In the area around the Kapfenburg a large number of traces of early settlements have been found. The evidence of human settlement ranges from the Roman Limes to grave fields of the Merovingian age (5th-8th century) to cult complexes from the Celtic period. The finds in the grave field and the settlement at the foot of the Kapfenburg suggest that nobility lived here, who may have maintained an early settlement at the location of the palace today as early as the 7th century.
The Kapfenburg lies on the eastern rim of the Swabian Highlands, which stretches diagonally across Baden-Württemberg between the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) and the Baar region in the Southwest, the upper Neckar River in the North, the Ries region in the East and the Danube River in the South as the highest plane of the Southwest German "Schichtstufenland" (region characterized by sedimentary rock formations). The nature, vegetation and environments offered human beings an immense diversity here at all times. The over 400 castles and palaces of the Swabian Highlands still bear witness today to the great fragmentation of legal holdings, the diverse countryside and the resulting variety of the settled castle and palace sites.