteen metres wide. On the east and west sides deep ditches cut the site off from the ridge; the eastern trench is eleven metres wide and drops three to four metres to the mound, while the western trench is fourteen metres wide and falls six metres inward. A single wall-like rise marks the eastern edge, and a small pit at the south-west corner contains burnt daub that suggests a fire once destroyed the wooden superstructure. Visitors reach the site along quiet farm tracks and stand on the levelled summit surrounded by the grassy ramparts. The ditches remain sharply cut into the hillside, their shapes still clear after centuries of weathering. From the Heiligenbühl the view stretches across the flat countryside towards the Bodensee, linking the vanished castle with the wider medieval landscape it once commanded.