Burg Hohenzollern5km south of Hechingen lies Castle Hohenzollern (855m), ancestral home of the famous Hohenzollern family. The Zollerns were originally Swabian overlords, who through marriage became the Burggraves of Nürnberg and soon took the grander name of Hohenzollern. The most important branch of this family became the rulers of Prussia and later the emperors of a united Germany in 1871. The castle contains two chapels. The 12th century catholic Chapel of St. Michael, the only authentic feudal part of the castle that remains, contains the oldest stained glass windows in Germany. The protestant chapel in the north wing houses, since 1952, when they were moved from Potsdam, the tombs of Friedrich Wilhelm I and that of his son Frederick the Great. Mementoes of Frederick II can be seen in the treasury (Schatzkammer).
