Hürben Castle

Hürben Castle is the remnant of a lost high medieval hilltop castle at 480 m above sea level, above the district of Hürben in the municipality of Giengen an der Brenz in the Heidenheim district of Baden-Württemberg.

This small spur castle was the ancestral seat of the local nobility of Hürben. This family of Hürben were probably ministeriales of the Staufer dynasty, who named their castle after the village of Hürben, which in turn received its name from the stream "Hürbe" flowing through it.

The first historical records date back to 1135, when a Teginhart de huirwin (Degenhard von Hürben) was a witness to a donation by the nobilis Deginhardus de Sevelt to the Augsburg monastery of St. Ulrich. The Hürben family is mentioned several times later, for example around 1171 when Otto von Hürben (Hurwin) was mentioned as a vassal of Herbrechtingen Monastery during a donation by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa to the monastery. In 1193, an Otto von Hürben was also a witness in a document by Emperor Henry VI, and in 1216, a Friedrich von Hürben was a document witness. The last mention of the name dates to 1226, when a Bilgerinus von Hürben was a witness in a document for Emperor Henry VII and Weissenau Monastery.

In the following years, the castle frequently changed hands. In 1227, Hürben Castle was sold by Gottfried von Wolfach, the Vogt of Herbrechtingen Monastery, to the Counts of Dillingen. In 1286, it passed by inheritance to the Counts of Helfenstein. In 1385, Albrecht von Rechberg bought the castle, but had to pledge it to the city of Ulm in 1442. In 1448, Count Ulrich V of Württemberg acquired Hürben Castle and village.

The castle was destroyed on June 24, 1449, when it was conquered and razed during the war between the Swabian and Franconian cities against the House of Württemberg. Only the castle chapel survived the attack; it later became the village church, as the castle was not rebuilt. But even it only existed a few hundred years longer; in 1728, the church was first damaged by a lightning strike, then destroyed by another lightning strike in 1737.

In 1844, it was stated: "Steeply rising above the village is the rounded, isolated castle hill of Hürben, on whose summit the churchyard is laid out. No trace of the castle itself remains. Separated by the castle moat, on a southern terrace of this hill, stands picturesquely the small church built in 1738 at communal expense, with its delicate tower. Before 1738, a chapel remaining from the old castle on the hill had served for divine service, which, ignited by lightning, went up in flames."