Ruine Hohenwang

Ruine Hohenwang occupies a narrow hilltop site stretching approximately 90 meters from southwest to northeast without a central tower or keep, which is notable for its time. The complex consists chiefly of a main stronghold (Hochburg) and a front castle (Vorburg) set before it, separated by trenches and encircled by a curtain wall.

The main stronghold, predominantly dating from the 12th century, features a robust Romanesque core. Its shield wall rises more than 20 meters high and is about 2 meters thick, designed to withstand siege engines. The wall is topped by rectangular battlements and contains three substantial window openings, providing both defense and light. This core housed the primary residential building, or Palas, extending roughly 34 meters along the northern wall and enclosing a large courtyard around 65 meters long. Archaeological indications include preserved ochre stripes painted on a white background in one portion, hinting at decorative wall paintings.

In front of the main castle, a lower section completed in the 17th century stretches about 60 meters and includes an irregularly shaped bastion known as the Hochgarten on the south side. This bastion sits partly on artificial ground and displays a rounded corner facing southeast. West of this bastion once stood a stable building, although today only minimal remains survive.

The castle’s defenses comprised three fortified gates, two with sally ports allowing defenders to sortie out. The main gate dates from the 16th to 17th centuries and remains the best-preserved ruin. It consists of a gate chamber featuring a manhole and once had two keyhole-shaped gunports for muskets or small artillery, with one of these still intact. Historical depictions reveal that the gate tower was originally crowned by a distinctive onion-shaped roof.

On the southeastern side of the main stronghold, a double-angled defensive gallery, called a Wehrgalerie, protected the shield wall. Only its southeast wall survives, pierced with three firing slits embedded in deep recesses and a sally port for counterattacks. Access to this gallery came through a flat-arched gate formerly spanned by a drawbridge over a deep, four-meter-wide fissure in the rock. This drawbridge was later substituted with a fixed wooden bridge.

Instead of a traditional keep, natural defenses bolstered the castle’s security: steep cliffs protected its southern, western, and northern flanks, while a wide neck ditch up to 25 meters across allowed controlled access from the east. This ditch originally was crossed by two drawbridges and once had a stone arch bridge, now replaced by a masonry causeway.

A 15th-century inventory offers insight into the castle’s interior arrangement, listing a chapel, servants’ quarters, a great hall, four cellars, four granaries, a bathhouse, kitchen, and vaulted stables capable of housing twelve horses.

The castle’s chapel, dedicated to the Visitation of Mary and built in the 12th century, showcased typical Romanesque features including a polygonal choir with a five-eighths semicircular closure and capitals bearing double-leaf designs. Two finely crafted Romanesque round-arched windows illuminated the interior. The chapel had a bell tower which was destroyed by the 1700 fire. Due to structural concerns, the chapel was demolished in 1776, with its important late Gothic altarpiece from 1509 and a venerated image relocated to the nearby parish church and a newly constructed Marian chapel.

Water was supplied by a draw well approximately 45 meters deep, equipped with a large wooden tread wheel measuring four meters in diameter. This device allowed the lifting of around 100 liters of water per ten minutes of operation. Supplementing the well, a wooden pipe system around 4 to 5 kilometers long carried spring water from near Brunnsteig/Wetterkreuz, with iron fittings for the pipes discovered during excavations in the 20th century.

Defensive structures also included a frontwork with a crenellated gatehouse resting on two supporting arches. This gatehouse featured battlements and arrow slits and once housed a smithy in the 15th century; this building no longer survives.

Adjacent to the castle lies a flat meadow known historically as “Der Platz am Sprengzaun,” which was used for tournaments and festivals, complemented by a nearby riding training ground close to Siglreit/Timmerteich. Since the 1960s, restoration projects have reinforced and partially reconstructed key walls, gates, and the shield wall, preserving the ruins and integrating them into a maintained park-like environment.