Burg Steineck

Burg Steineck stands on a wooded hill 660 metres above sea level, about 200 metres south of the hamlet of Steinighof near Raitbach in the southern Black Forest. The site lies within the district of Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg. Archaeologists believe it was not a medieval hilltop castle but the remains of a farm belonging to a larger castle nearby. The name Steineck appears in 16th-century records, yet those early references describe a different ruin now called Burgholz. The present Steineck ruin was simply a farmstead attached to Burgholz Castle, which shared the same name. By the late 18th century no trace of any fortification remained there either. In 1859 the farmhouse was demolished and the ground levelled for fields. Its stones were taken away to build other structures. Today only a flat mound and a few scattered blocks mark where the farm once stood, offering little to see but a quiet spot in the forest.