Bilstein Castle | |
---|---|
Burg Bilstein | |
Lennestadt-Bilstein | |
Coordinates | 51°05′46″N8°01′10″E / 51.096250°N 8.0193056°E Coordinates: 51°05′46″N8°01′10″E / 51.096250°N 8.0193056°E |
Type | hill castle, spur castle |
Site information | |
Condition | preserved |
Site history | |
Built | 1202 to 1225 |
Garrison information | |
Occupants | nobility |
Bilstein Castle (German : Burg Bilstein) is a hill castle in the Sauerland in Germany. It is located in the eponymous quarter of Bilstein in the town of Lennestadt. Since 1927 the building has been a youth hostel.
The word Bilstein (and linguistically related terms such as Beilstein, Bielstein etc.) is not uncommon as a field and place name. According to Förstemann, [1] it means something like "a steeply towering or prominent rock". This description certainly applies to the promontory of Bilstein's castle hill. Thus, presumably the name was transferred from the hill, which is made of keratophyre (green volcanic rock), to the castle and adjacent settlement. Other explanations relate the name to a hunting place, an idol or the Old High German word billi for "sword". [2]
Bilstein is a spur castle on an extension of the nearby hill of Rosenberg. This hill spur falls away steeply on three sides so that the castle's defences only needed to be oriented towards the hill to the northeast. The appearance of the castle is thus dominated by its two round towers, each with a diameter of about eight metres: the Chapel Tower in the northwest and the Hohnekamp Tower [3] in the southeast. The towers are connected by a tunnel under the castle courtyard, above ground is a 20th century archway.
The northwestern wing of the main ward and the central block in the southwest are historical structures. By contrast, the wing in the southeast was built in 1978 to expand the hostel. On the valley side of the central block is a portal terrace (Söller) on which a prominent lime tree is growing.
Today a brick bridge spans the moat between the inner and outer baileys. The moat has been partly filled-in and is about 15 metres wide. The outer bailey comprises three buildings, which are referred to as the gatehouse, timber-framed house and festival hall.
Lennestadt lies in the Sauerland in southeast North Rhine-Westphalia and is a community in Olpe district. It is the district's most populous municipality. Lennestadt itself is not an actual town but a community which comprises several towns and villages.
Olpe is a town situated in the foothills of the Ebbegebirge in North Rhine-Westphalia, roughly 60 km east of Cologne and 20 km northwest of Siegen. It is part of the Regierungsbezirk of Arnsberg and is the seat of the district of Olpe.
Finnentrop is a Gemeinde (municipality) in Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Kirchhundem is a German community in North Rhine-Westphalia. It belongs to the Olpe district.
The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle. It is protected by the outer ward and, sometimes also a Zwinger, moats, a curtain wall and other outworks. Depending on topography it may also be called an upper bailey or upper ward.
Dill is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town, and it is home to a castle ruin that bears the same name.
Rötteln Castle, located above the Lörrach suburb of Haagen, lies in the extreme southwest corner of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, just 10 kilometres north-east of the Swiss City of Basel. The fortification was one of the most powerful in the southwest, and today, it is the third largest castle ruin in Baden.
Münzenberg Castle is a ruined hill castle in the town of the same name in the Wetteraukreis, Hesse, Germany. It dates from the 12th century. It is one of the best preserved castles from the High Middle Ages in Germany.
Altena Castle is a medieval hill castle in the town of Altena in North Rhine-Westphalia. Built on a spur of Klusenberg hill, the castle lies near the Lenne in the Märkischer Kreis.
The ruins of Sayn Castle, the 12th century family castle of the counts of Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein, are in Sayn, part of the borough of Bendorf on the Rhine, between Koblenz and Neuwied in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Saaleck Castle is a hill castle near Bad Kösen, now a part of Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
The ruins of the Thurant Castle stand on a wide slate hill spur above the villages of Alken on the Moselle in Germany. The castle is in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the spur castle type. Vine gardens on the sunniest slope.
Amt Bilstein was an administrative district in what is now the region of Westphalia, Germany. Its territory corresponded more or less with the current municipality of Lennestadt. It was first mentioned in 1434 and, until 1803, was part of the Duchy of Westphalia and thus the Electorate of Cologne, before it was transferred to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, from which, in 1806 the Grand Duchy of Hesse emerged. Following a ruling by the Congress of Vienna this association came to an end and, on 1 August 1816, the territory of the Amt became part of the newly formed Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg in the Prussian Province of Westphalia. It became a subdivision of the Kreis Olpe. The Amt was disbanded in 1969.
Neideck Castle is a former high mediaeval nobleman's castle above the village of Streitberg, in the municipality of Wiesenttal in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. As a result of its exposed location above the valley of the Wiesent, it has become a symbol of Franconian Switzerland.
Wildenberg Castle, also called the Wildenburg, is a ruined, Hohenstaufen period castle in the Odenwald hills in Germany. It is located in the parish of Preunschen in the municipality of Kirchzell, in the Lower Franconian district of Miltenberg in Bavaria.
Schlüsselstein Castle was a castle and the seat of a noble family, probably dating to the High Middle Ages, the remains of which lie above the town of Ebermannstadt in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. The site is known locally as Burgstall Schlüsselstein.
The Holter Burg is the oldest castle site in the municipality of Bissendorf near Osnabrück in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the ruin of a hill castle. It was the third hill castle in Osnabrück Land along with the Iburg and the Wittekindsburg near Rulle.
Virneburg Castle is a ruined hill castle on a slate hill, 430 m above sea level (NHN), around which the Nitzbach stream flows. It stands above the village of Virneburg in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Wernerseck Castle, also called the Kelterhausburg, is a late medieval hill castle in the municipality of Ochtendung in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It owes its name to its founder and lord of the castle, the Archbishop of Trier, Werner of Falkenstein (1388–1418). "Wernerseck" means "Werner's corner".
On a hill spur above the Eifel village of Monreal in Germany's Elzbach valley, at a height of 350 m above sea level (NHN), stand two neighbouring ruined hill castles: the Löwenburg, also called Monreal Castle, and the Philippsburg. The latter is also known locally as das Rech.
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