Schloss Hundshaupten is a quadrangular castle in the village of Hundshaupten in the municipality of Egloffstein in the German county of Forchheim.
Schloss Hundshaupten is a quadrangular castle in the village of Hundshaupten in the municipality of Egloffstein in the German county of Forchheim.
The castle is recorded for the first time in 1369 in the ownership of the Lords of Wiesenthau. It was, like almost all castles in Franconian Switzerland, built on a hill spur of the Franconian Jura plateau jutting out into the valley. Following its destruction in 1388 by Nuremberg during the War of the Cities, in 1412 by Burgrave Frederick VI of Nuremberg and in 1525 during the Peasants' War, then it was rebuilt in 1561.
In 1613, when the Wiesenthau line at Hundshaupten died out, the fief reverted to Michelsberg Abbey in the city of Bamberg. In 1661, after the Thirty Years' War, the abbey sold the castle to Hieronymus Christopher, Freiherr of Pölnitz, town commandant of Forchheim, who resided in Aschbach, now a village in the municipality of Schlüsselfeld. In the years that followed, work was carried out, but its castle character was not changed.
During 1991, part of the estate was gifted by Gudila, Freifrau of Pölnitz to the county of Forchheim, including Hundshaupten Wildlife Park.
Hieronymus Christopher Heinrich Freiherr von Pölnitz, great nephew and adoptive son of Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz and Gudila Freifrau von Pölnitz continue to live there.
The meaning of the placename of Hundshaupten can no longer be explained with certainty today. There are several possibilities that have been suggested and compared by Dorothea Fastnacht.
The names of the neighbouring villages of Hundshaupten and Hundsboden should be seen as connected. The suffix, '-haupten' probably refers to the hill spur on which, initially a castle and, later, the present schloss were built. By contrast, the suffix, '-boden', suggests a level field of fertile soil on the plateau that was cleared in the High Middle Ages as part of the expansion of cultivated land. The prefix 'Hund-' probably refers to the owner of the clearance and the castle, with the office of a Hunno (chief of a Hundertschaft). With the firm establishment of feudal lordship, this office became hereditary during the High Middle Ages and filled by local nobility. Originally, during the Migration Era and in the Early Middle Ages the leader of a community of free farmers was called a Hunno.
Below Schloss Hundshaupten in a stand of old beech trees between the rocks of the Jura lies a family cemetery. The first interment was in 1944 was of Geheimrat Paul Fridolin Kehr. Family members who had died earlier were transferred here. The following members of the Pölnitz family are buried here:
Memorial tablet for:
49°43′14″N11°13′33″E / 49.7205°N 11.2257°E
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