Burgruine Altroßwag

The Altroßwag castle ruin stands on a steep slope above the first bend of the Enz river, north-west of the village of Roßwag. The lords of Roßwag built it between 1126 and 1129 on their own land. By 1300 the family had split into two lines, and when the Altroßwag branch died out in the late 1300s the brothers Wolf and Jacob von Stein took over. They sold the castle to Maulbronn Abbey in 1394, after which it was left unused and quickly fell to ruin. Only fragments of walls and excavations remain today. The steep drop on the north-eastern side of the first Enz bend, between Mühlhausen and Roßwag, keeps the site closed to the public. A medieval river toll point once operated below the castle, and its income passed through several noble families before Count Eberhard im Bart of Württemberg bought it in 1479. A second castle, Neuroßwag, was built after a division of property before 1301. When its male line ended before 1372, the counts of Württemberg ordered the castle demolished in 1394. Nothing now survives above ground, and its exact position has been lost.