Niedergundelfingen
Gundelfingen (Münsingen), The county of Reutlingen
Strikingly situated on a hill that is surrounded by the river Lauter, Niedergundelfingen Castle was the seat of a line of the powerful Lords of Gundelfingen. Little is known about the origins of the late medieval castle complex.
The progenitor of the House of Gundelfingen is considered to be the knight Swigger I, who is mentioned in the sources around 1105 and again in 1112. His family subsequently had a considerable domain. Niedergundelfingen Castle was first mentioned by name in 1264, when the knight Swigger IX, known as "der Lange" (the tall one), named himself after his castle Neugundelfingen on his seal - de Novo Gundelfing. He had founded the Niedergundelfingen line and is considered the builder of Niedergundelfingen Castle, which was presumably rebuilt around the middle of the 13th century. His inheritance was divided under his sons Swigger XIV and Konrad VIII, which founded the lines of Gundelfingen-Ehestetten-Ehrenfels and Niedergundelfingen-Derneck.
From the 15th century onwards there were several changes of ownership of Niedergundelfingen Castle and all its accessories. In contrary to the Hohengundelfingen castle, it was spared the comparatively early destruction. According to a pictorial representation, the castle was still largely intact and under roof at the end of the 16th century. There seem to have been several changes of ownership in the 19th century, during which the castle was probably increasingly left to decay. From 1906, part of the ruins were restored for residential purposes. A new residential building was erected on the south side. In 1966, a large section of the western enclosure wall broke away and was subsequently rebuilt to its current height. Today, the complex is privately owned and is not open to the public.
It is still unclear when exactly the first castle was built on the hill where today the Niedergundelfingen Castle is seated. Due to a lack of archaeological finds, a definite date has yet to be determined. The construction of a predecessor complex as early as the 12th century cannot be ruled out, at least according to the surviving buildings.