Hohenhewen Castle

The Hohenhewen ruin, also Hohenhöwen, is a high medieval castle ruin in the southwest of Anselfingen, a district of Engen in the Konstanz district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The ruin of the hilltop castle stands on the wooded summit of the 844-meter-high Hohenhewen mountain, a basalt cone that characterizes the landscape of the Hegau. The cone, which rises 300 meters above its immediate surroundings, is steep on its sides. A cross on the south side on the steeply rising path to the castle ruin commemorates the local historian and pastor Josef Hoh, who died in an accident. The ascent from the Anselfingen hiking car park to the ruin takes about 45 minutes.

Today, in good weather, a magnificent panoramic view of the Hegau landscape with its volcanic mountains, Lake Constance, the Black Forest, the Baar, the Vosges and the Swiss Alps is offered from a viewing platform on the highest battlements, accessible via a spiral staircase.

In 1050, the Lords of Engen-Hewen were first mentioned in a document by the Count of Nellenburg.

Presumably at the beginning of the 12th century, at the latest in 1170, the castle on the Hewen was built by the Lords of Engen. A Walter von Hewen is known from 1152; he was one of the former Lords of Engen who first named himself after the new residence. In 1189, the castle was named Hewin or Hewen.

From the 13th century, Engen was the residential town of the Lords of Hewen, whose dominion included Engen Castle, Neuhewen Castle (Stettener Schlössle), Hewenegg (Junghewen), Boll Castle, Tudoburg and Wildenstein Castle in the Danube Valley.

In 1291, the castle was enfeoffed to the Duchy of Austria and in 1398 came from the heavily indebted brothers Peter and Wölflin von Hewen as a pledge to Habsburg.

In 1404, the dominion came from the Habsburgs as a pledge into the possession of the Counts of Lupfen-Stühlingen and around 1415 became an imperial fief. Ultimately, they received it entirely in exchange for the dominion of Tyrol. With them, the Hohenhewen became a notorious robber baron's nest. In 1441, the Counts of Lupfen-Stühlingen attacked Ulm merchants. The Swabian League of Cities, a military alliance of several imperial cities, therefore sought revenge, and during the War of the Cities, the castle was besieged; however, the capture of Hohenhewen failed.

The second siege during the Swiss War in 1499 by the Swiss also remained unsuccessful.

During the German Peasants' War of 1524/25, the castle was also not conquered. In 1570, the Hewen family died out. Today, the name is still occasionally found in Thurgau.

In 1582, with the end of the Engen-Lupfen family, the castle fell as a pledge to Count Conrad von Pappenheim, one of the hereditary marshals of Pappenheim.

In 1639, during the Thirty Years' War, Bavarian mercenaries besieged and destroyed the castle. In the same year, it passed into the possession of the Lords of Fürstenberg through marriage. A reconstruction was not considered by them, and so the ruin was left to decay.

On May 3, 1800, Austrians entrenched in the ruin were driven out by French troops.

In 1937, the ruin was excavated by the Schwarzwaldverein Engen e. V. and between 1957 and 1959 sold by the Fürstenbergs to the state of Baden-Württemberg. In 1963, a TV repeater was erected in the northern part of the main castle.

Since 1999, the Hohenhewen working group has been involved in the care and preservation of the ruin.