Burg Hohentrüdingen

Burg Hohentrüdingen is a hill castle in Heidenheim, Germany, built by the imperial counts of Truhendingen.

The castle was raised in the late eleventh century and first appears in a written record from 1129 tied to Eichstätt. From its beginnings the site stood in a feudal relationship with the bishop of Eichstätt, the counts holding the place as a fief. By the middle of the twelfth century the Truhendingen family had taken on the bailiwick over properties belonging to the monastery at Heidenheim, a role that tied the castle into local ecclesiastical administration.

Around the year 1200 the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach praised the house of the Truhendingen family and mentioned a local specialty known as the Truhendinger Pfanne, linking the household to contemporary cultural life. In the fourteenth century the Truhendingen line grew increasingly burdened by debt. Ownership of the site changed hands several times in that century, with the Counts of Schaumberg named about 1340, Albrecht of Wartenberg recorded in 1359, and Count Ludwig of Oettingen in 1363. Control passed to the Burgraves of Nuremberg in 1404. The Truhendingen family itself died out in 1424.

By the early modern period the castle had lost much of its former standing. In 1716 the upper portion of the main tower was removed. A 1732 description calls the building “very old” and records that it then contained the residence of the chief administrative officer. In 1812 the greater part of the castle was demolished, leaving only the main defensive tower. That surviving tower was incorporated into the village church in 1819 and has since served as the church tower.