A Small Piece Of History

VISITING Bavaria last month, I was walking among mixed woodland and farmland near the famous, at least in German terms, spa town of Bad Wörishofen, when I came across traces of a ruined castle.

The information board gives a good idea of what the castle looked like in what was probably its 11th century heyday

It is situated on a small hill on what is otherwise largely flat terrain, and was probably made entirely of wood, rather than stone, although the site has apparently not been archaeologically excavated, so little is known for sure.

It takes quite a stretch of imagination to place the castle in its modern setting

Frankly, if it were not for the information board, I doubt casual passersby would guess the site had any historical significance.

The castle may have been built by a local nobleman, Otthalm of Werenshova (the village name Wörishofen developed from this), who is mentioned in a document from 1067.

The area became famous in the 1800s thanks to a Roman Catholic priest, Sebastian Kneipp, who invented a health regimen based around water therapy.

Tens of thousands of people every year go to Bad Wörishofen to take 'the cure', which includes walking through what look like sunken cattle troughs while being sprayed with water.

A modern kneippenlage, closed for the wintry off-season - built on part of the hill where the castle stood

I wish I could tell more about the site, but perhaps it was just as well for the inhabitants that, from their perspective, they did not "live in interesting times."