After a couple of visits to this abandoned 13th century castle, I am left with a lot of questions. And that is without getting into the unsolved mass murder of the last people to live here in 1540.

I wonder why someone decided to build on this hill as opposed to any of the others in the neighborhood. I wonder if there was any military significance to such a small place; there really isn’t room inside for any significant number of troops.

The walls are two metres (six feet) thick. What effort did it take to move all those stones up the hill? I don’t see any evidence they were quarried on site, but then again, in 700 years evidence of such things can be covered by vegetation.

I don’t see where the well was, though there must be one somewhere. If there isn’t, starving out the occupants would be pretty simple. Nor can I figure out from the ruins where the fireplaces were. At many of the castles I have visited in Germany you can see the markings of those on the remaining walls. Maybe the fireplaces were part of the long-vanished interior walls. And I won’t even ask about the plumbing…

One of the fun things about castles is the speculation. There are days though when a few answers might be nice.

Who did kill those eight people, and why?