Some time back, a few years ago, the family and I took a bicycle ride through the Kaiserstuhl one sunny summer Suday, to get to know the area a bit and see the sights. On our travels through the orchards and vineyards, we see, in the distance, perched atop on a hill, a castle ruin, which the kids wanted to go and have a look at. So we figured, no big mission, not too far away, all flat riding to get there...only a little hill,(as you can see from the above pic), on we, toward the hill, all smiles, sun blazing down like mad, birdies tweeting, a warm summer breeze blowing...something like out of an Enid Blyton adventure..
Well, from a distance the hill looks like just a small little hill..no problem...hmmm...yeah right... that is very misleading, because once I got to riding up that hill on my 'dik wiel' bicycle, it was a bloody high, steep hill. So we start the assent, I hadn't even gone 100m and it was me pushing my bicycle all the way to the top, sweating, swearing and gasping. Half way up I wished I hadn't bothered, but I bit the bullet and pushed on so as not to be the family fader...all this effort and sweat to check out the old ruined castle..alrighty then!
....once we finally reached the top, (breathless, red in the face and huffing and puffing) ...BIG BUMMER... we were confronted with 'PRIVATE PROPERTY', 'NO ENTRY'..the ruin was fenced off and closed to the public..! So we parked off under the trees and packed out the picnic.
As I said at the beginning, that was some years ago. Then last sunday the girls asked me if I wanted to go and see Lichteneck castle with them, as they saw in the local papers that it would be opened for a guided tour. Well most definitely not if I have to huff and puff my way to the top of the hill, thank you very much! But they assured me we could drive up via the farm road and parking was available outside the entrance. Goody! So off we went.
The property was originally part of the inheritance of the Graf von Freiburg, and although the castle wasn't huge, it did play a significant role in the defence of the area since the 12 century. The pic above shows the original layout of the castle, with the defensive keep separated from the yards by a deep gorge which had a draw bridge that was pulled up when under attack. In the yard, (the area where we parked the car) was originally walled, and there were buildings that housed workshops, an inn and all the stables and outbuildings where the animals were kept.
I poached this photo above which I found cute, it shows the ruin back in 1945, very over grown with trees and shrubs, before any restoration work was started. During the time when the castle was inhabited there were no trees what so ever growing in and around the walls, so as to keep the view clear (I guess so that any enemy armies could be spotted from far off). Back in the 1990 when restoration work started, they cleared all the bush at the foot of the walls, and came across a small door. When they opened it, they found an ammunition store room still filled with black gun powder stored in wooden kegs.
This pic above I took from the bottom of the gorge, beneath the draw bridge, and shows just how high and imposing those protective walls are.
The bridge that links the north side of the castle to the main castle keep. It is a very long drop from the bridge to the bottom, and very likely one of the reasons the property is only accessible to the public by appointment and guided tour, as it's way dangerous.
This tree is growing the middle of the courtyard of the main south castle,where there was also a well and out buildings.
Above is what remains of the walls of the north yard where the stables, inn and workshops stood (now the parking lot)
The view across the Kaiserstuhl toward the French border.
Pic taken coming up from the cellar
Member of the historical society in medieval costume were having a braai for the visitors in the ruins of the vaulted cellar.
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