Ruppendorf Castle

Ruppendorf Water Castle is the ruin of a water castle in the southern part of Ruppendorf (Beerwalder Straße), a district of the municipality of Klingenberg in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district in Saxony.

The water castle was founded as a border fortification as early as 800 and first mentioned in 1350 with the village of Ruppendorf, when Heinrich von Reichstaedt (Heinricus de Richenstadt), a vassal of the Margraves of Meissen, resided in the castle.

After Dohna Castle fell at the end of the Dohna Feud in 1402 and the Burggraviate was dissolved, Ruppendorf Castle also lost its importance as a border fortification and was only used as a fortified farm "curia".

From the middle of the 15th century, the castle was owned by the Knights of Theler and came into the possession of the ducal council Siegfried von Maltitz in 1490. In 1869, the castle was partially destroyed, the outer bailey burned to the ground, and the stones were used to rebuild agricultural buildings. In 1999, the municipality of Höckendorf restored parts of the ruin.

The castle ruin still shows part of the surrounding wall and the round, approximately 12-meter-high keep with a high entrance, a diameter of 6.20 meters, and a wall thickness of 1.50 meters. Later, a hole was broken into the tower wall at ground level, the surrounding moat was filled in, and a park was created.