Burg Hauenstein

Burg Hauenstein stands on a hard porphyry ridge rising steeply above the small town of Hauenstein in Baden-Württemberg. The ruin crowns a spur that juts out from the Rhine, giving a sweeping view upstream and downstream along the river. The site once guarded a bend where the river narrowed, controlling both the waterway and the old Roman road that followed its banks. The steep Alb gorge to the north and the fortress of Tiefenstein on the opposite bank made the position almost unassailable.

The castle was built to protect Säckingen abbey and mark the boundary of the Black Forest snow-melt zone. From early medieval times it served as a customs post and seat of the Waldvogtei, collecting tolls on the Rhine trade route. Its strategic position allowed officials to monitor ships and levy duties without risk of bypassing. As a Reichslehen it remained an administrative centre until 1500.

Visitors follow a path from the south-west through deep ditches and ramparts into the inner ward. On the left, the remains of an octagonal palace from the 10th or 11th century still show its unusual shape. A massive three-metre-thick shield wall with traces of a wooden fighting platform was added later to the north-west side. Beyond the ruins, the ridge falls away in sheer drops to the valley below, while the restored north-west and north-east curtains stand up to three metres high. A small artificial pond fed from Hochsal once supplied water to the defenders.