Harburg Castle in Harburg, Bavaria, in the Donau-Ries district, is an extensive mediaeval complex from the 11th / 12th century. Originally it was a Staufer castle and was owned by the princely House of Oettingen-Wallerstein. Since 2000 the castle belongs to the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein Cultural Foundation, which has the mission to preserve this unique castle for the present and future.
The first written mention of Harburg can be derived from the mention of Cuno de Horburc (Kuno of Harburg) in sources on the foundation of the Benedictine monastery Berchtesgaden at the latest around the year 1100. Kuno of Harburg was half-brother of Berchtesgaden's founder Berengar of Sulzbach and apparently owner of the Harburg at the end of the 11th century. [1]
The castle itself was first mentioned in 1150. At that time, the 13-year-old Staufer Henry Berengar, son and co-king of King Conrad III and Gertrude of Sulzbach, wrote a letter to Constantinople to his aunt, the Empress Berta of Sulzbach, and her husband Manuel Komnenos, in which he spoke of the Battle of Flochberg against Welf VI. He mentioned that at that time he was staying at Harburg Castle, which was at that time a Staufian imperial castle.
“On the 8th of February [1150], that lofty and unfaithful Welf, who did not want to remember all the blessings he had received from my father, entered our country with hostility. At the time when my father, being far away in state affairs, left me with a group of warriors in one of our castles. The castle against which Welf moved is called Flochberg Castle. But we were in another castle, Harburg Castle. [...] But when I had quickly received the news of this disgrace, I hastened to pursue the enemy, and we advanced against him with five large battalions. Having sent forward very mobile horsemen, who cut off their way of escape, we obtained such a great victory that, if it were to be We captured 300 knights and a considerable number of horses were killed, struck partly by spears, partly by swords.
In 1299 the castle was pledged by King Albert I of the House of Habsburg to the Counts of Oettingen. King Conrad IV lived on the Harburg Castle in 1239. [3] Emperor Sigismund confirmed the property of the Counts of Oettingen in 1418. In 1530 the historian Hieronymus Wolf was a clerk at Harburg Castle. After the extinction of the protestant line Oettingen-Oettingen, Harburg Castle was transferred to the catholic line Oettingen-Wallerstein in 1731.
The Castle was utilised in World War 2 by the Nazi's secret police "gestapo" and used to house prisoners for interrogation purposes.
Since 2000, the castle belongs to the prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein Cultural Foundation.
The Harburg Castle is located high above the valley of the Wörnitz River on a steep mountain spur falling to three sides at the south-eastern entrance of the Ries Crater on the Romantic Road. The castle was built without reference to an older valley settlement, a process that was extremely rare in the High Middle Ages. Only after the castle was in place was the town Harburg developed on the narrow valley floor between the Wörnitz and the castle rock. The enormous size of the core castle may also allow conclusions to be drawn about the revitalization of a pre-historic or early-historic Hillfort. [4]
This hill castle is a completely preserved facility with a remarkable building complex from the Middle Ages. In the 15th century the fortress was extended with residential buildings. From the 16th to the 18th century further extensions completed a prince's residence. Under Prince Albert Ernest II of Oettingen-Oettingen (1669 – 1731), the castle was to be expanded into a residence in the 18th century. However, only one part, which includes the castle church, the prince's building and the hall building, has actually been altered accordingly. The character of a fortified castle remained. [5] Pretty unique is the particularly well-preserved, late-medieval ring wall with defensive corridor.
The main castle is surrounded by a wall with six towers, which is one of the oldest buildings. It includes the bailiff's residence (today the restaurant and hotel), the granary, the two keeps, the palace, the hall building, the well, the bakery (today the ticket office and shop) and the chapel. A little further down is the outer bailey with the commercial buildings, including the Red Stabels. It is said to have been sketched by Carl Spitzweg during a visit in 1858.
Three gates lead into the interior of the castle. The Lower Gate controlled access to the enclosure with a drawbridge. Since 1807 a stone bridge leads over the moat. Then follows the Inner Gate, which dates back to the Staufian period. It forms together with the Lower Gate an inner bailey. The main castle can be reached through the Upper Gate, equipped with a portcullis. It could be lifted smoothly by chains in two side guides and lowered in case of danger. [6]
The interior of Harburg Castle can be visited daily as part of a guided tour from mid-March to early November. [7]
Conrad III of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.
The House of Fugger is a German family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and venture capitalists. Alongside the Welser family, the Fugger family controlled much of the European economy in the sixteenth century and accumulated enormous wealth. The Fuggers held a near monopoly on the European copper market.
Harburg is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Wörnitz and on the southeastern edge of the Ries meteorite crater in the UNESCO Global Geopark Ries.
Louis I, called the Kelheimer or of Kelheim, since he was born and died at Kelheim, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1183 and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1214. He was the only surviving son of Otto I, Duke of Bavaria by his wife Agnes of Loon. He married Ludmilla of Bohemia, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Bohemia.
Oettingen in Bayern is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 29 km (18 mi) northwest of Donauwörth, and 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of Nördlingen.
Wallerstein is a municipality and former principality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany.
The Lords of Thannhausen are an old and still existing German noble family with the rank of Freiherr (Baron). They were members of the German nobility and achieved the status of Imperial Knights. Their ancestral seat is in the Swabian municipality of Tannhausen near Ellwangen.
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.
The House of Oettingen is a high-rank noble Franconian and Swabian family. It ruled various estates that composed the County of Oettingen between the 12th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In 1674 the house was raised to the rank of prince for the first time. Despite the annexation of their lands following the German mediatisation of 1806, the family retained their titles and still have representatives today.
Finkenstein Castle is a ruined medieval castle in the market town of Finkenstein, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is situated on a steep cliff at the southern foot of the Karawanks mountain range, high above Lake Faak, at a height of 788 metres (2,585 ft). Today the castle ruin is the backdrop of the Burgarena, an amphitheatre with 1150 seats mainly used for concerts and festivals.
Paul Maximilian Lamoral, Prince of Thurn and Taxis, was the third child of Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis and his second wife Princess Mathilde Sophie of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg. He was buried in Cannes, at the Cimetière du Grand Jas, Allée du Silence no. 33 under the name of Paul de Fels.
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.
The Altes Schloss Bümpliz is a castle in the section of Bümpliz-Oberbottigen in the city of Bern of the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Windeck Castle, also Old Windeck Castle, is a ruined Black Forest spur castle which stands on a 378-metre-high spur in the Bühl district of Kappelwindeck, in the county of Rastatt in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
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.
Nassenfels Castle stands at the edge of the market village of Nassenfels in the county of Eichstätt in Upper Bavaria. The former water castle is still lived in and may only be viewed from the outside.
Pyrmont Castle stands west of Münstermaifeld near Roes and Pillig on a slate rock outcrop above a waterfall on the Elzbach in the southern Eifel mountains in Germany. It is in the municipality of Roes in the district of Cochem-Zell.
Burg Dagestein is a castle in the city of Vilseck in the Oberpfalz region of northeastern Bavaria, Germany.
Hohenrechberg Castle is a ruined castle in Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was built as a spur castle on the spur of the Hohenrechberg mountain, which forms together with the Hohenstaufen Mountain and Stuifen the Three Emperors Mountains, just a few kilometers next to the family seat Hohenstaufen castle of the Staufer dynasty.
48°47′6″N10°41′13″E / 48.78500°N 10.68694°E
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