| Altenburg | |
|---|---|
 Altenburg Castle, seen from the East | |
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| General information | |
| Type | Hill castle |
| Town or city | Bamberg |
| Country | Germany |
The Altenburg is a castle that sits on the tallest of the seven hills of Bamberg, southern Germany, overlooking the town. It is located in Upper Franconia, a region in the state of Bavaria, and dates back to at least 1109.
The first mention of the Altenburg was in 1109, although it is likely that it was built on the spot of an earlier palisade castle.
It first served as what is known in German as a "Fliehburg". This is a castle that was not regularly inhabited, but served mainly for city defense as a place where local residents could flee to in times of danger.
In 1251, the Bamberg "Fürstbischöfe," the sovereign bishops of Bamberg, acquired the castle. From 1305 to 1553, it was the residence of the bishops.
In 1553, during the Second Margrave War, the army of Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, burned the castle down. Afterward the castle was used as a prison for a while.
In 1801, the Bamberg physician Adalbert Friedrich Marcus acquired the decaying castle and restored it from the ground up. The author E. T. A. Hoffmann, who was friends with Marcus, felt so drawn to the castle that he frequently stayed for a long time in one of the wall towers during the years 1808 to 1813.
In 1818, a society for the maintenance of the Altenburg, named the "Altenburgverein e.V. Bamberg," received the castle. The society was founded by Anton von Grafenstein, the postmaster of Bamberg.
Today the castle is open for public tours. There is also a restaurant in the castle called the "Restaurant Altenburg." The restaurant also manages the so-called Knights Hall, used mostly for events such as weddings or other celebrations.
From 1952 to 1982, a brown bear named Poldi lived in a Zwinger (a defensive enclosure) in the castle. The Zwinger is still present, but today only houses a stuffed bear.
Bamberg is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in 2022. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby Babenberch castle. Cited as one of Germany's most beautiful towns, with medieval streets and buildings, the old town of Bamberg with around 2,400 timber houses has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
Forchheim is a Landkreis (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Bamberg, Bayreuth, Nürnberger Land and Erlangen-Höchstadt.
Hof is a town on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconian region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtel Mountains and Franconian Forest upland regions. The town has 47,296 inhabitants, the surrounding district an additional 95,000.
Kulmbach is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town, once a stronghold of the Principality of Bayreuth, is renowned for its massive Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or Bratwürste.
Aura Abbey was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Aura an der Saale in Bavaria in the Diocese of Würzburg.
Hallstadt is a town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg on the left bank of the Main, 4 km north of Bamberg.
The Diocese of Dresden–Meissen is a Latin Church diocese of Catholic Church in Germany with its seat in Dresden. It is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Berlin.
The Second Margrave War was a conflict in the Holy Roman Empire between 1552 and 1555. Instigated by Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth, who was attempting to form a Duchy of Franconia under his rule, the war resulted in widespread devastation in Franconia, while also affecting the Rhineland and Lower Saxony.
The Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire. It goes back to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bamberg established at the 1007 synod in Frankfurt, at the behest of King Henry II to further expand the spread of Christianity in the Franconian lands. The bishops obtained the status of Imperial immediacy about 1245 and ruled their estates as Prince-bishops until they were subsumed to the Electorate of Bavaria in the course of the German Mediatisation in 1802.
The House of Andechs was a feudal line of German princes in the 12th and 13th centuries. The counts of Dießen-Andechs obtained territories in northern Dalmatia on the Adriatic seacoast, where they became Margraves of Istria and ultimately dukes of a short-lived imperial state named Merania from 1180 to 1248. They were also self-styled lords of Carniola.
Prägrad Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Carinthia, Austria. It is located near Feldkirchen on a hillside above the road to Lake Ossiach.
The Bamberg State Library is a combined universal, regional and research library with priority given to the humanities. Today it is housed in the New Residence, the former prince-bishop's new palace. The Free State of Bavaria is responsible for the library.
Pottenstein Castle is one of the oldest castles in Franconian Switzerland, a region in the German state of Bavaria. It stands on a rock above the eponymous town of Pottenstein in the Upper Franconian county of Bayreuth. The castle is home to a museum and both may be visited for a fee.
Gunzendorf is a small village located in Bavaria, Germany. It is in Upper Franconia, in the Bamberg district. Gunzendorf is a constituent community of Buttenheim.
Gößweinstein Castle, 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.
Egloffstein Castle is a former high mediaeval, aristocratic castle, that stands immediately west of the eponymous village of Egloffstein in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria.
Forchheim Fortress was laid out after the occupation of the town of Forchheim during the Second Margrave War (1552) by the Bishopric of Bamberg. Today about one third of the fortification works have survived and have been incorporated into the municipal parks.
Schloss Kunreuth is situated on the northwestern edge of the eponymous village of Kunreuth which is part of the collective municipality of Gosberg in the county of Forchheim, in the province of Upper Franconia in the south German state of Bavaria.
Hiltpoltstein Castle was originally a high mediaeval aristocratic castle dating to the 11th or 12th century. It stands in the centre of the market village of Markt Hiltpoltstein in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. Its present appearance as a triple-winged building goes back to renovations carried out at the end of the 16th century.
Burg Dagestein is a castle in the city of Vilseck in the Oberpfalz region of northeastern Bavaria, Germany.
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49°52′52″N10°52′08″E / 49.881°N 10.869°E
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