Burg Schafgießen

Burg Schafgießen was a medieval water castle near Wyhl on the Kaiserstuhl ridge. It stood south of the Wyhler mill, about one kilometre north-west of Wyhl’s village centre. The builders probably raised it in the 13th century under Austrian rule. In 1415 Duke Friedrich IV granted the castle, together with the villages of Wyhl and Wöllingen, to the town of Endingen. By the 15th century the structure had already begun to decay. The castle’s final remains were removed in 1813, leaving only faint earthworks to mark its site. Archaeologists still recognise the outline of the moat and the central mound where the tower once stood. Written records from the 15th century describe the buildings as timber-framed and plastered. The castle’s name, Schafgießen, probably refers to the sheep that were watered there. Today the field where the castle once stood is part of farmland on the edge of the village. A low grassy rise shows where the main tower stood. Visitors can walk the old moat line and imagine the water-filled defences that once surrounded the site. The Kaiserstuhl hills rise close by, giving views across the Rhine plain. The quiet farm tracks around Wyhl lead directly to the faint earthworks, offering a quiet place to reflect on the vanished fortress.