Gaillenreuth Castle (German: Burg Gaillenreuth) is situated high above the Wiesent river on its upper western perimeter in the village of Burggaillenreuth. The village belongs to the borough of Ebermannstadt in the county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. All that survives is the southern part of the hill castle. As well as parts of the outer ward there is a tower house from the post-1632 period.

The castle is one of six that the Bishop of Bamberg, Otto I of Mistelbach (1102–1139), procured for the Bishopric of Bamberg in 1122. Nothing is known of its previous occupants or who built it.

The next record of the castle comes from an appendix to the law book of the Bamberg bishop, Frederick of Hohenlohe (1342–1352). This notes that the Bishop of Bamberg, Leopold III of Bebenburg (1353–1363), paid 100 pounds of hellers to Conrad of Egloffstein for the maintenance of the castle.

Between 1353 and 1359 the castle appears to have been an episcopal fief fully occupied by the lords of Egloffstein, whereby in the course of time, part of the castle became their freehold property. In 1522, Conrad XI of Egloffstein transferred the allodial part of the castle to Bamberg bishop, Georg III of Limpurg (1505–1522), as a fief.

In 1525 the castle was razed during the Peasants' War, but was rebuilt by Conz of Egloffstein. On 8 July 1632, during the Thirty Years' War it was destroyed by Croatian troops. Exactly when it was rebuilt is not known. However, it is possible that only the southern part was rebuilt. In 1638 the lords of Egloffstein relinquished the castle from the episcopal fiefdom through an exchange. The Burggaillenreuther line of the lords of Egloffstein died out in 1682 with John (Hans) Philip II of Egloffstein.

In 1684 the lords of Egloffstein sold their allodial part of the castle to Freiherr Karl Friedrich Voit von Rieneck. In 1810 Anton Joseph Freiherr von Horneck purchased the castle. In 1847 it was described as derelict. A renovation of the surviving buildings was carried out at that time by August Horneck von Weinheim. The castles is now in private ownership.

The castle has nothing to do with the robber baron, Eppelein von Gailingen, who was hanged in 1381.

Gaillenreuth Castle

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Gößweinstein Castle (German: Burg Gößweinstein), also called Schloss Gößweinstein, is a mediaeval hilltop castle in Gößweinstein in the county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. It towers high above the market town and the River Wiesent and may have been the inspiration for Richard Wagner's grail castle in his opera, Parsifal. The castle is a Bavarian listed building, no. D-4-74-129-10.

The castle was probably named after its founder, Count Gozwin. He was killed in 1065, after he had invaded the territory of the Bishop of Würzburg. The first record of Goswinesteyn castle is dated to 1076. At that time, Emperor Henry IV had Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt, who had become embroiled in the Saxon Rebellion, incarcerated there, a fact which suggests it was already a strong fortress.

From the time of Bishop Otto of Bamberg there is evidence that the castle became part of the Bamberg estate. From 1348 to 1780 it was the seat of a vogtei under the bishops of Bamberg.

In 1525, during the Peasants' War it was destroyed and rebuilt. During the Second Margrave War in 1553 the castle was again destroyed and later rebuilt.

The castle became a Bavarian possession as a result of secularisation of the Bishopric of Bamberg in 1803. The Bavarian state sold the castle in 1875 to Pauline Rabeneck, a landowning widow from the Manor (Rittergut) of Aspach near Uffenheim. In 1890 Baron Edgar of Sohlern purchased the castle and had it remodelled in the Neogothic style. The castle chapel also has Late Gothic statues.

The castle is still in the hands of the von Sohlen family. It houses a medieval museum which may be visited for a small entrance fee and there is a beer garden and terrace with good views over the Wiesent valley and village of Gößweinstein.

Gößweinstein Castle

Kohlstein Castle (German: Burg Kohlstein) is situated on a rocky hillock in the village of Kohlstein northwest of Tüchersfeld and is the most recently built castle in Franconian Switzerland. It is also one of the smallest and most romantic castles. Today it is in private ownership and may not be visited.

The hill castle stands at a height of 440 m above sea level (NN) and may have been built around 1486 by Conz of Hirschaid. It was probably originally an allodial estate of the Lords of Hirschaid. Later, feudal sovereignty passed to the Bishopric of Bamberg.

In 1525 was destroyed in the Peasants' War. It was immediately rebuilt. In 1607/1608 the Hirschaid family had to sell their barony as they were short of money. On 23 May 1608 Wolf Philipp Groß von Trockau zu Tüchersfeld was enfeoffed with the castle and lordship. During the Thirty Years' War the castle appears to have been destroyed because in 1636 a modest new structure was built. It was comprehensively renovated between 1707 and 1714.

A garden house was probably built at this time, which was converted in 1743 into a castle and village chapel.

The Groß von Trockau family, who called themselves from 1658 zu Kohlstein und Tüchersfeld, had to sell the castle in 1713 to Otto Philipp von Gutenberg. After his death, his niece, Maria Anna Groß von Trockau, inherited the castle and estate.

The current structure, a residential building with attached tower, dates mainly to the 18th century. The tower was renovated in 1890.

In 1961 the Groß von Trockau family sold the castle, but not its associated chapel. The castle has had several owners since then.

Today the castle is protected as listed building no. D-4-74-129-42 a "schloss, the core dating to 1486, rebuilt after destruction in the Peasants' War, three-storey main building, in 1636 with the core of the 15th/16th century, east side with irregular triangular end, covered, round staircase tower, renovated in 1890; covered passageway to a two-storey outbuilding, 18th/19th century" and as area monument no. D-4-6234-0175 "Subterranean structures of the Late Mediaeval and Early Modern schloss of Kohlstein" by the Bavarian State Officer for Monument Protection.

Kohlstein Castle

Neideck Castle (German: Burgruine Neideck) is a former high mediaeval nobleman's castle above the village of Streitberg (de), in the municipality of Wiesenttal in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. As a result of its exposed location above the valley of the Wiesent, it has become a symbol of Franconian Switzerland.

The ruins are freely accessible; the tower house is used as a viewing point.

The ruins of the spur castle are located in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park about 800 metres east of the church in the village of Streitberg. They stand above the Wiesent valley on a hill spur (402.9 m above sea level (NN)) north-northeast of the hill of Wartleitenberg (488 m above NN).

The ruins may be reached on various hiking trails from the valley or from the villages on the plateau.

In the vicinity of Neideck there are other old castles: to the northwest are the ruins of Streitberg, to the north is the burgstall ("castle sitle") of Kulk on the hill called the Guckhüll, towards the east on a former river island in the Wiesent is the former motte-and-bailey castle of Wöhr near the hamlet of the same name. To the southeast, in the village of Trainmeusel, there also used to be a castle, of which the gable side is still visible. In the immediate vicininty of the Neideck, ca. 250 metres above and to the southwest is the Wartleiten and on the Hummerstein above Gasseldorf an early mediaeval burgstall.

The plateau above the Wiesent valley was already in use in prehistoric times as a settlement area. Archaeologically, traces of settlement of the Urnfield, the late Hallstatt and early La Tène cultures, the early Roman Empire and Great Migration period have been documented. The unusual size of the medieval castle and its two vast outer baileys with their deep ditches could indicate an early medieval hillfort.

The castle was first mentioned in 1312 as the property of the edelfrei family of Schlüsselberg. A Henry of Neideck, however, was recorded as early as 1219 in a documentary source. The castle was therefore probably built in the 12th century, possibly as early as 1150/60. At that time there was probably only a small wooden outer bailey in front of the main castle on the distinctive shoulder of rock above the Wiesent valley.

From 1312 it was owned by Conrad II of Schlüsselberg, the most important and the last representative of his family line. He expanded the Neideck into a fortress. With an area of 140 × 200 metres, it was one of the largest German castles. The shield wall, outer and inner moats, two artillery towers, main ditch and bridge, the tower house and adjoining building elements of the main castle are still visible. When Conrad of Schlüsselberg got into a feud in 1347 over the imposition of a toll with the bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg and the Burgrave of Nuremberg, they attacked and defeated him. Conrad, himself, was killed on 14 September 1347 by a stone fired from a trebuchet and the castle was subsequently destroyed. After the siege, Neideck became the seat of an office (Amt) of the bishops of Bamberg.

After the castle had survived the Peasant's War in 1525, it was captured and set on fire in 1553 in Second Margrave War by mercenaries of Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Since then it has been a ruin.

Until the early 19th century, the fortress was used by the residents of the valley as a quarry. Its decline was further accelerated in the period 1737-1743 when rock on which the castle stands was quarried for marble.

The increasing decline of the castle ruins prompted the municipality of Streitberg shortly after the Second World War to start implementing the first conservation measures. In 1996, the county of Forchheim began the comprehensive renovation of the ruins; this was completed in 2008 with the opening of an "Archaeological Park" on the castle site. The work was accompanied by archaeological excavations, but not always in accordance to the latest historic preservation methods.

The large castle complex consists of three separate areas, separated by deep neck ditches. Even the outer bailey was protected by a moat approximately 100 metres long, 22 metres wide and about 7 metres deep. The towering shield wall behind it was built around 1300. Of its other buildings only small traces of the foundations remain.

The middle bailey was reinforced in the early 16th century by two artillery roundels that have partly survived. The 'cross key' embrasures (Kreuzschlüsselscharten) of the eastern tower were designed for arquebuses and crossbows. The rectangular slits of the western roundel were probably added around 1531/32. This bastion flanked the approach road. The curtain walls between the roundels and the gate of the middle bailey have been almost completely lost.

The inner bailey is located on a projecting spur of rock that points northeast. The mighty tower house rises three stories above its foundations. It was built from 1347 after the destruction of the castle on those older foundations and walls that were still usable. The former vault of the ground floor probably dates to the early 13th century. Above the surviving three storeys there was originally a fourth stone upper storey, possibly even a timber-framed house. The obligatory elevated entrance on the first floor has survived; the ground floor access was only created in modern times. Since 2008, a staircase has enabled visitors to ascend to the 10 metre-high wall crown.

The remaining elements of the inner bailey date largely to the period around 1480, when the fortress was expanded and reinforced after a siege. Still recognisable are the barrel vaulted cellar of a building and the shaft of a filter cistern. The historical entrance consisted of a late mediaeval gatehouse and a stone bridge over the deep neck ditch. In front of the gatehouse lay a short drawbridge.

One theory is that the water supply was provided partially by the Trainmeusel Spring on the hillside to the north. Water from this spring was fed along a 1,300-metre-long tree trunk pipe made of oak trunks into the castle well. More recent excavations of the inner bailey, however, do not support this thesis by Nuremberg Castle researcher, Hellmut Kunstmann. The alleged well was in reality a filter cistern, fed by wooden pipes from the roofs of buildings immediately adjoining the bergfried and other nearby buildings.

The castle site is classified by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection (BLfD) as a hillfort of the Urnfield period, the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods, the early Roman Empire and the migration period and listed as monument number D-4-6133-0110. The subterranean parts of the ruins of the medieval and early modern castle are also a protected monument.

The name of the castle is probably derived from its location on a "lower corner" (German: Nieder = lower; Ecke = "corner"). Because of this, militarily very unfavourable, situation, a stone watchtower was erected on the ridge above the castle site. This tower was surrounded by a moat which is still visible in the terrain. The tower itself has almost completely disappeared, but is recalled in the local place name of Wartleiten (monument number D-4-6133-0153).

Neideck Castle

The ruins of Upper Tüchersfeld Castle (German: Burgstall Oberntüchersfeld) are all that remains of a high medieval castle that once rose high above the valley of the Püttlach in the church village of Tüchersfeld in Germany's Franconian Switzerland. It was built on a spur of the Mittelberg and was one of two castles in the village, the other being the Lower Tüchersfeld Castle.

The site or burgstall of the hill castle lies at a height of 455 m above sea level (NN) in the centre of the village of Tüchersfeld in the municipality of Pottenstein in the Upper Franconian county of Bayreuth in Bavaria.

Through the village of Tüchersfeld once ran a medieval road (Altstrasse), which wound its way from Gräfenberg via Hiltpoltstein and Obertrubach to Gößweinstein. In Tüchersfeld it crossed the Püttlach valley and then continued via Oberailsfeld and Waischenfeld to Hollfeld. The castles were probably built to control the road and river crossing.

The first historical records of the castles date to the 13th century, when a Friderici quondam de Thvchervelt was mentioned on 26 November 1243, they were probably built just before this.

The Bishop of Bamberg, Berthold of Leiningen, acquired one of the castles on 27 May 1262; from whom he bought it, is not known. It is likely that this was the castle of Frederick of Tüchersfeld. Seven years later, the bishop acquired the second castle there from Duke Louis of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, as a gift. However, the Duke must first have had to redeem the castle from Count Frederick Truhendingen, who at the time held it in fief. Prior to Truhendingen, Burkhard of Ahorn was the fief holder. The lords of the castle were the dukes of Bavarian dukes whose possessions in Tüchersfeld and Pottenstein came from the estate of Counts of Schweinfurt.

Ownership of the second castle was disputed. Henry, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, laid claim to the fortress. In a treaty dated 26 February 1287, however, he renounced the castle in Tüchersfeld. From then on, both castles were in the hands of the Bishopric of Bamberg. In the episcopal Urbarium A of 1323/27 was added: "Tvchersuelt et Tvchersuelt ambo Castra sunt episcopi" (both castles in Tüchersfeld are the bishop's).

In the episcopal Urbarium B of 1348 for the first time a distinction was made between Upper Tüchersfeld, which stood on a narrow rock pinnacle, and Lower Tüchersfeld.

Even before the entry in Urbarium of A 1323/27 Burgoberbach Tüchersfeld was already the seat of a minor Bamberg office or Amt. No later than 1386, a court chamber (Kastenamt) was established at the castle and a Walter Hauger of Rattelsdorf was recorded as the Steward (Kastner) of Tüchersfeld. This office had moved by 1399 to Waischenfeld.

At that time, the castle consisted of two parts, an episcopal administrative castle (Amtsburg) that from 1442 was always referred to as a schloss, and the "Upper House" (Oberhaus), which probably stood on the northern part of the rock reef. The Upper House was an episcopal fief and was owned by the family Groß of Trockau. Eberhard Groß was mentioned in 1422, he owned half the castle estate at the Upper House. In 1429 a half of the Upper House was owned by Jorg Groß.

From 1445, the Upper House was apparently destroyed; an enfeoffment deed to the brothers, Sittig and Hans Groß, in that year talks about the "Upper House of Tüchersfeld called the burgstall. The castle was apparently destroyed during the Hussite wars in 1430, and subsequently referred to in documents as a burgstall, the name for a castle that had been virtually levelled. In addition, in other enfeoffments to Sittig Groß from 1461, reference is made to a house that he is supposed to have built; whether this house stood on the castle site is not known. Sittig Groß had to sell the ruins of the Upper House in 1480 to his nephews, the brothers Andrew, Fritz and Jerome of Seckendorff-Rinhofen. "for reasons and the needs of his body to pay for its nourishment". A year later, the flattened castle was back in feudal possession of Albert, James, Eberhard and Michael Gross; and it was owned by the family until 1628. The part of the castle called the Upper House was apparently not rebuilt after its destruction by the Hussites, only the site continued to be enfeoffed by the bishop.

The site of the old castle is covered in dense woodland in places; only the southern tip of the rock reef is free of large trees. This rock tower is now a viewing point and is accessible on a metal ladder. Very little of the original castle has survived. At the entrance to the southern tip of the reef, steps may be seen that have been hewn out of the rock in a small through cave. On the castle plateau a few foundation wall remains can be seen.

Described by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection (BLfD) as a "medieval burgstall", the protected monument bear the identity D-4-6234-0037.

Upper Tüchersfeld Castle

Lower Tüchersfeld Castle (German: Burgruine Niederntüchersfeld) was one of the two castles in the church village of Tüchersfeld in the region of Franconian Switzerland in Bavaria, Germany. The ruins of this spur castle are situated on a rock pinnacle in the centre of the village of Dorfes Tüchersfeld in the municipality of Pottenstein in the Upper Franconian county of Bayreuth. On the rock tower behind it are the remains of Upper Tüchersfeld Castle.

The castle was first built in the 13th century and mentioned in 1269. On 27 May 1262 the Bishop of Bamberg, Berthold of Leiningen, bought the castle.

In addenda to episcopal Urbarium B of 1348, the two castles at Tüchersfeld were first distinguished by name; the upper castle was the seat of a district or Amt established before 1323-27, the lower castle was a fief, owned by Groß of Trockau.

In 1430, the castle was destroyed in the Hussite wars and rebuilt by the fief holder, Groß. In 1525, the castle was razed during in Peasants' War, and, in 1636, it was finally destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. In 1691 it was designated in the official description as "totally desolate". Around 1700 a Jewish settlement was established in the remaining ruins and, in 1755, 44 Jews lived there. The Jewish settlement in the Lower Castle was destroyed by fire in 1758. the remains of the old buildings were included in the newly constructed buildings of 1758-1762,

In 1959, the remaining parts of the site, now called the "Jew's Court" or Judenhof, were sold to private individuals. After the site was completely renovated in 1981 to 1983, the Franconian Switzerland Museum opened in 1985.

Of the old castle only a few wall remains and a rock tower have survived.

Lower Tüchersfeld Castle

Rabeneck Castle (German: Burg Rabeneck) is a former high mediaeval aristocratic castle which stands high above the valley of the Wiesent in the Upper Franconian district of Bayreuth in the German state of Bavaria.

The castle is open to the public; however, there is an entrance fee.

The hill castle is located within the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park on a rocky hill spur at a height of about 415 metres above the valley of the River Wiesent in the region of Franconian Switzerland, about three kilometres south-southwest of Waischenfeld.

Nearby are the ruins of Waischenfeld Castle and, to the east, Rabenstein Castle, which was probably the family seat of the Rabenecks, who belonged to the family of ministeriales the House of Rabenstein.

Further up the Wiesent valley on the gallows hill (Galgenberg) above the powder mill stood Schlüsselberg Castle, the ancestral castle of the lords of Schlüsselberg.

The family name, Rabeneck, first surfaces in 1217 in a list of fiefs of Tegernsee Abbey in conjunction with Ebertshausen Castle; then, in 1242, with Ulrich, a citizen of Munich; and subsequently in a 1257 document which mentioned the witnesses Siboto de Rabeneck and Chunrad de Rabenekke. A Nentwich of Rabenekke, presumably clergy, appeared in 1261 and 1296 in a document; and a Henry of Rabeneck (Heinrich von Rabenec) in 1276.

The Ravenecks of Babenberg probably come from the family of the lords of Rabenstein, as the word Raben ("raven") in both Rabenstein and Rabeneck and the close proximity of the two castles suggests. The suffix Eck ("corner") also indicates that the castle may have been built later that those whose names end in Stein ("stone"). In addition, both names suggest a connection with capital punishment. The Rabenstein with a site of a gallows, and Rabeneck with an executioner's sword.

A branch of the Rabensteins built Rabeneck before 1200 as an allodial castle, and named a cadet line of the family after it. Unlike Rabenstein, Rabeneck Castle was did not belong to the Barony of Waischenfeld, which the barons of Schlüsselberg occupied at that time, nevertheless they still had stakes in the castle. How they came to own these shares is not known.

After Conrad of Schlüsselberg had been killed defending Neideck Castle in 1347, his brother-in-law, Count Günter of Schwarzburg, his wife, Reichza, and her sister, Agnes, the wife of Henry of Plauen, sold the portion in 1348 "to which he had rights in the castle at Rebeneck" to the Bishopric of Bamberg. This agreement was confirmed in 1376 once more by Count John of Schwarzburg and his son, Günther. In 1360 Countess Sophia of Zollern, née von Schlüsselberg, petitioned in vain for the return of the family's part of the castle.

In 1353 the castle was wholly owned by the Rabensteins, so they had probably snapped up the part of the castle belonging to the Bishopric of Bamberg that was presumably in financial difficulties as a result of the purchase of the remaining Schlüsselberg estates. From 1360 Rabeneck was no longer mentioned as part of the Bamberg estate. In 1353, the Rabensteins granted access rights (Öffnungsrecht) to their allodial castle to the Burgraviate of Nuremberg for 12 years.

In 1388 Rabeneck Castle was an allodial possession of the lords of Stiebar, after Conrad Stiebar, Hofmeister of the Bishop of Bamberg, had presumably purchased it. They, too, granted the burgraves access rights for 700 guilders. In the same year Rabeneck was captured by the Bamberg knight, Ulrich of Aufseß and Hans Stiebar in the war of the cities, the reason was probably the access rights for the city of Nuremberg.

Cathedral dean, Friedrich Stiebar, instituted the castle chaplaincy in 1415, confirmed by Bishop Albert.

In the Peasants' War the castle fell victim in 1525 to rebellious peasants, who captured it and burned it out. Alexander Stiebar zu Rabeneck was given 485 guilders and Christoph Stiebar, who owned the other half of the castle, 554 guilders as recompense. Its rebuilding lasted until 1535.

Until 1530 Rabeneck remained in the hands of the Stiebars. On 28 January 1530 Alexander Stiebar turned his half of the castle into a fief of the Bishopric of Bamberg. 29 years later, Christoph Stiebar's share of the castle had also become a Bamberg fief, the bishopric now owning the whole castle. After the death of Christoph, who was in serious debt, his share went to his son, Endres, a Pfleger at Pottenstein, who died in 1572, and via William of Künsberg, who called himself Rabeneck in 1570, to Daniel Rabenstein. The latter was enfeoffed in 1577 with the purchased half. The second half of Rabeneck remained for longer in the possession of the Stiebars. After Daniel Stiebar, the last member of the zu Rabeneck line, had meanwhile become a cleric, his half went to the Stiebar line of Buttenheim and Ermreuth. In 1603 the Stiebars sold their half to their brother-in-law, George Werner of Rabenstein. At that tie Rabenstein Castle was already being described as dilapidated. The Rabensteins sold the castle in 1620 after the death of George for 36,000 guilders to the Bishopric of Bamberg. As a result of renewed financial difficulties in the bishopric, Bishop John Godfrey of Aschhausen had to advance the money on loan, the castle remained an inheritable possession until the bishopric could pay back the money. Rabeneck was still in the possession of the Aschhausens until 1682.

The guilders that the Rabensteins were paid, were of low value, so that Hans Dietrich and Hans Christoph of Rabenstein began a law suit against the bishopric in the second quarter of the 17th century, because they complained they had been paid worthless money. Not until 2 March 1716 was there an agreement between Bishop Lothair Francis of Schönborn and the Rabensteiners, with which the Rabensteins retrospectively became owners of the castle on 22 February. From Bishop Lothar they also received in 1717 a credit of 12,000 Reichstalers, which was raised in 1719 to 20,000 guilders, in order to repair the ruined castle. They certainly renewed the inner bailey; the outer bailey remained abandoned.

With the death of Peter John Albert of Rabenstein on 19 May 1742 the last Rabenstein at Rabeneck, the family died out and the Barony of Rabeneck reverted to the Bishopric of Bamberg. On 10 December 1742 Count Francis Rudolph Erwein of Schönborn, the brother of Bishop Frederick Charles of Schönborn was enfeoffed with Rabeneck Castle. However, after the death of Bishop Frederick on 26 July 1746 the cathedral chapter refused to recognise the enfeoffment to the Schönborns, and so a lengthy and costly court case was brought before the Reichshofrat. The Reichshofrat decided in favour of the Count of Schönborn, and on 1 October 1778 Bishop Adam Frederick of Seinsheim had to allow the counts to have possession again.

In 1975 the castle was sold to its present occupant, Norman Schiller. The castle may currently be visited and overnight stays are possible. Festivals may also be organised by prior arrangement.

Rabeneck Castle

The ruins of Streitburg Castle (German: Burgruine Streitburg or Streitberg Castle (Burgruine Streitberg) are the remains of a high mediaeval aristocratic castle above the village of Streitberg, in the market borough of Wiesenttal in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. They lie directly opposite the ruins of Neideck Castle, the symbol of Franconian Switzerland, on the other side of the valley.

The ruins are freely accessible to the public.

The ruins of the spur castle are located at a height of 403.7 m above sea level (NN) on a rocky southwest-pointing hill, the Streitberg, above the eponymous village, which is bounded to the south and west by the Wiesent river and to the west by the valley of Schauertal.

The ruins may be reached on footpaths from the village or the surrounding area.

Near the ruins of Streitburg are other former castles: to the northeast is the burgstall of Kulk on the hill named Guckhüll, to the southeast is Neideck Castle and the former motte castle of Wöhr which is on a former river island of the Wiesent near the hamlet of the same name. About 250 metres southwest and above the Neideck is the site of Wartleiten Castle, in the area of the present cemetery in Niederfellendorf is a castle site of the Fellendorfs and on the Hummerstein above Gasseldorf an early mediaeval burgstall.

Streitburg Castle

Rabenstein Castle (German: Burg Rabenstein) is a former high medieval aristocratic castle in the municipality of Ahorntal in the Upper Franconian county of Bayreuth in the German state of Bavaria.

The spur castle may be visited for an entrance fee.

History of the castle

The oldest parts of the castle were built in the first quarter of the 12th century as a residence in the Barony of Waischenfeld. At the same time the ministerialis family of Rabenstein,[4] who were the builders of the castle and bore the raven on their coat of arms, were recorded as being in the service of the barons of Waischenfeld.[5] In the early 13th century, the outer ward was expanded. During the following centuries ownership and occupancy of the castle changed hands several times. Its occupants included the House of Schlüsselberg and its lords, the burgraves of Nuremberg. In 1450 the castle was destroyed in the First Margrave War and in 1489 was rebuilt by Conz of Wirsberg.

In 1557 the castle went to the von Rabensteins who had ambitions for the nobility and bought back their family seat. Daniel of Rabenstein remodelled the castle in 1570, the old outer ward being merged with the inner ward.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was again completely destroyed by imperial troops, because its lord, Hans Christoph of Rabenstein, aligned himself with the Swedes. After the war between 1648 and 1728 a few small buildings and a farm were re-established.

In 1742 the von Rabensteins died out and the castle went to the counts of Schönborn-Wiesentheid, who revamped the ruins in 1829/30 for a royal visit by Ludwig I.

Present use

In the recent past the castle was converted into a hotel for events and conferences. As well as the castle there is a falconry used for research and education which has over 80 species of birds of prey and a café with a beer garden. The castle has been used as a filming location, most notably as Schloss Ritter, the home of Gabriel Knight in the video game Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.




Rabenstein Castle (Upper Franconia)

Schloss Hundshaupten is a quadrangular castle in the village of Hundshaupten in the municipality of Egloffstein in the German county of Forchheim.

History

The castle is recorded for the first time in 1369 in the ownership of the Lords of Wiesenthau. It was, like almost all castles in Franconian Switzerland, built on a hill spur of the Franconian Jura plateau jutting out into the valley. Following its destruction in 1388 by Nuremberg during the War of the Cities, in 1412 by Burgrave Frederick VI of Nuremberg and in 1525 during the Peasants' War, then it was rebuilt in 1561.

In 1613, when the Wiesenthau line at Hundshaupten died out, the fief reverted to Michelsberg Abbey in the city of Bamberg. In 1661, after the Thirty Years' War, the abbey sold the castle to Hieronymus Christopher, Freiherr of Pölnitz, town commandant of Forchheim, who resided in Aschbach, now a village in the municipality of Schlüsselfeld. In the years that followed, work was carried out, but its castle character was not changed.

In 1991, part of the estate was gifted by Gudila, Freifrau of Pölnitz to the county of Forchheim, including Hundshaupten Wildlife Park.

Hieronymus Christopher Heinrich Freiherr von Pölnitz, great nephew and adoptive son of Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz and Gudila Freifrau von Pölnitz continue to live there.

Meaning of the placename

The meaning of the placename of Hundshaupten can no longer be explained with certainty today. There are several possibilities that have been suggested and compared by Dorothea Fastnacht.

The names of the neighbouring villages of Hundshaupten and Hundsboden should be seen as connected. The suffix, '-haupten' probably refers to the hill spur on which, initially a castle and, later, the present schloss were built. By contrast the suffix, '-boden', suggests a level field of fertile soil on the plateau that was cleared in the High Middle Ages as part of the expansion of cultivated land. The prefix 'Hund-' probably refers to the owner of the clearance and the castle with the office of a Hunno (chief of a Hundertschaft). With the firm establishment of feudal lordship this office had become hereditary during the High Middle Ages and filled by local nobility. Originally, during the Migration Era and in the Early Middle Ages the leader of a community of free farmers was called a Hunno.

Schloss Hundshaupten

Waischenfeld Castle (German: Burgruine Waischenfeld) is a ruined rock castle on a rocky plateau a few metres west of the town of Waischenfeld in the province of Upper Franconia in the German state of Bavaria.

History

The first clues to a castle in the village of Waischenfeld date to the year 1079, when Wirint von Waischenfeld was mentioned in the records as a member of an important noble family in the area of the middle Wiesent. The Waischenfelds were related to the dynastic family of the lords of Aufseß.

The hill castle was first recorded in 1122 as Urbs. Following the death of Ulrich of Waischenfeld, the last in the Waischenfeld family line, in 1216 the castle and lordship of Waischenfeld went to Eberhard III of Greifenstein, who built a new fortress south of Waischenfeld, Schlüsselberg Castle. After the death of Conrad II of Schlüsselberg, the castle and town of Waischenfeld went in 1348 into the hands of the Bishopric of Bamberg.

In 1430 the castle was badly damaged during the Hussite Wars; it was then re-enfeoffed by the bishopric to the nobility between 1438 and 1562. It was destroyed again between 1552 and 1553 during the Second Margrave War, in which Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach fought mainly against the (Catholic) bishoprics in order to try and gain a supremacy in Franconia. During the conflict the castle was captured three times by the margrave's troops; after being plundered it was razed on 7 June 1553.

From about 1600, the old castle was used as a grain store and slowly fell into disrepair. The ruins were finally demolished in 1876/77 and 1889.

Description

The tower known as the Steinerner Beutel ("Stone Bag") is the symbol of the town of Waischenfeld. The Romanesque round tower is roughly 13 metres high and stands on a limestone crag. It belongs to the northernmost part of the castle, the Rüssenbach castle estate. The tower was originally a bergfried or bergfried-like watchtower with an elevated entrance.

