Alanís castle has Arab origins. The town was conquered by Ferdinand III in 1249 and the castle was rebuilt in 1392. It has a hexagonal floor plan, with a tower and barbican, which has now disappeared. Its walls are 2.3 metres wide and 6.5 metres high, leaving only one access to the enclosure on the north side, from where the village can be seen.
Th castle was attacked by the French during the Napoleonic occupation, who dynamited one of its walls, the southwest one, and the ruins are still preserved today.
Sigmaringen Castle was first mentioned in the year 1077 in the chronicles of Petershausen monastery. The oldest parts of the castle are concealed beneath the alterations made during the 17th and the 19th centuries. The secret of the earliest settlement built on this defendable rock will never be fully revealed: large-scale excavation work would be necessary, which the extensive land development renders impossible. Judging from the many Roman remains unearthed in the area around Sigmaringen, the 12th century keep known as the 'Roman Tower' could be traced back to a Roman predecessor.
The castle remains that have been preserved (gate, great hall and keep) date back to the Staufer period around 1200. The castle remains were integrated into subsequent buildings. The foundations of the castle buildings are to a large extent identical to the surrounding castle wall.
These remains give us a good idea of how the castle might have looked during the 12th century.