Ruine Alt-Dettingen: Remains of a Medieval Lowland Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Ruine Alt-Dettingen is the ruin of a lowland castle in Germany, built by the Lords of Dettingen toward the end of the twelfth century at Dettingen, now a district of Konstanz. It stood on the southwestern shore of Lake Überlingen and formed part of a double-castle complex with Neu-Dettingen.
The Lords of Dettingen
The castle belonged to the Lords of Dettingen, a family associated with several notable medieval figures. Its members included Heinrich von Tettingen, a minnesinger, meaning a German-speaking medieval poet and singer of courtly love poetry, and Werner von Tettingen, a senior official of the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order was a medieval religious-military institution.
Abandonment and later history
Ruine Alt-Dettingen was abandoned before 1350. It later came into the possession of the Mainau Commandery of the Teutonic Order. A commandery was a local administrative house of the order, and the Mainau Commandery was based on the island of Mainau.
The circumstances and date of the castle’s destruction remain unclear. A wooden sign at the site attributes its destruction to the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict fought mainly between 1618 and 1648, but this claim does not establish when or how the castle was destroyed.
Remains
The former castle occupies a castle mound at approximately 450 metres above sea level. Its physical setting still includes the former moat, while surviving parts of the many-sided curtain wall and the residential tower preserve elements of the castle’s defensive and residential arrangement.
Surviving castle structures
Polygonal curtain wall
Sections of the polygonal curtain wall survive around the castle site. The wall formed the enclosing defensive boundary of the lowland castle, and its remaining segments help define the extent and shape of the former complex.
Residential tower
The ruin of the residential tower remains on the castle mound. This tower formed part of the castle’s living accommodation and survives together with the wall fragments and former moat as a visible element of the medieval site.
Nearby sites
