Triberg Castle

Triberg Castle is a ruined castle on a mountain spur southeast of the town of Triberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in Baden-Württemberg.

Little is known about the exact time of construction of the spur castle on the Gutach, at the foot of which the town of Triberg developed in the first half of the 14th century. It is particularly uncertain whether the castle already existed at the beginning of the 13th century or whether it was only built after the division of the former Lordship of Hornberg around the year 1200 into the two independent lordships of (Neu-)Hornberg and Triberg.

In 1239, the name Triberg was first mentioned in a document. On the document concerning a legal transaction between Count Berthold of Neuenburg and Bishop Lutold of Basel, the ministerialis Peter von Triberc appeared as the last of 15 witnesses. The castle complex was possibly built by Burkhard I von Triberg. The owners of the castle were the von Hornberg family. With the extinction of the Triberg line, the "stat und burg ze Triberg" passed to the Counts of Hohenberg. In 1355, the lordship was bought by Duke Albrecht II of Austria, a Habsburg, and finally fell to Austria (Further Austria) in 1654.

The castle was repeatedly pledged by the Habsburgs (in 1372 to the Margraves of Baden, in 1493 to the Counts of Fürstenberg, and in the 16th century to the Freiburg jurist Zasius and the field captain Lazarus von Schwendi). In 1489, it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. The castle was again consumed by flames in 1525 during the German Peasants' War. Rebellious Black Forest peasants and citizens were the arsonists. It had to be rebuilt through forced labor. In 1616, it was partially destroyed again, and finally completely destroyed by Swedish soldiers during the Christmas days of 1642.

The floor plan and a pillar of the former castle complex were uncovered in 1934 through excavations of some wall remains. Triberg Castle today appears as a sparse ruin with wall remains in the so-called "Burggarten" (Castle Garden) near the Kurhaus.