Cave castle

Archaeological discoveries have revealed that caves were used as places of refuge as early as the Stone Age.

The actual cave castle was generally built at the foot of a high rock face and at the level of one or more steep scree slopes; they are however quite rare in mountainous regions, for example in North Tyrol only four sites are known to date: Altfinstermünz in the Upper Inn valley, Loch near Unter-Pinswang, Lueg am Brenner and one in the Herrenhauswand near Schwendt/Kössen.

In several regions in Switzerland and France, soft rock material provides a good basis for the construction of cave and grotto castles.

The domestic buildings and stables were generally sited in the valley bottom beneath, because the cave was often only accessible over steep and narrow paths; excavations have revealed the relatively high standard of living in several cave castles, other sites may only have been inhabited part of the time and guarded mountain passes or important road links.

For similar reasons, most of them had no bergfried or other towers, one exception is Loch Castle near Eichhofen in Bavaria, that has an imposing round one at the front.