Burgstall Heslach

The Burgstall Heslach stands on a hill above the vanished hamlet of Böhmisreute, south-west of Heslach in Stuttgart. Its name, first recorded in the 14th century, simply means ‘site of a castle’. The place once included the small settlement of Burghalden, now gone. The only written trace is a 1312 deed in which the Count of Württemberg bought the wooded site for thirty pounds of Heller. The charter already calls it a Burgstall, showing the castle had fallen to ruin long before. A deep hollow way called the Brandsteig leads up to the hill; it was an old regional trade route that the castle may have guarded. No masonry remains, because the rock on which it stood was quarried away. Visitors walk a quiet woodland path beside the Brandsteig. The hilltop offers views over Stuttgart’s western districts. The Burgstallstraße below marks the old castle’s northern edge. All that is left is the shape of the ground and the name, yet the place still tells of a fortress that once controlled a medieval trade route.