Hinterburg Castle

The Hinterburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle on a narrow 610 m above sea level high rock outcrop near the town of Tengen in the Konstanz district in Baden-Württemberg.

The castle was built around 1150 by the Barons (later Counts) of Tengen. In the middle of the 13th century, the planned town was founded. For this, they used the front part of the elongated mountain spur. When the dominion was divided around 1275, this large castle area, the "Hinterburg", was separated. After several changes of ownership, the castle came to the Teutonic Order Commandery Mainau. After 1442, the Hinterburg was destroyed by an army of the Swabian League of Cities. Hardly had the rear dominion recovered when the Confederates destroyed it again in 1457. The chronicle of Gerold Edlibach describes how this came about and also shows an illustration of the old town of Tengen with the front castle and the rear tower. In 1519, the actual front castle (the palace) burned down completely. Demolished in the 16th century, the ruin was still used as a quarry until around 1850. Of the former castle complex, only the 32-meter-high keep with a base area of 7 by 7 meters remained. Count Christoph von Nellenburg-Tengen sold the castle and county of Tengen to Emperor Charles V in 1522.