Geyersburg Castle (Ruin)

The castle ruin Geyersburg, temporarily also called Gartenheuslin, is located in the municipality of Untermünkheim in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg.

The Geyersburg is situated on a very narrow mountain ridge, which tapers off to about 500 meters in the east-northeast, at an altitude approximately above the Kocher valley, where the southern municipal boundary of Untermünkheim to the city of Schwäbisch Hall also runs. A few steps to the southeast, the terrain drops over the Eichelhalde, which is wooded at the top and shows remnants of vineyard walls at the bottom, with a gradient of about 30% to the bottom of the Kocher valley, where the river begins to form an eastern loop. To the north, the terrain slopes much more gently down to the Fohlenweide, the valley terrace of an old western valley loop, the center of which is occupied by the Lindenhof farmstead about 400 meters north of the ruin and about 20 meters above the current valley floor. The next larger settlement near the Geyersburg is the Schwäbisch Hall hamlet of Sülz, just under a kilometer to the southwest, from which the castle is also easiest to reach. About 700 meters southwest, beyond the Kocher, on the Umlaufberg Neuberg of the river's Gelbingen western loop, lie the ruins of the Neuburg.

The hilltop castle was built in 1391 by the Feldner (Veldner) family. In 1402, a Hans Feldner, known as Geyer, is documented in connection with Ulrich von Hohenlohe and the fief of the Geyersburg fortress. Afterwards, the castle came into the possession of the city of Hall, which sold it to Rudolf von Münkheim in 1406. He lost the castle for financial reasons, and so it came into the fief of Haller citizens. Whether the castle was destroyed or fell into disrepair is unclear. After the extinction of the Lords of Münkheim in 1507, it lost its importance. During the Peasants' War, a group of peasants hid in the fortress, which was then called Gartenheuslin. In 1982, the ruin was renovated and is freely accessible.