Hillside castle

It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century.

As a result of the particular danger to the site from attacks on the castle from the rising ground above it, this weak point is usually strongly protected by a shield wall or a Bergfried.

There are numerous hillside castles in the German Central Uplands, especially in stream and river valleys, for example on the Middle Rhine.

They were often built as customs posts (Zollburgen) and lay close to trading routes.

In all they make up less than 1% of all medieval castles as categorised by topographic location, because they had enormous strategic disadvantages as a result of being dominated by higher ground on the uphill side.