Ruine Utkoven, Donautal

Burg Utkoven stands on a jagged rock tower above the Danube near Inzigkofen in Baden-Württemberg. The ruin rises about one hundred metres above the river valley on a spur that juts south-east from the rocky bank. A narrow neck of rock, cut by a two-and-a-half-metre ditch, once separated the fortress from the hillside. Only the north-western slope still connects the tower to the slope, forming the sole approach. Nearby are the ruins of Neugutenstein and Dietfurt, both visible from the same rocky ridge. Little is recorded of this small 12th-century stronghold. Archaeologists found pottery shards that suggest it was built early in the century and abandoned before the century ended. The place called Utkoven appears in a 1306 charter, but the name may once have been Nikkoven. By the 15th century the estate belonged to the counts of Werdenberg, later passing to the Fürstenbergs and finally to the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen line in 1841. The site was rediscovered in 1988 by Christoph Stauß, who had drawn many castle reconstructions for the Swabian Alb Association. Visitors today see the narrow neck of rock crossed by a shallow ditch cut into the natural cleft. On the inner side of the ditch a low front wall of small ashlar blocks still stands up to two metres high. Only six metres of its core remain, but nine neat courses of facing stones survive in the centre, each course larger than the one below. At the north-eastern end of this wall a possible entrance led down to a terrace on the northern side. The uneven platform beyond could have held timber buildings; at the eastern tip a three-metre square ledge has been cut square to the rock, perhaps marking the site of the hall.