Bärnfels Castle

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Bärnfels Castle
Bärnfels castle ruins with the rock tower on which the keep stood (August 2009)

Bärnfels castle ruins with the rock tower on which the keep stood (August 2009)

Creation time : around 1330
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Restored ruin
Standing position : Ministerialenburg
Construction: Quarry stone masonry
Place: Bärnfels in the municipality of Obertrubach
Geographical location 49 ° 42 '52 "  N , 11 ° 20' 37.4"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 42 '52 "  N , 11 ° 20' 37.4"  E
Height: 515  m above sea level NN

The ruins of Bärnfels Castle are the remains of a late medieval aristocratic castle on the southern edge of the village of Bärnfels in the municipality of Obertrubach in the Upper Franconian district of Forchheim in Bavaria . The castle ruins of the Spornburg are freely accessible at all times.

Geographical location

The ruin of the Spornburg rises on a broad 515  m above sea level interspersed with rocks . NN high mountain spur of the so-called Bergschmidtsknocks above the place of the same name in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park , about 2.2 kilometers north of the church of Obertrubach.

You can reach the castle ruins from the village of Bärnfels via a few steps.

To the east there is the Leienfels castle ruins , to the south-east of the Leupoldstein castle stables and to the south a castle stables in Obertrubach. To the north is the Gößweinstein Castle .

History of the castle

Coat of arms of the Lords of Egloffstein
Bärnfels, steel engraving (1858)
Bärnfels castle ruins; Recording technology HDR = High Dynamic Range Image (January 2017)
Bärnfels castle ruins (February 2008)

The castle complex was first mentioned on August 2, 1389, when the owners at the time, Konrad Hans and Ulrich von Egloffstein zu Bärenfels, had to transfer their outer bailey , the so-called Niedere Veste, to fiefdom after a feud with the Landgrave von Leuchtenberg . However, the castle was built much earlier, probably in 1330 by Siboto I. von Egloffstein , founder of the Bärenfels line of this family.

In 1483 the fief came to the Egloffsteiner line of Gaillreuth, which did not hold it for too long, because in 1495 the last loan from the Leuchtenberg landgraves took place.

After the castle was burned down by Egloffstein's subjects during the Peasant Wars in 1525, it was never completely restored.

In 1580, the Bärnfels reign and the castle ruins were sold to the Bamberg Monastery and became Bavarian state property through secularization in 1803.

Since large parts of the complex were in danger of collapsing, they were demolished in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1877 the Nuremberg pharmacist Kleemann acquired the facility and had the few remains restored for the first time.

After the ruins were renovated in 1969 by the then Bärnfels community, they were made accessible to visitors again.

Today, the Bärnfels castle ruins are again owned by the von Egloffstein family , whose ancestor probably built it once.

literature

  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages. Floor plan lexicon . Flechsig Verlag, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-88189-360-1 , p. 91.
  • Ursula Pfistermeister : Defensive Franconia. Volume 3: Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg . Hans Carl Verlag, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-418-00387-7 , pp. 24-25.
  • Walter Heinz: Former noble residences in the Trubach valley . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen and Jena 1996, ISBN 3-7896-0554-9 , pp. 40-57.
  • Gustav Voit, Brigitte Kaulich, Walter Rüfer: From the countryside in the mountains to Franconian Switzerland - a landscape is discovered . (Publication series of the Franconian Switzerland Association, Volume 8) Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen 1992, ISBN 3-7896-0511-5 , pp. 96-99.
  • Gustav Voit, Walter Rüfer: A castle tour through Franconian Switzerland . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen 1991, ISBN 3-7896-0064-4 , pp. 28-32.
  • Björn-Uwe Abels , Joachim Zeune , a. A .: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany. Volume 20: Franconian Switzerland . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0586-8 , p. 138.
  • Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland . Schöningh Verlag, Würzburg 1965, pp. 404-411.
  • Toni Eckert, Susanne Fischer, Renate Freitag, Rainer Hofmann, Walter Thousand Pounds: The castles of Franconian Switzerland . Gürtler Druck, Forchheim o. J., ISBN 3-9803276-5-5 , pp. 24-27.

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Bärnfels  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files