Kräheneck Castle

The castle ruin Kräheneck, formerly also called Creinegg, is the ruin of a spur castle on a mountain spur surrounded by the Nagold river, above the castle ruin Weißenstein (Rabeneck) and the Schlossweg in the Pforzheim district of Dillweißenstein in Baden-Württemberg.

The castle was built in the 11th century by the Lords of Weißenstein (formerly Lords of Kräheneck) and first mentioned in a document in 1194 in connection with the local nobility as Creinegg. The distance to the lower-lying castle ruin Weißenstein is about 800 meters as the crow flies. Kräheneck was probably an unfinished defensive structure for Weißenstein. This assumption is supported by the fact that Kräheneck had no economic buildings. The ruin Kräheneck is a shield wall castle in a spur location, which perhaps remained unfinished.

The current appearance is characterized by a monumental shield wall with a ditch in front of it. The wall, up to ten meters high and almost four meters wide, is built from hammered red sandstone blocks. In the angled part of the wall in the northern area, a chamber with a loophole and a spiral staircase is preserved. Remains of a southern counterpart are more to be guessed at. To the side of the neck ditch, there is a striking step where the stones for the wall were quarried.

The medieval defensive structure was first renovated in 1883. The last renovation was in 1972.

In the directory of architectural monuments of the Pforzheim district from 1936, Kräheneck was already listed as an architectural monument.

In 1928, the first castle festivals were held there and repeated several times until 1939. This tradition has been revived by associations in early summer for several years. In 2008, the third Kräheneck Summer Games of modern times took place.