Ruine Kreidenstein, Bäratal

Burg Kreidenstein is a ruined medieval hilltop fortress standing 600 metres south-west of Reinfelderhof, a former estate near Beuron in the Sigmaringen district of Baden-Württemberg. It sits on a broad rocky spur 740 metres above sea level, high above the Bäratal valley, close to the separate ruin of Burg Pfannenstiel. The boundary between former Württemberg and Hohenzollern lands once cut through the site, marked by four boundary stones. Little is known of the castle’s early history or owners. Local legend says Pfannenstiel was struck by lightning at night, killing a knight’s daughter who had ordered a servant to drown her younger brother. The servant instead gave the child to an old woman in the valley, and the boy, grown to manhood, built Kreidenstein on the neighbouring rock. The first written record appears in 1456 when Wilhelm von Kreidenstein, a canon of Beuron Abbey from the Rottweil patrician family Spretter, took the name Spretter von Kreidenstein. In 1470 he gave the castle to the abbey, which kept it until secularisation in 1803, when it passed to the princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Today only fragments remain. The outer ward, about 55 metres long and 15 to 20 metres wide, sits on a natural rock platform 3.5 metres high. A low entrance leads to the south-western courtyard where traces of buildings stand. Beyond a 10-metre-wide ditch lies the smaller inner ward, where a few remnants of a residential tower survive, its walls rising no higher than 70 centimetres. The ground falls away sharply in steep rock steps, ending the walk among the ruins.