Burg Schauenburg

The castle occupies a spur above the Ölberg at roughly 275 metres above sea level, rising about 100 metres above the nearest parking. The plan centres on an irregular oval core encircled by the remains of an enclosed courtyard that slopes downhill to an outer bailey; beyond that a second forward outer wall once stood and was defended by a projecting square tower.

A circuit wall surrounds the core and a reinforced shield wall guards the vulnerable uphill approach; part of the neck ditch that protected the gate passage survives. Bridge piers from the access route to the outer bailey are still visible in place, showing how the site was entered from the lower ground.

Foundations reveal a substantial square tower with a footprint of about 10 by 10 metres, set into the northern corner of a right-angled, broken shield wall; the standing upper masonry is largely lost and survives mainly at foundation level. Within the upper enclosure the bases of residential and service buildings are preserved, the largest measuring about 20 by 8 metres and interpreted as a hall-like building. A privy tower is recorded among the service installations, and small finds include floor tiles and bricks and fragments of window capitals and column pieces with simple Romanesque carving.

Today the site exists as a ruin with primary survivals at foundation and fragmentary wall level, the result of both the deliberate dismantling ordered in 1460 and decades of quarrying activity. The modern entrance is on the west side, while the original main gate lay to the northeast; a wooden bridge built in 2009 restored access along that historic approach. Photographs of the ruins show the southern wall together with a feature described as a shell tower.