Bau am Ölberg

Burg Hauenfels stands in a shallow rock overhang on the Ölberg near Gütighofen, a short distance from Ehrenkirchen in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district. The site is marked by a long stretch of ruined masonry built into the rock face, not a towering castle on a hilltop. Its name comes from an old record that was once read as ‘Hauenfels’ but probably meant ‘Eulenstein’, or ‘owl stone’. The first written mention appears in a 1316 estate roll belonging to St Ulrich’s monastery in Bollschweil. Finds from the site suggest people used the place from the 13th century into the early 1500s. The remains show a roughly rectangular building divided by a central wall into two rooms. The south-eastern wall still stretches about 13 metres long and up to 1.2 metres thick, built from rough limestone blocks laid without regular courses. A tall section on the north-east side, nearly 4 metres high, frames an opening 3.1 metres wide. Two small slit windows in the front wall once let in light and allowed a lookout. A beam hole in the same wall shows the building had at least two storeys. A sketch drawn in the 1860s by Zuccalmaglio records details now lost. Visitors walk up to the shallow cave where the ruins sit, following a path through the surrounding woodland. The surviving masonry stands close to the rock face, giving a sense of how the builders used the natural shelter. The site is quiet, with only the wind and birds breaking the silence. A few metres away the ground drops away, adding to the feeling of a hidden refuge. The remains are small but give a clear picture of a modest medieval building pressed into the rock.