Burg Sulz

Burg Sulz stands on a spur above the Jagst valley, half a kilometre north-east of Kirchberg’s old town. The ruined site overlooks the river where a salt spring once fed a small hamlet called Sulz. To the east the opposite bank holds Burg Hornberg, while the steep gully of the Steinbach cuts the slope below. A modern road follows that gully up to the plateau, and the river has carved a wide double loop around the spur. The castle was built about 1103 by the local nobles of Sulz as their family seat. By 1157 it appears as Sulce in records and, with Burg Kirchberg and Burg Hornberg, guarded the salt road from Hall to Rothenburg. All three were imperial castles of the Staufer dynasty. The inner stronghold measured roughly thirty metres square, with a smaller outer ward downslope. In 1472 the vogt Karl Gerner and his servant still lived here, but on 3 May 1525 the castle was wrecked in the Peasants’ War. Today only buried cellar vaults and ditches mark the former walls. The last visible masonry, a high ruin in the 18th century, was probably taken for building the Jagst weir. A footpath climbs from the road to the spur, where visitors find grassy lumps and shallow trenches among oak and beech. Below, the Jagst flows through its wide meander, and the salt spring’s site lies hidden in the valley floor.