Castle Oberes Baliken, Medieval castle ruins in Wald, Switzerland

Castle Oberes Baliken is a medieval castle ruin located on a round hill in Wald. The stone remains sit on a rise roughly 30 meters across, positioned at 650 meters elevation.

The fortress was built around 1200 as part of a network of clearing-land fortifications during regional expansion of the Wald area. It served as one of several such structures that marked the settlement of this region.

The name Baliken ends in -ikon, an Alemannic suffix meaning "at the farms of the people of X", which points to an early medieval settlement that has since disappeared. The castle itself never held historical importance; it is one of the clearing castles built in the Wald area in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The ruins are reachable by hiking trails that pass through the area and provide good access. The historic pilgrimage route Via Jacobi runs directly above the fortification site, making orientation straightforward.

The 1936 dig found the footings of a five-sided tower, a plan found nowhere else in this region. One side measures just over 5 metres, and the walls are about 1.5 metres thick. The excavators also traced a broad ditch on the north side, while the entrance is thought to have been on the south.