Rauber (Untere Diepoldsburg)

Lenningen, The county of Esslingen

Height: Circa 735-780 Meter

The Untere Diepoldsburg, which is also commonly referred to as “Ruine Rauber,” dates back to the Middle Ages. However, what remains of it is thought to be the youngest part of a greater, much older castle complex: the neighboring Diepoldsburg, which probably already existed in the 10th century. It extended over the entire ridge from the Rauber to just below the former farming estate of the Diepoldsburg.

The name is commonly understood as a synonym for a robber baron’s castle, but is actually due to the plot name Rauhberg.

The Dukes of Teck may have built it as an outer bailey to the Diepoldsburg in order to gain space and to use it as protection for the courtyard of the upper castle. Archaeological findings such as fragments of ceramics, suggest, that it was not inhabited by noble men, but was used by servants of lower nobility.

Around 1381, the Teck family gave the castle to the Counts of Württemberg, who in turn pledged it to families of lower nobility. In 1406, the castle is mentioned in written sources as “Vestin, das Unterdiepoldsburg.”

In 1470, Count Ulrich of Württemberg gave the Untere Diepoldsburg to the Stewards of Bichishausen, who in the 15th century frequently held high offices in the service of the Counts of Württemberg. However, as early as the 15th century, members of the family no longer lived there permanently.

After the Speth of Sulzburg family received the inheritance of the stewards in 1510, the castle was no longer used. From 1535 onward, it was described as a Burgstall, referring to a dilapidated castle. In the centuries that followed, the ruins and its estates were given to new owners, who with it received the Sulzburg, until the Mentzingen family sold the remains of the Rauber and the farming estate separately in 1819. In 1963, the Landkreis (administrative district) of Nürtingen, which is now part of the Landkreis Esslingen, bought the ruins from the landowning family Rall and secured them in 1964 and 1965.