Ruggburg Castle

The ruin of Ruggburg in the municipality of Eichenberg in Vorarlberg is located on a mountain spur halfway up the western slope of the Pfänder ridge. The Upper Tyrolean Salt Road from Bad Hall to Lindau, which passes the castle, reaches the shore of Lake Constance near Lochau, not far from the old imperial cities of Lindau and Bregenz.

The first medieval complex, called Trudburg, presumably dates from the 10th century, was already destroyed in 1025 and rebuilt between 1040 and 1125. In 1245, a vassal named Heinrich von Rugeburc was mentioned as the owner, who was probably a ministerialis of the Lords of Montfort zu Bregenz or Tettnang. In 1430, the castle came into the possession of the Heinrich Vogt von Summerau family, who owned property around Wangen.

In 1450, Count Heinrich IX. von Werdenberg-Sargans zu Vaduz acquired the castle. His daughter Elisabeth married the notorious robber knight Hans von Rechberg, who thus became a co-owner alongside his father-in-law. Rechberg, who called himself a knight but had never been knighted, also carried out his raids against merchants from there and was involved in warlike conflicts with the Swabian cities (Ulm, Lindau, Wangen, Ravensburg, Isny, Leutkirch, Memmingen, Kempten and Biberach), which in 1452 formed an emergency community and besieged Ruggburg with 600 men under the leadership of Memmingen captains. Within five weeks, they destroyed the castle by bombardment. Hans von Rechberg was able to escape from the burning castle through a secret passage and was fatally wounded twelve years later during an attack on a Black Forest village.

In 1529 and again in 1825, large parts of the ruin collapsed down the western steep slope. At the edge of the break, the towering, endangered eastern boundary of the keep still stands. In 1944, there was one fatality and one seriously injured person due to collapsing wall sections.