Burg Schopflen - Insel Reichenau, BW, D
N 47° 41.184 E 009° 06.024
32T E 507534 N 5281450
The ruins of Schopflen are the medieval ruins of a moated castle in the municipality of Reichenau in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg.
Waymark Code: WM16A37
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Date Posted: 06/11/2022
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The Schopflen castle ruins are located in the east of the Bodensee island of Reichenau, at the end of the area separated from the island by the seven meter wide moat. It is located in the western section and on the southern side of Pyramidenpappelallee (Pirminstraße or Landesstraße L 221 Konstanz-Reichenau), which today borders Reichenauer Damm, at a height of 397.4 meters, and thus around 2.5 meters higher than that Lake level of the Untersee (394.93 meters). Originally, the weir structure was only accessible via a narrow shallow water area and was otherwise surrounded by deeper water. Only when the Reichenauer Dam was raised in 1838 directly in the axis of the castle was the former defense tower directly accessible from land.
The castle was 31 meters long from east to west (along today's avenue) and 19 meters wide. The surviving masonry is still up to nine meters high today, with the loopholes still clearly visible showing that the outer wall of the fortified building was originally 1.5 - 2.5 m higher and therefore at least about 13 - 15 m higher than the surrounding water level m high. In addition, the tower once had a surrounding wooden battlement (plastered with clay) above the defensive wall, which was well covered and designed to project.
The moated castle was first built in the 11th century. The castle was built by the abbots of the Reichenau monastery (Abbot Konrad von Zimmer) to secure the shoal between the island and the mainland at low tide, and was their seat from 1260 to 1294. In 1312, the two-storey castle was built by Abbot Diethelm von Castell rebuilt and destroyed in 1366 in the so-called "Constance Fishermen's War". The Reichenauers had had the eyes of a Constance fisherman gouged out for poaching fish, which caused outrage in the Constance Council and was answered with a military attack on the island, during which the castle was also destroyed. It was the beginning of a long-standing, violent feud between the people of Constance and the von Brandis family, who at the time provided both the Bishop of Constance and the Abbot of Reichenau and other prelates.
The imposing ten meter high and 2.5 meter thick walls of the two-storey building of the former castle have been preserved. The nature conservation association NABU has had an observation platform installed by the Radolfzell ornithological station inside the four walls.
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