Burgruine Riegelstein

The castle occupied the highest point of the Schlossberg where the plan divides into an upper stronghold on a rocky reef and a lower enclosure at the slope below. The whole complex follows an almost circular arrangement split north to south into two semicircular zones, the lower enclosure to the west and the rock-borne upper castle to the east. The rocky reef that held the upper castle measures roughly twenty-five by ten metres and rises between five and fifteen metres above its base, standing about ten metres above the lower platform and falling steeply on three sides.

A deep rock-cut defensive trench crosses the ridge as a significant artificial barrier. This neck ditch is about fifty metres long, four metres across and eight metres deep, its excavated material left as a spoil heap to the east. Immediately beside the ditch a narrow rock rib was intentionally left standing and served as the bearing for a bridge or timber work. A second trench lies two metres beyond the first; it follows a semicircular line around the lower enclosure, measures about thirty metres long, ten metres wide and one metre deep, and sits seven metres higher than the neck ditch. This second trench functioned as an outer defensive enclosure, creating a confined area between the two cuts in the rock.

Access to the lower enclosure was arranged to cross both trenches. The sequence would have been a bridge spanning the neck ditch, then a further crossing over the second trench by a drawbridge to reach a projecting gate tower on the south side of the lower area. The gate tower extended a few metres from the circular outer wall; its foundations remain and fragments of roof tile and hardened mortar are scattered nearby. South of the gate tower, between that tower and the rock reef, foundation traces mark a building with an irregular triangular footprint.

The lower enclosure platform sits approximately 4.5 metres above the bed of the semicircular trench and was ringed by a wall around two metres thick, visible in places where it met the rock to the north and south. Near the northern sector of the lower area a small round cistern survives with a diameter of about one metre and a present depth near one and a half metres. At the western edge of the lower enclosure, immediately south of the cistern, the ground forms a hollow that marks the footprint of a building roughly fifteen by eight metres; its western outer wall also formed part of the enclosing wall. The central space within the lower enclosure served as the castle yard.

On the upper rock several building locations are attested by fragments of masonry and platform remains, with small stonework visible along the eastern edge of the summit. At the eastern foot of the reef there is a small cave set about fifteen metres below the upper plateau. The cave was walled closed on its outer side and has been suggested by one investigator as having been linked to the top by a concealed escape passage, although that connection is a proposed interpretation. The present site is densely wooded, the rock is used today for climbing, and only the two rock-cut ditches together with a few unsecured fragments of wall remain in situ, putting the surviving features at risk of complete loss.