Ringgenburg (Esenhausen)

The Ringgenburg stands on a flat spur of a moraine ridge 718 metres above sea level, north of Esenhausen in the rolling countryside of the Upper Swabian region. Built around 1200 by the lords of Ringgenburg, it replaced an earlier Celtic refuge fort. In 1296 Johannes von Ringgenburg gave the castle, the village and the parish church of St Felix and Adauctus to the Teutonic Order. Thirty-seven years later the property passed to Weingarten Abbey. The castle remains form a clear earthwork of main and outer baileys separated by a four-metre-deep ditch. The outer bailey measures fifty-five by fifty-two metres, while the main bailey is sixty-three metres long and forty-five metres wide at its broadest point. Both enclosures show hollows where buildings once stood and traces of walls along the rounded spur edge. A low rampart and shallow ditch still mark the line where the outer bailey met the plateau. A carved wooden figure of the Ringgenburg Waldweible recalls the harsh winters of the Middle Ages. According to legend, Ortolfus de Rinchenburc drove the forest women from his woods until one cursed him and he had her burned for witchcraft. The site offers quiet walks across the grassy spur with views over the surrounding moraine hills.