Bürglischloss: A Ruined Medieval Spur Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Bürglischloss is a ruined aristocratic spur castle in Germany, approximately 1 kilometre north of Gailingen am Hochrhein. The Lords of Gailingen built it before 1278 as their ancestral seat, and it is identified with the antiqum castrum Gailingen, or “old castle of Gailingen,” mentioned in that year.
The Lords of Gailingen
The Lords of Gailingen are first documented in 1087. A lower-noble family of the same name was recorded in Schaffhausen in 1253, while the family was last mentioned in 1466. The castle’s role as an ancestral seat therefore belongs to the medieval history of this local noble family.
Johann Jacob Rüeger, a seventeenth-century Swiss chronicler who recorded regional historical traditions, described the site in 1606 as a Burgstall. This term refers to the archaeological site or ruin of a former castle rather than a complete standing fortress. His description shows that Bürglischloss had already become a ruin by the early seventeenth century.
The Bürgli Bell and the Castle’s Chronology
A bronze bell discovered near Gailingen in 1998 became known as the Bürgli Bell because of its find location. Bell specialist Kurt Kramer, working with the State Monument Office and other archaeological and restoration specialists, dated it to around 1050. This makes it the oldest church bell in Baden-Württemberg.
The bell is thought to have been cast at Reichenau Abbey, a medieval Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island in Lake Constance, and to have sounded in an eleventh-century chapel at the edge of Gailingen. Another possibility is that it belonged to a chapel at Bürglischloss. If that interpretation is correct, the date of the castle would need to be reconsidered.
Rediscovery of the Ruin
Bürglischloss is treated as an archaeological monument. Winter storms in 1999 and 2000 brought down trees and made the previously obscured remains visible again. This renewed visibility drew attention to the earthworks and surviving traces of the former castle.
Remains
The ruin occupies a 565-metre-high, south-projecting spur of the Rauhenberg. A Spornburg, or castle built on a projecting spur of elevated ground, uses the surrounding slopes as part of its defensive setting. At Bürglischloss, the surviving site forms a prominent two-part mound about 100 metres long, aligned from northeast to south-southwest. A neck ditch, cut across the spur to isolate the fortified area, separates the two principal sections. The whole site covers approximately 1,200 square metres.
Defensive Earthworks
The dividing neck ditch is about 14.5 metres wide and 5 to 6 metres deep. The northern section measures roughly 55 metres in length and 12 to 15 metres in width, while the southern section is about 35 metres long and 15 to 18 metres wide. A former ring ditch, which encircled the castle, remains walkable around approximately two-thirds of the site. It lies about 5 metres below the northern plateau and about 10 metres below the southern one. An outer rampart survives in places to a height of about 1 metre.
Southern Castle Section
The southern section contains a two-storey wooden observation tower built in 1998 by the Gottmadingen group of the Black Forest Association, with assistance from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief. It replaced a television relay station erected there in 1971. The section also contains a long rectangular depression on its eastern side, indicating the remains of a building that may have been a palas, the principal residential and representative building of a medieval castle. Near the neck ditch, collapsed masonry marks the spread of the former castle wall.
Northern Castle Section
The northern section is divided again by an almost levelled internal neck ditch. Beyond it, a plateau approximately 1 to 3 metres higher extends towards the northeast. At its centre is a probable tower site, formed by a central mound about 1 metre high and an associated spread of collapsed material measuring approximately 10 to 12 metres across.
On the northeastern side facing the mountain, a faint narrow transverse bank probably represents a former Zwinger, an additional outer defensive enclosure intended to make approach more difficult. Ruin remains are thought to have been present there as late as the nineteenth century.
The Bürgli Bell
The Bürgli Bell measures 125 millimetres across and 157 millimetres in height. It is made of bronze, and its form, ornament, and copper-tin alloy support a casting date around 1050. The bell was found accidentally in 1998 when a hole was dug near Gailingen to anchor a bench. Its possible connection with a chapel at Bürglischloss remains important because it could place activity at the site earlier than the castle’s traditionally accepted construction before 1278.
