Burg Limburg

The Limburg is a ruined hilltop castle above the town of Weilheim an der Teck in the district of Esslingen. It stands on the 598-metre summit of a volcanic cone known as the Limburg, a local landmark north of the Swabian Alb escarpment. The site overlooks the surrounding lowlands and the Teck valley below. Built about 1050 by Count Berthold I with the Beard, the Limburg was one of the earliest Romanesque castles of the high nobility. It appears in records from 1077 and served as his family seat until his death in 1078. His son Berthold II moved the family stronghold to Zähringen near Freiburg and took the title Duke of Zähringen. The Limburg changed hands several times, was twice destroyed and rebuilt, and finally abandoned in the 12th century when the Teck castle became more important. Today only slight earthworks mark the outline of the oval main castle, split by a ditch into northern and southern parts. The southern tower once measured eight by eight metres. In the 15th century a small chapel dedicated to Saint Michael was erected on the plateau; only its buried foundations remain. The summit offers wide views across the Alb foreland and the Swabian countryside.