Burg, Castle ruin and keep in Eltmann, Germany

Burg Wallburg is a castle ruin featuring a round stone keep situated on a ridge of the Steigerwald that overlooks the surrounding landscape. The structure displays robust medieval construction with thick walls and commands views across the valley from its elevated position.

The name Wallburg, attested since 1303, points to an earlier rampart on the site; the medieval castle was pledged by the Bishopric of Würzburg to Dietrich von Hohenberg in 1316 and redeemed in 1477. In 1525 rebels damaged it during the Peasants' War, and from 1570 it served as the seat of the Amt Eltmann. Prince-Bishop Julius Echter had it rebuilt around 1600, but in 1777 the office moved to the Saalhof and the buildings were quarried away.

Locals call the keep "Krautstücht", after the round wooden tub used for storing sauerkraut, which the tower's shape resembles. The name plays on the fact that, like a tub, the tower originally had no ground-level opening. At the castle entrance, the Schlosssteige, the local heritage association reconstructed the old gateway in 1985, incorporating sandstone figures from the 16th to 18th centuries and the coat of arms of the Fuchs family.

The keep is reached on foot via the Schlosssteige, whose old access was reconstructed by the local heritage association in 1985 and incorporates sandstone figures from the 16th to 18th centuries and the Fuchs family coat of arms. The tower can be climbed and gives a circular view over the Main valley, the Haßberge and the Steigerwald. The reconstructed well shaft near the tower is only about four metres deep.

The keep's high entrance sits about eleven metres up on the south side; a ground-level opening was broken through in the 19th century to use the tower as a lookout. The round shape earned it the local name "Krautstücht", after a wooden sauerkraut barrel. Two shell hits from American artillery, fired near the end of the Second World War, are still visible on the masonry.