Top 14 Castles around Straubenhardt

By far the best of the three castle ruins. It even has a small spiral staircase. Benches are set up on the ruins' plateau.

Finds show that the Celts settled on the castle hill over 2000 years ago. Evidence of the "more recent" history of Neuenbürg Castle only dates back to around the year 1000. Various families of counts, including the Counts Palatine of Tübingen, the Counts of Calw-Vaihingen, the Counts of Eberstein, the Margraves of Baden and the Counts of Württemberg, determined the fate and history of the picturesque old Neuenbürg Castle. The castle (today's rear castle ruins) was probably founded by the Counts of Vaihingen in the 11th century. The Counts of Württemberg acquired the castle around 1320 and built an official residence for the town, which already belonged to them, and the surrounding villages. This was followed in 1572 by a conversion of the rear castle into a fruit store (here a granary and wine store). During the Thirty Years' War in 1634, the castle was plundered, and in 1638 the north wing burned down due to the carelessness of a Bavarian ensign. Neuenbürg Castle consists of the old "rear castle", of which only the remains of the castle with walls up to 3 meters thick remain as ruins, and the current new castle built by Duke Christoph of Württemberg around 1650, which was built using older parts of the building. At the end of the 17th century, the dilapidated rear castle was sold and the bricks were used to rebuild the town of Neuenbürg, which had been destroyed in a major fire in 1783. Despite several attempts, Neuenbürg never became a ducal residence, and the honored princes Duke Magnus (1594-1622) and Duke Ulrich (1617-1671) were not lured to the Black Forest province. Neuenbürg Castle was always only the seat of authorities and offices and was inhabited by ducal officials. Until 2004, the State Forestry Office was housed in Neuenbürg Castle. From 1940 onwards, the castle rooms housed apartments and a painter's studio. Since 2001, Neuenbürg Castle has housed a branch museum of the Baden State Museum.

Information about the castle complex at https://www.schloss-neuenbuerg.de/

The castle ruins behind the castle garden are normally locked, but can be rented through the castle administration. https://www.schloss-neuenbuerg.de/

The Kräheneck castle ruins, formerly also called Creinegg, are former fortifications from the 13th century. They are located in the forest of the Pforzheim district of Dillweißenstein. The Kräheneck ruins were built around 1250 as fortifications on the slope of the Weißenstein castle hill. The structure consisted of shield walls made of sandstone blocks, approximately 10 meters high. A wide ditch was built in front of them. It is assumed that the Kräheneck was built as an outwork to protect the Rabeneck castle below. As there are no documented references to its origins, it is estimated that it was built in the 13th or 14th century. The name Kräheneck is a popular name from the 19th century and cannot be verified by medieval documents. In 1928, an open-air stage was built in front of the shield wall for the "Kräheneck Castle Festival".

Beautiful ruins, unexpected castle park and pleasant castle restaurant. Definitely a recommendation

The Roman Tower is the remains of a tower castle. It consisted of a square tower with an edge length of 13.5m and a wall thickness of 3.5m. It was built around 1100 AD and initially surrounded by a small rampart. After a fire that partially destroyed the tower, it was surrounded by a deep ditch. Most of the excavated material was stored around the tower to protect it from attackers with siege engines. The castle was abandoned for unknown reasons as early as 1200. The neighboring chapel of St. Barbara was not built until 1330 by monks from the Herrenalb monastery. (Q.: inscription plaque)

The path is a bit steep but easy to walk, at the top is the 🏰, a hiking home and a Portuguese restaurant