Unteres Schloss

Burg Vellberg stands on the 360-metre Feldberg above a loop of the Bühler river. It overlooks the triangular old town of Vellberg in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The site began as a castle built by the Vellberg lords around 1200. By the 15th century the family had enlarged it into a stronghold and market centre. In June 1523 imperial troops destroyed part of the castle after Wilhelm von Vellberg supported the robber-knight Hans Thomas von Absberg. The ruins were rebuilt between 1543 and 1546 by Wolf von Vellberg and his wife Anna Treusch von Buttlar. Their coats of arms were carved above the entrance. In 1857 the town bought the building and used it as its town hall until 2004. From the 1960s the two structures above the old foundations were restored. Since 2008 the whole complex has been in private hands. Visitors cross a stone bridge over the former outer bailey and pass through two walled gates. The south-east building, once the town hall, still shows remains of the 1549 chapel. Behind the main block the crumbling curtain wall offers wide views across the river valley to the Stöckenburg. Inside, the former chancellery tower later served as a prison. On the north side of the outer ward a 1707 inscription marks a bricked-up postern gate in the town wall.