Alt-Wartenberg Castle

The ruin of Wartenberg Castle stands on the high, wooded summit of the Wartenberg, the northernmost Hegau volcano, two kilometers west of the Baden-Württemberg town of Geisingen in the district of Tuttlingen.

The complex was the ancestral seat of the Lords of Geisingen, who later named themselves "von Wartenberg" after this castle and were one of the most important noble families in the region. The first member of this family, "Cono miles de Gisingen," was documented on February 2, 1095. The heraldic animal of the Wartenbergs is a standing lion. It can still be found today in some local coats of arms in the area, such as Geisingen (supplemented by the Fürstenberg eagle), Öfingen (a district of Bad Dürrheim), and Fürstenberg (a district of Hüfingen).

Why the small complex fell into ruin is not clear. It may have been abandoned by its owners, as a new castle had already been built on the mountaintop about 100 meters to the east in the 13th century. The "Old Castle" was abandoned in the 15th century.

Count Heinrich von Fürstenberg married Verena, Countess of Freiburg, the last significant Wartenberg heiress, on March 29, 1307. Through her, Wartenberg Castle came into the possession of the Fürstenbergs.

The "New Castle" was demolished in 1780 by the Fürstenberg official, Baron von Lassolaye, who had a pleasure palace built in its place. With the accession to power of Prince Joseph Maria Benedict von Fürstenberg (1758-1796) in 1783, he bought back the Wartenberg and had a landscape park laid out in the style of an English garden.