Burg Hochhaus

Burg Hochhaus stands above the Kartäusertal in Schwaben, a ruined medieval hilltop fortress on the edge of the Ries crater near Hohenaltheim. Its walls rise on a 555-metre summit surrounded by a wide prehistoric rampart, about a kilometre from the neighbouring ruin of Niederhaus. The site includes a deep neck ditch and several outer earthworks that once sealed off the plateau. The oldest parts date from around 1200 when the Hürnheim family built their stronghold here. Later it passed to the counts of Oettingen-Oettingen in 1347 and served as an administrative centre into the 16th century. The castle gained a baroque palace in the early 18th century, but this burned in 1749 and was never rebuilt. The four-winged structure left fragments of its walls and a slender south-west corner tower that still stands above the ring wall. The three-storey palas survives with large window openings, though it is dangerously unstable. Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin, the Enlightenment journalist, was imprisoned here between 1787 and 1792 and wrote political essays while in custody. By the 19th century the ruins were deliberately left to decay so they could form a romantic landscape feature in the valley. Visitors walk along the outer ramparts and the 200-metre-long wall ditch that once cut off the spur. Inside the main bailey the remains of the palas and the vanished main gate can be seen, together with traces of a flanking tower in the south. The best-preserved element is the tall south-west corner tower, protected by a low artillery turret in front. Two 18th-century oil paintings in nearby Harburg castle show how the complex looked before it collapsed. From the summit there are wide views across the Ries crater and down to the Kartäusertal below.