Leienfels castle ruins

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Leienfels castle ruins
Leienfels castle ruins - view of the main castle with access and a flanking round tower (April 2011)

Leienfels castle ruins - view of the main castle with access and a flanking round tower (April 2011)

Creation time : around 1300
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Restored ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Quarry stone masonry
Place: Pottenstein - Leienfels
Geographical location 49 ° 42 ′ 34 "  N , 11 ° 22 ′ 11"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 42 ′ 34 "  N , 11 ° 22 ′ 11"  E
Height: 590  m above sea level NN
Leienfels castle ruins (Bavaria)
Leienfels castle ruins

The Leienfels castle ruins were a late medieval aristocratic castle , immediately northwest of the village of the same name Leienfels in Franconian Switzerland . The place belongs to the town of Pottenstein in the Upper Franconian district of Bayreuth in Bavaria .

The ruin of the hilltop castle is freely accessible and serves as a lookout point .

The Leienfelser Schlossberg with the ruins above the village of Graisch from the northeast from the neighboring Burgstall Leuenstein (May 2009)

Geographical location

The castle ruin is located in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park on the 590 meter high Leienfelser Schlossberg directly next to the village of Leienfels, about 4.6 kilometers northwest of the church of Betzenstein .

You can reach the ruin from the village of Leienfels in a north-westerly direction. The site of the former castle begins at the end of the village.

Nearby, in a westerly direction, are the ruins of Bärnfels Castle , to the north, on the lead stone near Graisch, were Leuenstein Castle . To the southeast is the Leupoldstein castle stables and in the southwest, in the Trubach valley , there were also castles, of which ruins or castle stables still exist.

History of the castle

Coat of arms from Siebmacher's coat of arms book from 1605
Remains of the moat wall (January 2006)
Remains of a building, the so-called Cold Corner (January 2006)

The castle, whose name is probably derived from Löwenfels , is one of the later foundations of castles in Franconian Switzerland and was probably not built until the beginning of the 14th century. Seibot I. von Egloffstein , who can be traced back to between 1285 and 1332, is assumed to be the builder .

The castle was first mentioned in documents in 1372. After a feud , the knight Götz von Egloffstein had to undertake to serve the bishop of Bamberg with his part of the castle that had been free until then.

In 1380 the castle was conquered by the troops of the Bishop of Bamberg and the Burgrave Friedrich V of Nuremberg . Götz von Egloffstein came to Nuremberg as a prisoner. His successors were also often involved in feuds. The castle was destroyed in 1397 on the orders of Wenceslas .

In 1502 Jobst I von Egloffstein sold the castle to the Bishop of Bamberg. It became the seat of a small episcopal office.

The castle was badly damaged during the Peasants' War in 1525. The occupation under Otto von Mengersdorf was able to prevent a conquest. The castle was restored immediately. In 1553 it was again badly damaged in the Second Margrave War . Rebuilding was slow this time. In 1594 Leienfels was attached to the Pottenstein episcopal office. In 1610 the complex was already designated as no longer habitable. During the Thirty Years' War in 1643 it was no longer considered worthwhile to repair the castle. In 1646 the bricks were removed from the remaining buildings and the complex was left to decay.

Today the ruin is a monument D-4-72-179-83 "Leienfels, formerly almost triangular complex, remains of the surrounding wall and the main building with corner tower, the core of the 14th century; Wall of the former outer bailey , 14th century ”, as well as the ground monument D-4-6234-0068“ Findings from the Middle Ages and the early modern times in the area of ​​the Leienfels castle ruins ”recorded by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation .

literature

  • 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. 137.
  • Ursula Pfistermeister : Well-defended Franconia - Volume 3: Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg . Fachverlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-418-00387-7 , pp. 84–85.
  • Walter Heinz: Former noble residences in the Trubach valley . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen and Jena 1996, ISBN 3-7896-0554-9 , pp. 8-26.
  • Gustav Voit, Walter Rüfer: A castle tour through Franconian Switzerland . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen 1991, ISBN 3-7896-0064-4 , pp. 117-120.
  • 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 , p. 217.
  • Toni Eckert, Susanne Fischer, Renate Freitag, Rainer Hofmann, Walter Thousand Pounds: The Castles of Franconian Switzerland - A cultural guide . Gürtler Druck, Forchheim, ISBN 3-9803276-5-5 , pp. 93-95.
  • Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland . Commission publisher Ferdinand Schöningh, Würzburg 1965, pp. 411-426.

Web links

Commons : Burg Leienfels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Location of the castle ruins in the Bavaria Atlas
  2. ↑ List of monuments for Pottenstein (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 152 kB)