Burgstall Klingenberg

Burg Klingenberg stands as the remains of a hilltop fortress on the Reifenberg, 1 960 metres south-east of Talheim church in the Tuttlingen district. The site once bore the name Reiffenberg, though the later title Klingenberg is not recorded in historical sources. The ruined walls and ditches still mark where the 13th-century stronghold once rose above the Krähenbach valley. The Reiffenberg family, ministerials of the Lords of Wartenberg and the Princes of Fürstenberg, held the castle between 1268 and 1395. After its abandonment in the mid-14th century, the estate passed in 1437 to the Counts of Lupfen and then in 1444 to Württemberg. By 1600 it was already a Burgstall, a deserted site of former buildings. Visitors follow a forest path east of Talheim to a small ledge 799.7 metres above sea level. A deep U-shaped ditch up to twenty metres wide and nine metres deep once defended the approach. On the plateau the foundations of a square tower about nine to ten metres wide survive, together with traces of a ring wall along the edges. The steep eastern slope drops to the Krähenbach, while the rest of the hillside rises toward the 947.6-metre summit.