Seeburg

Seeburg (Bad Urach), The county of Reutlingen

The village of Seeburg and its parish church are mentioned in 770 and 776, indicating that Seeburg was of importance because of the Albaufstieg. Whether the name relates to a castle, however, is unlikely. There is much more evidence regarding a castle of a noble family in the later Middle Ages. One family is mentioned in 1179 and again in 1187, when a knight called Walter of Stein, who called himself Miles de Seburc, appears. His brothers and sons seem to have been from Seeburg as well. 1208 a certain Knight Berthold of Seeburg did business with Count Henry of Wartstein. These Seeburgers were probably related to the Stein family, which came from the Rechtenstein castle in the Danube valley. In the 13th century the town of Seeburg was part of Urach, which suggests that the Lords of Seeburg were in the service of the neighboring Counts of Urach. In the 13th century, Seeburg and Urach were given to the expanding Counts of Württemberg. In 1311, the castle in Seeburg was successfully defended in the Reichskrieg by a certain Henry Speth. As a result, the Speth family remained in the castle along side the older noble Seeburg family. In 1396, for example, a Bertha of Seeburg sold several estates in Rietheim, Wittlingen, Elwangen, Trailfingen and in the Münsinger Hart as well as Gülten from four mills in the Mühltal to Count Eberhard of Württemberg. Eventually, the castle in Seeburg lost its importance in the 15th century. Soon after it is being described as a Burgstall, suggesting that it was demolished in the following century.