Neukrenkingen Castle (Ruin)

Neukrenkingen Castle is a ruined hilltop castle near Riedern am Sand, a district of the municipality of Klettgau in the Waldshut district of Baden-Württemberg. The few remaining wall remnants are located on a ridge of the Klettgau, 130 meters above the village of Oberriedern.

A historical description by Pastor Mauritius Hohenbaum van der Meer from 1770 describes the condition at that time as follows: "One goes from the foot of the mountain, where the so-called Hasel Mill together with the small village of Ober Riedern lies, and reaches the summit, which slopes steeply on all sides and only continues backwards, but is separated by a deep ditch. The path is steep, but solidly made of stone, behind the castle everywhere hollowed out of the rock, which also overhangs the wanderer on the outer side. The castle itself occupies the entire prominent hill and forms, so to speak, a quadrangular circle, with the (4) corners rounded. There are still several walls 20 feet high, and equally deep downwards; the interior of the castle shows a hollow space covered with vaults (voraginem fornicibus arcuatam) and reveals an opening intended for secret use. The walls are 6 or even 10 feet thick, especially on the right side, where there seems to have been a tower or a prison. The circumference of the entire castle is more than 400 feet. If one goes over the ditch, towards the continuation of the mountain, other remains of strong walls run down, extending about 80 steps in length. They seem to show another fortification, which also lay on a separate hill and was surrounded by a ditch, but which is destroyed to the ground. Now fields extend to these walls; they belong to the Eichberg farms, a quarter of an hour away, where several hills still rise on both sides."

The Barons of Krenkingen are named as the builders of the castle, who erected the complex between 1209 and 1241. In the second half of the 13th century, the complex passed to Rudolf von Habsburg. It is first mentioned in a document in 1241. In 1421, Abbot Hugo von Almishofen of Rheinau, who had been forcibly abducted by Hermann von Sulz, was imprisoned here. Van der Meer states that the castle was already destroyed in 1437. The ancestral castle of the Krenkingers, Altkrenkingen Castle, and their castle Krenkingen Castle are located in the Steinatal.