Ruine Briel

The ruined castle of Briel stands on a steep, cone-shaped hilltop east of the hamlet of Briel, northwest of Ehingen in the Alb-Donau district. Known also as Brielburg or Altsteußlingen, it was built by the lords of Steußlingen in the 12th century to guard the Brieltal valley. Its position lower than the nearby village made it unusual among medieval hilltop forts. By the late Middle Ages the castle could no longer be defended against cannon fire and was abandoned. The castle passed through many hands after the Steußlingen line died out in 1387. Records list Burchard von Freyberg, Heinrich von Freyberg, Friedrich von Freyberg and others as successive owners. In 1489 the Württemberg count ordered the fortress to be dismantled so it could not be rebuilt. The chapel was pulled down the following year. Today only buried foundations and the neck ditch remain of the once large castle. Archaeologist Konrad Albert Koch uncovered the ground plan in 1927, revealing a bergfried, palas, chapel and six round flanking towers. The inner ward was surrounded by a curtain wall and an outer zwinger wall with a surrounding ditch. Outside the outer wall stood service buildings. The site offers a quiet walk among grassy mounds and the deep defensive ditch.