Ruine Laufenburg

Laufenburg, Switzerland, Switzerland

---

Ruine Laufenburg is a medieval castle ruin perched on a rocky hill south of the old town in Laufenburg, canton of Aargau, Switzerland, overlooking the Rhine River.

Built around 1180 by the Habsburgs to fortify both banks of the Rhine, it evolved into a residential stronghold under the Habsburg-Laufenburg dynasty with the addition of a prominent stone keep known as the Bergfried, enduring sieges during the Old Zurich War in 1443 and Burgundian conflicts.

Damaged in the Thirty Years' War and deemed militarily obsolete by 1687, the site was abandoned in 1787, quarried for stone, and later restored in 1986 as a Class A cultural heritage landmark with an accessible observation deck offering views of Swiss and German Laufenburg.