The Dietfurt ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle in the hamlet of Dietfurt, which belongs to the municipality of Inzigkofen in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg. The Dietfurt castle cave beneath Dietfurt Castle is one of the most important archaeological sites in southern Germany from the Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods.
The castle is one of the early castles founded in the 11th century. However, the rock was inhabited much earlier. Excavations in the castle cave yielded finds from the Late Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), the Neolithic (New Stone Age), the Middle Bronze Age, the younger Urnfield period, the middle and later Hallstatt period, the Roman era and the Middle Ages. The name "Dietfurt", Old High German as Diota, the people, also indicates early settlement.
The name Dietfurt was first mentioned in 1095 in connection with the founding of the Alpirsbach monastery, when the brothers Heinrich, Eberhard and Hermann von Dietfurt were named as witnesses. The Dietfurt brothers are mentioned again in a document from 1125 concerning the Alpirsbach monastery. In 1132, the steward of Waldburg, Berthold, renounced the imperial fief of Dietfurt in favor of Count Mangold II of Nellenburg in the presence of the king. By this time, the nobles of Dietfurt had already died out.
The cave was made safe to walk on by the Sigmaringen mountain rescue team and equipped with electric light. The entire area and the cave are not open to the public, however, in individual cases visits are possible after consultation with the mountain rescue team.
Source: Wikipedia