Germany · 12th century
Hohenrechberg Castle ranks #4,885 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #408 of the 714 mapped in Germany. Founded 1200, it is older than 75% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 763 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Stuttgart, 44 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
Hohenrechberg Castle (German: Burg Hohenrechberg) is a ruined castle in Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was built as a spur castle on the spur (called "Schlossberg") of the Hohenrechberg mountain, which forms together with the Hohenstaufen Mountain and Stuifen the Three Emperors Mountains, just a few kilometers next to the family seat Hohenstaufen castle of the Staufer dynasty.
The ruined castle is one of the top tourist destinations in the region Ostwürttemberg, approximately 50 km east of Stuttgart, open to visitors with a little exhibition and equipped with a restaurant and café ("Burgschänke") in the bailey, providing an extraordinary view on the Swabian Forest towards the north and on the Swabian Jura towards the south. On few occasions, depending on weather conditions, it is possible to see as far as the Alps in Switzerland and Austria.
Although the first written proof for "Hohenrechberg" cannot earlier be found than 1274 (the first proof for "Hohenrechberg" in combination with "castle" stems from 1355), experts estimate that the oldest parts of Hohenrechberg castle date back as far as the beginning of the 13th century. Typical for this Staufer dominated period, one can find a lot of humped ashlar masonry surrounding the inner courtyard of the castle.
Hohenrechberg castle was governed by the knights of Hohenrechberg, who served as ministeriales for the Staufer (Hohenstaufen) dynasty. Knights who were named "de Rechberg", however, occur already in the second half of the 12th century. Ulrich of Rechberg was reported to be a castle guard ("castellanus") on Hohenstaufen castle in 1189 and a marshal for the Hohenstaufen family in 1194. For some years he belonged to the ministeriales of Frederick Barbarossa. One of his sons, Hildebrand of Rechberg, equally became marshal. Another son, Siegfried, became the bishop of Augsburg, who died on a crusade 1227.
After the fall of the Staufer family in 1268, the former ministeriales of Rechberg socially managed to climb up into the lower category of noblemen. The Hohenrechberg castle became their own seat and the centre of their attempts to assemble and govern their own territory.
Text adapted from “Hohenrechberg Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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