Rabeneck Castle

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Rabeneck Castle
Rabeneck Castle from the north

Rabeneck Castle from the north

Creation time : Around 1250
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Standing position : Ministeriale
Place: Waischenfeld- Rabeneck
Geographical location 49 ° 49 '21.8 "  N , 11 ° 19' 38.3"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 49 '21.8 "  N , 11 ° 19' 38.3"  E
Height: 415  m above sea level NN
Rabeneck Castle (Bavaria)
Rabeneck Castle

Rabeneck Castle is a former high medieval aristocratic castle , high above the Wiesent valley in Franconian Switzerland in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park . It is located in the Waischenfeld area in the Upper Franconian district of Bayreuth in Bavaria .

Geographical location

The hilltop castle was about 415  m above sea level. NHN built on a rocky mountain spur above the Wiesent valley .

View from the Wiesentgrund to the castle and the hamlet of Rabeneck

Rabeneck Castle an der Wiesent is located approximately halfway between the confluence of the Aufseß downstream at Doos in the southwest and the Waischenfeld town center, three kilometers away, in the northeast with the Waischenfeld castle ruins .

Closer up the Wiesenttal, above the powder mill on the Galgenberg, was the Schlüsselberg Castle , the ancestral seat of the Lords of Schlüsselberg .

A good three kilometers to the east of Rabeneck Castle is Rabenstein Castle as a spur castle above the valley of the Ailsbach at a similar height , which was probably the ancestral castle of the Rabeneckers , who belonged to the tribe of the Ministerials von Rabenstein .

History of the castle

The foundation of Rabeneck Castle

View from the circular hiking trail to Rabeneck Castle

The family name Rabeneck appears for the first time in 1217 in a fiefdom directory of the Tegernsee Abbey in connection with Ebertshausen Castle , then in 1242 with Ulrich, a citizen of Munich and with the documentary witnesses Siboto de Rabeneck and Chunrad de Rabenekke mentioned in 1257 . A Nentwich von Rabenekke , presumably clergy, appeared in a document in 1261 and 1296, a Heinrich von Rabenec in 1276.

The Rabenecker von Babenberg presumably come from the family of the Lords von Rabenstein, as indicated by the defining word Rabe at Rabenstein and Rabeneck, and the proximity of the two castles also speaks for it. The Eck part of the name also indicates a later founding than for castles that end with stone in the name. In addition, both names are related to the jurisdiction of the neck. The raven stone as the place of the gallows, the raven corner as a guiding sword.

Coat of arms of those of Rabenstein above the castle gate

A branch of the Rabensteiners will have Rabeneck Castle built before 1200 as a free castle and named after it in a sideline. In contrast to Rabenstein Castle, Rabeneck Castle did not belong to the Waischenfeld rulership, which the noblemen of Schluesselberg held at that time, but the Schluesselbergers had shares in the castle. How they got these shares is not known.

After Konrad von Schlüsselberg fell in Neideck Castle in 1347 , Konrad's son-in-law, Count Günter von Schwarzburg , his wife Reichza and her sister Agnes, the wife of Heinrich von Plauen , sold the share "what he has on the right in Castle ze Rabeneck" in 1348 the diocese of Bamberg . This contract was confirmed again in 1376 by Count Johann von Schwarzburg and his son Günther. In 1360, Countess Sophia von Zollern , née von Schlüsselberg, sued unsuccessfully for the return of the share in Rabeneck.

Rabeneck Castle under changing owners

In 1353 the castle was completely owned by the Rabensteiners, who had probably bought up part of the Bamberg diocese, which had probably got into financial difficulties due to the purchase of the other Schluesselberg properties. From 1360 Rabeneck was no longer mentioned in Bamberg ownership. In 1353, the Rabensteiners granted the burgraves of Nuremberg the right to open their free castle for twelve years .

In 1388, Rabeneck Castle was freely owned by the Lords of Stiebar , after they had probably acquired Konrad Stiebar, court master of the Bishop of Bamberg. They also granted the burgrave the right to open for 700 guilders . In the same year, Rabeneck was captured by the Bambergers Ulrich von Aufseß and Hans Stiebar in the city ​​war , the reason was probably the opening rights for the Nuremberg residents.

The castle chapel of St. Bartholomew, built in 1412 on the rocky spur
Interior of the castle chapel of St. Bartholomew

Cathedral dean Friedrich Stiebar founded the castle chaplaincy in 1415, which Bishop Albrecht confirmed.

During the Peasants' War in 1525 , the castle fell victim to the rebellious peasants who captured it and burned it down. Alexander Stiebar zu Rabeneck received 485 guilders and Christoph Stiebar, who owned the other half of the castle, 554 guilders as compensation. The reconstruction lasted until 1535.

Rabeneck remained in the possession of the Stiebar until 1530, on January 28, 1530 Alexander Stiebar gave half of the castle to the Bamberg Monastery as a fief ; 29 years later, Christoph Stiebar's share in the castle became a fief of the Bamberg family, who now hold the entire castle had. After the death of the heavily indebted Christoph, his share went to his son Endres, a nurse at Pottenstein, who died in 1572, and through Wilhelm von Künsberg , who called himself zu Rabeneck as early as 1570, to Daniel Rabenstein. This was enfeoffed in 1577 with the purchased half. The second half of Rabeneck remained in the Stiebar's possession for longer. After Daniel Stiebar, the last member of the Rabeneck line, now in a clerical state, his half came to the Stiebarschen lines in Buttenheim and Ermreuth. In 1603 the Stiebar sold their half to their brother-in-law Georg Werner von Rabenstein. Rabenstein Castle was already described as dilapidated

The Rabensteiner sold the castle to the diocese of Bamberg for 36,000 guilders in 1620 after the death of George. Due to renewed financial difficulties in the diocese, Bishop Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen had to advance the money, the castle remained in his and his heirs' possession until the diocese could repay the sum. Rabeneck was still in the possession of the von Aschhausen family in 1682 .

The guilders that the Rabensteiners received were of little value, so that Hans Dietrich and Hans Christoph von Rabenstein filed a lawsuit against the diocese in the second quarter of the 17th century, as they were "subsequently paid in bad money". It was not until March 2, 1716 that a comparison was made between Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn and the Rabensteiners, with which the Rabensteiners came back into possession of the castle retroactively to February 22nd. Bishop Lothar they also received in 1717 a loan of 12,000 Empire thaler , which was increased to 20,000 guilders in 1719 to set repaired the ruinous castle. They probably only renewed the main castle, the outer castle remained desolate.

Rabeneck owned by the gentlemen of Schönborn

With the death of Peter Johann Albrecht von Rabenstein on May 19, 1742, the last Rabensteiner on Rabeneck, the family died out and the manor Rabeneck fell back to the diocese of Bamberg. On December 10, 1742, Count Franz Rudolph Erwein von Schönborn , the brother of Bishop Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, received Rabeneck Castle as a fief. However , after the death of Bishop Friedrich on July 26, 1746, the cathedral chapter did not recognize the fief of the Schönborn family, which resulted in a lengthy and costly process before the Reichshofrat. The Reichshofrat agreed that the Counts of Schönborn were right, so on October 1, 1778, Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim had to reinstate the counts in their possession.

Todays use

In 1975 the castle was sold to its current owner, Norman Schiller. The castle can currently be visited. Overnight stays are also possible. Parties can also be organized on request. The castle can be visited for an entrance fee.

  • Historical illustrations

  • View from the west, steel engraving (1827) by Friedrich Geissler

  • View from the west, steel engraving (1834) by Conrad Wießner

  • View from the west, lithograph (around 1840) by Theodor Rothbarth after a drawing by Carl Käppel

  • View from the southeast, steel engraving (1840) by E. Grünewald after a drawing by Ludwig Richter

literature

  • Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland . Commission publisher Ferdinand Schöningh, Würzburg 1965, pp. 63–83.
  • Björn-Uwe Abels, Joachim Zeune, among others: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 20: Franconian Switzerland . Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH and Co., Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0586-8 , pp. 233-235.
  • Gustav Voit, Walter Rüfer: A castle trip through Franconian Switzerland , Palm and Enke Verlag, Erlangen 1984, ISBN 3-7896-0064-4 , pp. 149–154.
  • Toni Eckert, Susanne Fischer, Renate Freitag, Rainer Hofmann, Walter Thousand Pounds: The Castles of Franconian Switzerland: A cultural guide . Gürtler Druck, Forchheim o. J., ISBN 3-9803276-5-5 , pp. 125-129.
  • Ursula Pfistermeister : Wehrhaftes Franken - Volume 3: Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg , Fachverlag Hans Carl GmbH, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-418-00387-7 , pp. 102-104.
  • Rüdiger Bauriedel, Ruprecht Konrad-Röder: Medieval fortifications and low-nobility mansions in the Bayreuth district . Ellwanger Druck und Verlag, Bayreuth 2007, ISBN 978-3-925361-63-0 , p. 152.

Web links

Commons : Burg Rabeneck (Upper Franconia)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files