Kirnburg Castle

The Kirnburg, also called Kürnburg or Kürnberg, is a ruined castle located approximately 500 meters east of the Bleichheim district of the city of Herbolzheim in the Emmendingen district of Baden-Württemberg. The former hilltop castle is situated on a mountain spur of the Kirnberg at 382.5 m above sea level.

Around 1160, Burkhart I, who, like his predecessor, was in the retinue of the Staufer Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, erected the first, oldest part of the Kirnburg. In 1219, the castle was mentioned as "castrum nostro Kurinberc". The castle came into the possession of the Lords of Üsenberg, who expanded the outer bailey in the 13th century. In 1352, the castle and the associated lordship passed to Heinrich IV von Hachberg, who temporarily resided at the castle. Later, the castle and the Kirnberg lordship were pledged to regional noble families, such as the influential Freiburg noble family of Schnewlin-Landeck, the knights Martin Malterer, Konrad von Weinsberg, and from 1424, the Bishops of Strasbourg, who expanded the castle one last time and fortified it according to the times.

In 1515, a few years before the outbreak of the Peasants' War, Wolf von Hürnheim zum Tuttenstein acquired the Kirnburg as a fief. After the castle was in a poor state at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, it was quickly conquered and razed by the passing troops of Duke Bernhard von Weimar. From 1682 to 1967, the castle ruin was a fief of the Counts of Kageneck and then came into the possession of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

In 1938, the ruin was excavated, and since 1978, securing and renovation measures have been carried out to preserve it as a historical monument.