Stein Castle (Ruin)

The castle ruin, known as Burgstall Stein, is located approximately 1000 meters southeast of the town church of Fridingen an der Donau in the district of Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg.

The ruin of the spur castle rises to an elevation of 755 m a.s.l., about 140 meters above the Danube valley. It is situated on a rock outcrop protruding from the valley slope, in the immediate vicinity of the Stiegelesfels castle ruin and the eponymous Kammfelsen in the local nature reserve, as well as the Burgstallhöhle, a cave castle.

The construction of Burg Stein is dated, based on ceramic finds and structural analysis of the still-preserved remains of the keep, to the period between 1100 and 1150. It probably originated as a successor to the earlier castle in the Burgstallhöhle. Nothing is known about its builders due to a lack of written sources. The castle was abandoned in the second half of the 13th century.

Presumably, the abandoned castle fell to the Duchy of Austria in 1381, which at that time acquired possession of the Lordship of Hohenberg. In 1409, Austria granted the Burgstall as a Hohenberg fief to Hans von Wildenfels. At that time, it was stated: "Hans von Wildenfels received on Saturday after St. Agnes' Day the Burgstall called Stein, at Fridingen and Kallenberg on the Danube, and a farm there, at this time the Walch and fields, meadows, fisheries and all appurtenances". This is also the first and only mention of the castle, although it is by no means certain whether it was this particular castle complex. Other abandoned and nameless castle sites with a nearby farm are known in the area around Fridingen and Kallenberg Castle with the cave castles Ziegelhöhlenburg, the cave castle near Scheuerlehof, and the neighboring Burgstallhöhle, as well as the castle sites on the Rockenbusch and on the neighboring Stiegelesfels. The ancestral castle of Hans von Wildenfels, Wildenfels Castle, has also not yet been localized.