Bärenfels Castle

Bärenfels Castle (Berenfels, Berenvels), also known as Steinegg, is the ruin of a hilltop castle at the beginning of the Wehra Valley on the 702.5 m above sea level high Steinegg above the town of Wehr in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg.

The ruin is freely accessible at any time; the keep now serves as an observation tower.

Construction of the castle, a typical high medieval clearing castle, presumably began in the 12th century. The castle, formerly presumably a seat of the Knights of Bärenfels, then owned by the Lords of Schönau and still called Steinegg after the mountain of the same name, came into the possession of the Lords of Aesch, a family of the Counts of Thierstein, in the 13th century, and into the fief of the Bishop of Basel in the 14th century.

On October 18, 1356, the castle was destroyed by the great Basel earthquake and subsequently came into the possession of the Lords of Bärenfels, a Basel knightly family whose ancestral castle was in the Birstal near Basel, through purchase in the late 14th century. From then on, the castle was named after its new owners and lost its significance. In the 15th century, the castle was abandoned and further destroyed by passing troops during the Thirty Years' War.