Birchiburg Castle

The Birchiburg ruin is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the rear Möhlintal valley, below St. Ulrich Monastery on the northern slope of the Birkenberg mountain, approximately 3.5 kilometers southeast of the municipality of Bollschweil in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district in Baden-Württemberg.

In 1291, the Birkenberg was first mentioned as "manlehen ze birchiberg". The first mention of the castle, located in the center of the medieval mining district on the Birkenberg, occurred in 1347 in the will of Johann Schnewlin der Gresser, whose family were lords of Birchiburg, as "festi ze Birchiberg". He bequeathed the castle to the sons of his brother Konrad Snewlin von Oberlinden, as his only son was an Augustinian monk. This branch of the family then called themselves "von Birchiberg". Around 1377/78, the castle was destroyed. The surviving documents provide no precise information about the reasons for the destruction. It was suspected that it could have been a kind of punitive action, in which the citizens of Freiburg were also involved as part of the Upper Rhenish League of Cities. From 1998 to 2002, the Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Medieval Archaeology of the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg carried out excavations in the area of the castle, which were funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).