Burg Rundeck, Medieval castle ruins in Kinding, Germany

Burg Rundeck is a medieval fortified site in Kinding with stone walls made of limestone that stand several meters tall and are surrounded by multiple concentric ditches arranged in rings. The structures have an oval shape and show typical features of castles built in the High Middle Ages.

A first castle at Erlingshofen, mentioned with the brothers Hadebrand and Gottfried von Erlungeshouen in 1129, was abandoned by 1379, when charters call it an old castle site. In 1381 Paul Stosser built a new castle on its foundations, named Stozzenberg by the Bavarian dukes; in 1383 it passed to Duke Stephan the Kneissel. The Eichstätt prince-bishop Wilhelm von Reichenau bought it in 1481 and let it decay; the name Rundeck appears in 1801, and only in 1932 was the ruin identified as the former Stossenburg.

The castle is part of a walking trail that connects several medieval sites in the region, showing how people of that time shaped the landscape with fortifications. When you visit the ruins, you can picture how important such strongholds were to the people who lived and worked in this area.

You can reach the ruins from the east through a forest path that is easy to follow and offers different viewpoints along the way. Parking spaces are available nearby, making access straightforward for most visitors.

The four-storey gate tower in the southeast may have taken over the military and representational functions of a bergfried; it was reached by a bridge, and remains of its gate passage and part of the south wall survive. Some humpback ashlars in it come from the first castle, the rest mostly from the late medieval Stossenburg.