Reichsburg
An imperial castle is a castle that belonged to the imperial estate , i.e. the royal estate of the Roman-German electoral kings or emperors , but not to their private household . With the death of the respective king, they did not fall to his private heir, but to his successor in office.
history
The castles could have been built or purchased on behalf of the head of the empire. They were administered by Burgmannen or Reichsministerialen . The Ministerialamt was sometimes hereditary verlehnt and the viscount title connected, so when Burgraviate of Nuremberg .
A clear definitional delimitation of castle-like fortified royal palaces is not possible, although the palaces represented the older version of the ruler's seats and were not always strongly fortified. Like the early Middle Ages, many imperial castles were used by the German kings as temporary accommodation in the High and Late Middle Ages .
A large number of imperial castles were built in regions such as Swabia , Franconia , the Palatinate and Alsace , where there was a high density of imperial estates during the Staufer period . This usually included entire territories with villages and towns, sometimes only limited agricultural areas; often the imperial castles - like the Palatinate before them - were also located near the vast imperial forests .
List of imperial castles
Map with all linked sites: OSM | WikiMap
in Germany:
- Baden-Württemberg:
- Reichsburg Grüningen (Markgröningen)
- Stettenfels Castle (Untergruppenbach)
- Reichenstein Castle (Neckargemünd)
- Bavaria:
- Nuremberg Castle (Nuremberg)
- Rothenburg (Rothenburg ob der Tauber)
- Koenigsberg Castle (Koenigsberg)
- Wildenberg Castle (Preunschen)
- Burgstall Schwedenschanze (Cham)
- Hesse:
- Boyneburg (Wichmannshausen)
- Kaiserpfalz Gelnhausen (Gelnhausen)
- Rödelheim Castle (Rödelheim)
- Friedberg Castle (Friedberg)
- Hayn Castle (Dreieichenhain)
- Kalsmunt Castle (Wetzlar)
- Munzenberg Castle (Munzenberg)
- Lower Saxony:
- North Rhine-Westphalia:
- Berenstein Castle (Bergstein)
- Rhineland-Palatinate:
- Ramburg (Ramberg)
- Reichsburg Cochem (Cochem)
- Landskron Castle (Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler)
- Trifels Castle (Annweiler)
- Berwartstein Castle (Erlenbach near Dahn)
- Guttenberg Castle (Oberotterbach)
- Hammerstein Castle (Hammerstein)
- Landeck Castle (Landau)
- Landskron Castle (Oppenheim) (Oppenheim)
- Lindelbrunn Castle (Vorderweidenthal)
- Meistersel Castle (Ramberg)
- Schöneck Castle (Boppard)
- Wegelnburg (Schönau)
- Wildburg (Sargenroth)
- Saarland:
- Kirkel Castle (Neuhäusel)
- Saxony:
- Mylau Castle (Mylau)
- Saxony-Anhalt:
- Old Falkenstein (Falkenstein / Harz)
- Beyernaumburg (Beyernaumburg)
- Thuringia:
- Kyffhausen Castle (Steinthaleben)
in France:
- Girbaden Castle (Mollkirch, Bas-Rhin department)
- Hohkönigsburg (Orschwiller, Bas-Rhin department)
- Kaysersberg Castle (Haut-Rhin department)
- Pflixburg (Wintzenheim, Haut-Rhin department)
in Switzerland:
- Gümmenen Castle (Gümmenen, Canton of Bern)
- Nydegg Castle (Bern, Canton Bern)
- Weissenau Castle (Unterseen, Canton of Bern)
literature
- Jens Friedhoff: Reichsburg. In: Horst W. Böhme , Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (Hrsg.): Dictionary of castles, palaces and fortresses. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1 , p. 208, doi: 10.11588 / arthistoricum.535 .
- Michael Losse : Little Castle Studies. Regionalia, Euskirchen 2011, ISBN 978-3-939722-39-7 , p. 60.
