Schloss Harteneck

Schloss Harteneck stands on the edge of a slope above the Neckar river, opposite Neckarweihingen in Ludwigsburg. It began as a 13th-century hilltop stronghold built by the free imperial knights Herter von Hertneck. Parts of the old ring walls and the knight’s hall survive inside later buildings. The castle’s walls are made of small, irregular limestone blocks laid without pattern. The Herter family sold the castle in 1440 to the Baldeck family, who passed it to Württemberg in 1536. Hans Herter von Hertneck briefly regained it as a hereditary fief in 1554 before his son returned it in 1590. Later owners included the Kniestedt family, who remodelled it in the Baroque style around 1705. The Spital Ludwigsburg bought it in 1767 and the town took control the following year. Today the building is a private residence with a courtyard layout. Visitors cannot enter, but the exterior shows medieval stonework and later alterations. The surviving knight’s hall lies within the modern structure, and the old ring walls mark the castle’s original perimeter. The site overlooks the Neckar valley and forms part of Ludwigsburg’s historic landscape.