Schadeck Castle

The ascent to the castle was originally possible via a serpentine path and later via a neck ditch cut into the rock.

Instead of a keep, the castle has a two-winged shield wall, which points with its tip towards the rock massif. A battlement runs along the shield wall. During reconstruction work in the 15th century, the palas was moved into the protected but damp corner of the shield wall, and the battlement received a tower at each of its two ends. The octagonal top on the northern tower dates from the period of romanticization in the 19th century, similar to the Mittelburg.

One of the earlier palas buildings was located in the current courtyard, where the still visible window openings offer a magnificent view of Neckarsteinach, and inside the core castle, remains of residential buildings can still be seen.

There are a multitude of romantically transfigured legends and reports about Neckarsteinach, the Landschad von Steinach, and the Schwalbennest. For example, the French poet Victor Hugo also conceived an event set at the Schwalbennest in 1838:

"One of the four keeps has been turned into a farmhouse, the second into a summer house. The other two, completely dilapidated, destroyed or abandoned, particularly interested me and prompted me to return several times. One was called, and still is called today, Schwalbennest (Swallow's Nest) in the 12th century, because it rises as if it had been built by a giant swallow on a rock base against the wall of a large sandstone mountain. In the time of Rudolf of Habsburg, this was the seat of a terrible nobleman and robber knight, who was called Bligger the Scourge. The entire valley from Heilbronn to Heidelberg was the prey of this human-faced hawk. Like all of his kind, he was summoned before the Imperial Diet. Bligger did not go. The Emperor placed him under the imperial ban. Bligger merely laughed about it. The Rhenish League sent its best troops and its best commanders to besiege the Schwalbennest. After three sallies, the Scourge had slaughtered the besiegers. This Bligger was a warrior of enormous stature, who struck with the arm of a blacksmith. Finally, the Pope excommunicated him and all his followers. When Bligger heard one of the heralds of the Holy Roman Empire reading the bull of excommunication at the foot of his castle wall, he merely shrugged. When he awoke the next morning, he found his castle deserted, the gate and the sally port walled up. All his men-at-arms had left the cursed citadel under the cover of night and walled up the exits. One of them, who had hidden on a mountain rock from which he could observe the interior of the castle, saw Bligger the Scourge lower his head and slowly pace up and down his courtyard. He did not enter the keep for a moment, but walked alone back and forth until evening, letting the tiles resound under his iron heels. As the sun set behind the hills of Neckargemünd, the feared castellan fell lengthwise onto the pavement. He was dead. His son could only free the family from excommunication by taking the cross and bringing back the head of the Sultan from the Holy Land, which still adorns the coat of arms of a stone knight named Ulrich Landschad, who was Bligger's son and now lies on a tomb in the church of Steinach. This noble family is now extinct."

Mark Twain also describes in his book "A Tramp Abroad" a raft trip on the Neckar from Heilbronn to Heidelberg, during which he also passed Neckarsteinach:

"The graceful towers and battlements of the two medieval castles »The Swallow's Nest« and »The Brothers« enhanced the romantic impression of the landscape around the river bend to our right."