Burgstall Osterwiese

The Burgstall Osterwiese is the remains of a hilltop fort five kilometres south of Schwabach in Mittelfranken. It stands on the Kegelbuck, the easternmost spur of the Winterleite ridge, itself part of the Heidenberg uplands. The whole area belongs to the Roth district and is thickly wooded. Excavations show the site was used from the New Stone Age onwards. Around 950 a wooden and clay fort was built on the spur, probably as a refuge during Liudolf of Swabia’s revolt against King Otto I when Hungarian raiders still roamed the land until 955. Nearby field names like Ungarnthaler Weg and Ungarngraben, and the village of Ungerthal, still recall those raids. The old trade route called the Italerstraße passed through a hollow way here, giving the fort control over traffic and clear views north to Schwabach and Nuremberg and south to Weißenburg. Today only the clearing and the earthworks—ramparts and ditches—remain, protected as a scheduled monument. A marked footpath leads close by and an information board explains the site’s history. The open ground is kept largely free of trees, as it was in the 19th century when it served as a festival ground.