The Old Castle (Alte Burg) is a

demolished Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apa ...

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles a ...

on an almost circular

conical hill A conical hill (also cone or conical mountain) is a landform with a distinctly conical shape. It is usually isolated or rises above other surrounding foothills, and is often of volcanic origin. Conical hills or mountains occur in different sha ...

at a height of southwest of the village of Demmingen in the municipality of

Dischingen Dischingen is a municipality in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The municipality consists of several smaller villages that have been absorbed into Dischingen, Ballmertshofen, Demmingen, Dunstelkingen, Eglin ...

in the county of Heidenheim in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. The castle was built in the 13th century by the

counts of Dillingen The Counts of Dillingen were a Swabian comital family of the Hupaldinger (Hucpaldinger) dynasty during AD 955–1286. History The family originate in Wittislingen, with archaeological evidence of grave goods suggesting the presence of Alaman ...

, but later went to the lords of Hürnheim and then the Fugger counts. The castle was destroyed before 1551 and was torn down between 1570 and 1572. The castle had a 6.6 X 10.3 metre

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

with a wall thickness of 1.72 metres.Günter Schmitt: ''Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Band 6 - Ostalb: Wandern und entdecken zwischen Ulm, Aalen und Donauwörth'', p. 66

Literature

Günter Schmitt Gunter or Günter may refer to: * Gunter rig, a type of sailing rig, especially in small boats * Gunter Annex, Alabama, a United States Air Force installation * Gunter, Texas, city in the United States * the former German name of the village of G ...

: ''Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Band 6 - Ostalb: Wandern und entdecken zwischen Ulm, Aalen und Donauwörth''. Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß, 1995, , pp. 63–66.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Demolished buildings and structures in Germany Buildings and structures demolished in the 16th century