Burg Oberschüpf

Burg Schüpf stands above the village of Oberschüpf near Boxberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is the ruin of a spur castle built on a rocky outcrop where a small tributary meets the Schüpfbach. Two deep ditches cut into the shell-lime rock separate the oval site from the ridge to the west. The village houses lie about 74 metres below at roughly 230 metres above sea level, while the castle sits at about 304 metres. The castle was built late in the 12th century and first recorded early in the 13th. After changing hands several times, it was destroyed around 1470 by allied forces led by the Elector of the Palatinate, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg and the Archbishop of Mainz. Excavations begun in 1888 uncovered fine Romanesque building sculpture now kept in Karlsruhe and Boxberg. Only foundations, overgrown walls and the lower parts of a tower remain visible today. Visitors follow a path along the southern edge of the neck ditch that circles the entire ruin. The ground falls away steeply on all sides, and the deep trench keeps the site apart from the surrounding ridge. Trampled tracks wind through brambles and nettles, leading past low masonry fragments and the remains of the encased bergfried. The quiet woodland setting and distant views over the valley reward a short walk to this fragment of medieval power.