What is known is that a tower was built on strategically favourable high ground in order to observe the surrounding area with line-of-sight visibility to other signal or beacon hills in the Weidenberg valley, in the upper Steinach valley and in the northern part of the Upper Palatinate (with its large castle on the Rauher Kulm). Over the course of time this motte tower was expanded to form an enclosure with a circular rampart.