New-Windeck Castle

Neu-Windeck Castle, also known as Neuwindeck Castle, Lauf Castle, or Laufer Schloss, is the ruin of a hilltop castle on the Schlossberg at 310 m above sea level, a hill southeast of Lauf in the Ortenau district in Baden-Württemberg.

First mentioned in a document in 1371, the castle was built around 1300 by the Lords of Windeck, whose family had split into two independent lines (Alt-Windeck and Neu-Windeck). In 1377, a castle chapel dedicated to the Three Magi was mentioned in a document.

The two lines of the family, which are not always clearly distinguishable in history and also bore the same coat of arms, lived in frequent opposition due to differing interests. Thus, the castle served the people of Strasbourg as a base against Alt-Windeck in the so-called Schlegler War (1394 – 1396).

The hostilities only ended in 1466. Berthold von Neu-Windeck married Anna von Alt-Windeck in that year. The last heir, Jakob von Windeck, died of an illness in Venice in 1592 on his return journey from his knight's tour, which had led him through France, Spain, and Italy to Palestine. The fiefs reverted to the Empire and the Margrave of Baden, while the remaining allods went in equal parts to the two sisters: Alt-Windeck to Ursula and Neu-Windeck to Elisabeth.

Already in 1500, Sebastian von Windeck had pledged a part of the castle to Margrave Christoph I of Baden. The Margraves of Baden, in turn, left a part of the castle to the Lords of Dürrmenz from 1520 to 1570. There is no reliable information about the time of the castle's destruction. However, the castle was already referred to as a ruin in 1580.