ruined
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
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 ...
of the
high medieval
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
Black Forest
The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...
. It is sited above the town of
Hausach
Hausach (; ) is a city in the Ortenaukreis, in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
History
Hausach was founded in the 13th century, below Husen Castle. In the 14th century, it became a possession of the County of Fürstenberg, who gave the t ...
in the county of
Ortenaukreis
Ortenaukreis (; ) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (clockwise from north) Rastatt, Freudenstadt, Rottweil, Schwarzwald-Baar and Emmendingen. To the west it borders the French Ba ...
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 ...
.
History
The original hill castle, recorded for the first time in 1246 as ''castrum Husen'', was probably built here by the dukes of Zähringen in the 12th century. It later went into the possession of the
counts of Freiburg
The Counts of Freiburg were the descendants of Count Egino of Urach (d. 1236/7). They ruled over the city of Freiburg and the Breisgau (within the Margraviate of Baden) between approximately 1245 and 1368.
History
The Margraviate of Baden ha ...
. In 1303, the castle went to the counts of Fürstenberg as a result of the marriage of Verena of Freiburg.
Count Henry IV of Fürstenberg had the castle extensively remodelled and expanded from 1453 to 1477. A
neck ditch
A neck ditch (), sometimes called a throat ditch, at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry
outer ward
An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bu ...
guarded the heart of the castle with its ''
palas
A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval '' Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...
'' and ''
bergfried
''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Italian: ''torrione''; Castilian: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries an ...
''.
The castle was the residence of the prince's
castellan
A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from . A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1 ...
s (''Burgvögte''). In 1632 it burned down and was rebuilt. In 1643 French-Weimar troops under Jean Baptiste Budes de Guébriant destroyed the castle.
Later the ruins were incorporated into fortified earthworks or '' schanzen'' in order to defend the valley against enemy troops. In 1896 the ''bergfried'' was given
battlement
A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...
s instead of the tower’s
conical roof
A conical roof or cone roof is a cone-shaped roof that is circular at its base and terminates in a point.
Distribution
Conical roofs are frequently found on top of towers in medieval town fortifications and castles, where they may either sit d ...
. In 1968 the town of Hausach purchased the ruins from the House of Fürstenberg. Today, parts of the ''palas'' wall, the so-called battery tower and the ''bergfried'' survive.
File:Burg Hausach 3.jpg, The bergfried (May 2009)
File:Burg Hausach 7.jpg
Literature
* Kurt Klein: ''Burgen, Schlösser und Ruinen - Zeugen der Vergangenheit im Ortenaukreis''. Reiff Black Forestverlag, Offenburg, 1997, , pp. 32–33.