Burgstall Thurneck

Burgstall Thurneck stands on a spur of land that juts out northwest above the Hahnenbach valley in the Donau-Ries district of Swabia. The site is reached by a wide and deep ditch that cuts it off from the plateau. The remains lie on private ground and are covered by woodland. The castle belonged to the noble Thurneck family, first recorded in 1251 with Heinrich von Turnekke. By 1259 it had passed to the counts of Oettingen, who exchanged it with Ellwangen Abbey for another property. Later tenants included the Spät von Steinhart and the knights of Hoppingen. In 1523 the castle returned to the Oettingens, who then used its stones for a nearby hunting lodge. A 1730 expansion of the lodge drew further material from the ruins. Visitors see a roughly 30 by 75 metre plateau defended by a ditch up to 16 metres deep and 30 metres wide. On the east side a six-metre stretch of curtain wall survives, and in the centre a hollow marks the former keep, thought to have been nine metres square. Low rubble walls and scattered ashlar blocks outline the site. Below the ruins stands a forester’s house built within the remains of the hunting lodge.