Ringsheim castle is a very extensive castle which, unusually, stands alone in open fields. Situated between the boundary forest of Flamersheim and the crown road, it was fiercely fought over due to its strategic position. The village originally belonging to the castle was destroyed in the 17th century. Today Ringsheim is an extensive castle with a manor house, an inner fore-castle with working quarters and the area of the large outer fore-castle with a well preserved ditch around it, in which the church ruins stand. Merely ruins of the outer fore-castle have been preserved. Most of the main building remains as an impressive 17th century castle.
In the 13th century Ringsheim was enfeoffed by Cologne to the eminent landowners of Ringsheim, who possessed large tracts of land in the locality. Because of excessive debts the entire estate was sold in 1455 to Johann Hurth von Schoeneck. When the von Schoeneck family died out in 1615, the castle reverted to the Archbishop until 1635, when it was enfeoffed to the Chief Constable Johann, Baron von Beck. In 1656 his son sold the entire estate to Philipp von der Vorst-Lombeck. In 1713, after a long legal process, the castle was returned to the heirs of the original owner Hurth von Schoeneck, the Barons von Harff zu Dreiborn and Ringsheim. After these frequent changes of owner, Ringsheim remained the family property of the Barons von Dalwigk for about 200 years and was inherited in 1900 by Wennemar von Schaffhausen.
References:Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.
The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.
The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.
Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.
The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.
The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.