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Altenstein Castle (Lower Franconia)
Altenstein Castle (german: Burg Altenstein) is a ruined castle in Altenstein (Markt Maroldsweisach) in the district of Haßberge in Lower Franconia, Germany. The family seat of the lords of Stein zu Altenstein, which died out in the 19th century, is located 40 kilometres north of the city of Bamberg and, since the end of the 20th century, has been managed by the district of Haßberge. The castle was renovated around the turn of the millennium. Location The ruins of the hill castle lie commandingly over the village of the same name on a ridge (ca. 452 metres above sea level (NN)) in the Haßberge hills between Ebern and Maroldsweisach. The castle hill rises about 150 metres above the Weisach valley. The elongated ridge on which Altenstein Castle stands is also the site of other fortifications. The Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection has categorized it with the monument serial number D-6-5830-0006. a medieval motte south and below the castle on the ''Galgenberg'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hill Castle
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (''Niederungsburgen''). Hill castles may be further subdivided depending on their situation into the following: * Hilltop castle (''Gipfelburg''), that stands on the summit of a hill with steep drops on all sides. A special type is the rock castle or ''Felsenburg''. * Ridge castle (''Kammburg''), that is built on the crest of a ridge. * Hillside castle (''Hangburg''), that is built on the side of a hill and thus is dominated by rising ground on one side. * Spur castle (''Spornburg''), that is built on a hill spur surrounded by steep terrain on three sides and thus only needs to be defended on the one remaining side. When in the 10th and 11th centuries castles lost their pure fortress charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotenhan Castle
Rotenhan Castle (german: Burg Rotenhan) is a castle ruin about two kilometres north of the village of Eyrichshof in Lower Franconia in the south German state of Bavaria. Eyrichshof lies within the borough of Ebern in the district of Haßberge. The castle is the ancestral home (''Stammsitz'') of the House of Rotenhan, a family of imperial knights. History The Rotenhan family has its roots in three von Langheim brothers, who were the co-founders of Langheim Abbey in 1132. Later the name "de Rotha(ha)" was used. In 1229, reference is made to a Winther and Wolfram "de Rotenhagen" in connexion with an allodial holding of the family rather than a fief. The doorway to the staircase entrance belongs to the late Romanesque-early Gothic period. In 1323 the castle was besieged by the Bishop of Würzburg, Wolfram Wolfskeel von Grumbach, for a year under the pretext of that the family had been involved in counterfeiting and a breach of feudal loyalty. After it was finally captured, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgfrieden
The or 'c.fBurgfriedeat Duden online. was a German medieval term that referred to imposition of a state of truce within the jurisdiction of a castle, and sometimes its estate, under which feuds, i.e. conflicts between private individuals, were forbidden under threat of the imperial ban. The lord of the castle could also grant asylum in that way, place people under his protection and force his jurisdiction on people. If several parties held joint possession of a castle, being considered joint lords, so-called agreements were signed, which contained far-reaching rules for living together in the castle. The granting of , especially in the Middle Ages, could not be ignored. When visiting other castles, including those of one's enemy, a feud could not be pursued because the also applied to adversaries within the castle grounds. The could be terminated by a special feud letter (), such as to be able to besiege the castle legally. The could apply to the entire estate belonging to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganerbschaft
A ''Ganerbschaft'' (plural: ''Ganerbschaften'' in German), according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (''Ganerben'') only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corresponds to a "community of joint ownership" (''Gesamthandsgemeinschaft'' or ''Gemeinschaft zur gesamten Hand''). History ''Ganerbschafts'' arose as a result of the simultaneous nomination of several co-heirs to the same estate; this occurred mainly in the Middle Ages for reasons of family politics. Subject of such legal relationships was usually a jointly-built or conquered castle or palace, which was then referred to as a ''Ganerbenburg'' ("common inheritance castle"). The peaceful coexistence of the heirs, the rules by which they lived daily, side by side, and the rights of use of common facilities were usually comprehensively regulated by so-called ''Burgfrieden'' agreements. ''Ganerbschaften'' were established in order to keep an impo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganerbenburg
A ''Ganerbenburg'' (plural: ''Ganerbenburgen'') is a castle occupied and managed by several families or family lines at the same time. These families shared common areas of the castle including the courtyard, well, and chapel, whilst maintaining their own private living quarters. at great-castles.com. Retrieved 24 Jan 2014. They occurred primarily in medieval Germany. ''Ganerbenburgen'' and ''Ganerbschaft'' 
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Langheim Abbey
Langheim Abbey was a well-known Cistercian monastery in Klosterlangheim, part of the town of Lichtenfels in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, in the Bishopric of Bamberg. 250px, Ökonomiehof with decorated fountain at Eastern History Three brothers from the city of Bamberg (from what became the Rotenhan family and Redwitz from Rodach family) made a gift of the estate of Langheim to Saint Otto I, bishop of Bamberg, who in 1132 offered it Adam of Ebrach, abbot of the Cistercian Ebrach Abbey, on condition that it should be used for the establishment of a new monastery of that order. The first stone was laid on 1 August 1132 and in 1142 the buildings were completed. The abbey, like Ebrach, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Nicholas. The first abbot was Adam (1141–80), who succeeded in gaining the support not only of the bishops of Bamberg but of the local nobility. In consequence the new abbey rapidly acquired extensive property and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banz Abbey
Banz Abbey (german: Kloster Banz), now known as Banz Castle (german: Schloss Banz), is a former Benedictine monastery, since 1978 a part of the town of Bad Staffelstein north of Bamberg, Bavaria, southern Germany. History The abbey was founded in about 1070 by Countess Alberada of Schweinfurt and her husband, Count Hermann of Habsburg-Kastl, and until the secularisation of 1803 was the oldest monastery on the upper Main. In the late Middle Ages and until 1575 only members of the nobility were accepted as monks. After the Thirty Years' War the abbey had to be rebuilt. The abbots Eucharius Weiner and Kilian Düring commissioned Johann Leonhard Dientzenhofer and after his death in 1707, his brother Johann Dientzenhofer. Construction began in 1698. The church, built in Baroque style, was consecrated in 1719. The interior is built, not with right angles, but with a series of ellipses. The main altar, the chancel and the statues of saints in the church and on the façade are by Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal allegiance, services and/or payments. The fees were often lands, land revenue or revenue, revenue-producing real property like a watermill, held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting, fishing or felling trees, monopolies in trade, money rents and tax farms. There never did exist one feudal system, nor did there exist one type of fief. Over the ages, depending on the region, there was a broad variety of customs using the same basic legal principles in many variations. Terminology In ancient Rome, a "benefice" (from the Latin noun , meaning "benefit") was a gif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. While the rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, and the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty. The obligations of a vassal often included military support by knights in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant or fief. The term is also applied to similar arrangements in other feudal societies. In contrast, fealty (''fidelitas'') was sworn, unconditional loyalty to a monarch. European vassalage In fully developed vassalage, the lord and the vassal would take part in a commendation ceremony composed of two parts, the homage and the fealty, including the use of Christian sacraments to show its sacred importance. According to Eginhard's brief description, the ''commenda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edelfrei
The term ''edelfrei'' or ''hochfrei'' ("free noble" or "free knight") was originally used to designate and distinguish those Germanic noblemen from the Second Estate (see Estates of the realm social hierarchy), who were legally entitled to atonement reparation of three times their "Weregild" (Wergeld) value from a guilty person or party. Such knights were known as ''Edelfreie'' or ''Edelinge''. This distinguished them from those other free men or free knights who came from the Third Estate social hierarchy, and whose atonement reparation value was the standard "Weregild" (Wergeld) amount set according to regional laws. In the Holy Roman Empire, the "high nobility" (') emerged from the ''Edelfreie'' during the course of the 12th century, in contrast to the so-called ''ministeriales'', most of whom were originally unfree knights or '.Karl Bosl: ''Die Gesellschaft in der Geschichte des Mittelalters.'' 4. Auflage. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987, {{ISBN, 3-525-33389-7, p. 56. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
