Salmendingen Castle (Ruin)

The Salmendingen ruin is the ruin of a hilltop castle on a hill immediately south of Salmendingen, a district of Burladingen in the Zollernalbkreis in Baden-Württemberg.

The castle was probably built in the 13th century by the noble "Lords of Salmendingen" as their ancestral castle, first mentioned in 1245. In addition to Salmendingen, the family also had estates and rights near Erpfingen. Hohenerpfingen Castle was also in their possession.

After his marriage to "Agate von Salmendingen", "Burkhard Schilling von Mansberg (noble family)" (lower nobility, ministerialis from Dettingen unter Teck) became the owner of Salmendingen Castle in 1350. Alliances between the Dukes of Teck and the House of Habsburg and the Counts of Hohenberg repeatedly led to conflicts for the Lords of Mansberg with the Counts of the House of Württemberg. At that time, Württemberg's Eberhard II strongly directed his policies against the imperial cities that stood in the way of Württemberg's further expansion. Numerous costly battles and expensive fights occurred in the region. Salmendingen Castle also had to be abandoned in the 14th century after its destruction and was left to decay from 1386 onwards.

The Württembergers won the war. The former Salmendingen territory (Ringingen, Salmendingen, Melchingen, and Erpfingen) was assigned to the princely House of Fürstenberg and placed under the administration of the House of Werdenberg (ministerialis Jehle zu Trochtelfingen). Thus, at the nearby Dreifürstenstein, the territories of the Houses of Hohenzollern, Württemberg, and Salmendingen originally bordered each other. The Mansbergers and their allied families, as was customary at the time, had to serve as servants or administrators for the victorious Counts of Württemberg after the war. In 1394, the children of "Agate von Salmendingen" and "Burkhard von Mansberg (noble family)" renounced all their claims to Salmendingen Castle and village in favor of Klaus and Wilhelm Ungelter.

In 1401, King Ruprecht of the Palatinate Ruprecht I (Palatinate) granted the "Burgstall" Salmendingen with its appurtenances to Count Eberhard von Werdenberg. The castle passed to the Counts of Fürstenberg in 1534, and in 1806, the ruin was owned by the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.