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Spangenberg Castle (Hesse)
Spangenberg Castle (german: Schloss Spangenberg) is a ''schloss'' above the small German town of Spangenberg in the North Hesse county of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis. The originally Gothic building was first a medieval fortified castle, then a fortress, hunting lodge, prison, forestry school and is now a hotel and restaurant. Location Spangenberg Castle is located on the wooded hill of ''Schloßberg'', between the town of Spangenberg in the Pfieffe valley to the east and south, and the village of Elbersdorf on the Pfieffe tributary of Essebach to the west and north. History The first castle on the site was probably built by the lords of Treffurt, who came from Thuringia, as the centre of their small barony in the region around Spangenberg and Morschen. From here, it could guard the important trading route "through long Hesse" from Frankfurt to Leipzig. This road was an important factor in the development of the newly founded settlement below the castle, which was already being ... [...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] |
