Landscape

To the left where there was the confluence of two brook arms making a V high up the hillside was a naturally well defendable lookout when cleared. Settlement to the right with a defense structure up there started already a long time ago. The first written record was of the allemanic drive. The family who settled and cleared at Wirmetsweiler (the head of the household will have had a name somewhat close to "Wirmo" or so) would of course have had their main house right there and on the spit atop the valley only a palisade with a shelter. Perhaps they where to trench out the north-east to divide it from their own settlement a bit, but it is more likely they discovered it all as it was and just found it suited their needs. In high medieval times there was a stone castle, that belonged a noble family, the Edelfreien von Markdorf. Wirmetsweiler was now their farming estates main house, just a less defendable place where the veggies eggs and milk of the knights table where produced, the high house perched atop the confluence.
And down, further to the left of the picture, now was the village of Markdorf, back then more or less still just a sizable hovel of subjects. The keep overlooked all of this and the road down in the valley and in the very old times all subjects used to flee into the castle in case of strive. 1079 when the village was ransacked it in the investiture conflict it might still have been this way, that the helpless villagers went into the castle. But by 1414 the hovel was already a little town with a wall of its own and a more convenient to reach all new second stone palace, and the last heir of the line, some maternal grandson of the last "von Markdorf" was indepted to the Bishop of Constance. So this one got all that eventually and decided to make the lower castle a residence and bailify, and use the upper one only as a source for building materials, which is why there is not much there but a few dug out cellars on the way up and the ditch above the confluence of the brooks. One of the later bishops however enlarged some caves below the Altschloss, as he was a gourmet and needed even more cold storage, other than this the whole slope was allowed to grow into an inaccessible wooded wilderness to the very top everywhere it was not lending itsef to growing wine or fruit trees. There was an experiment to harness the power of the falling brook in the steepest place early in the 20th century, but it was not very effective and got abandoned, leaving some more little concrete ruins in the wilderness. Markdorfs lower castle is a nice early gothic tower house still standing much like it looked new and a huge landmark. Tourists will go look at it and think it is so old. Christmas markets downtown at the castle square are a popular draw, nothing wildly worldfamous like Nuernberg, but still packed with people lauding the great atmosphere in the nicely lit up yard. Inside currently are administrative offices, until recently it was a fine hotel sometimes exploiting medieval flair with knights dinners and such.
But archeologists found ceramics much older than 816 up at the old castles hill, when we have first written evidence of the Allemanic clearing and keep. Celtic stuff, now this is old!!!!
For town jubileum they decided to prune it a little and make a hiking trail in the ravine with stairs in the worst places and interpretive markers in the most interesting, leading to Wirmetsweiler where you can use the convenient sidewalk and bicycle spur of Talstrasse downward again with ocassional lake view and assorted rural sights.
So at the moment it defends mostly the Markdorf city council from a repute to think only of comerce.... LOL