Falkenstein Castle (german: Burg Falkenstein) is a

ruin Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

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 ...

(

imperial castle An imperial castle or ''Reichsburg'' was a castle built by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, whose management was entrusted to '' Reichsministeriales'' or ''Burgmannen''. It is not possible to identify a clear distinction between imperial castles an ...

) dating to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. It is situated above the eponymous village of Falkenstein on the

Donnersberg The Donnersberg ("thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate (german: Pfalz) region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the ...

, the highest point in the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (german: Pfalz; Palatine German: ''Palz'') is a region of Germany. In the Middle Ages it was known as the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz'') and Lower Palatinate (''Unterpfalz''), which strictly speaking designated only the wes ...

, which rises within the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

History

''For the political history see County of Falkenstein'' Falkenstein is first recorded in 1135 as the castle of the lords of Falkenstein, a branch of the lords of

Bolanden Bolanden is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe aft ...

. It is mentioned again in 1233 in the possession of Philip I, the Lord of Falkenstein, the Imperial Chamberlain ('' Reichskämmerer'') and '' burgvogt'' at

Trifels Castle Trifels Castle (german: Reichsburg Trifels) is a reconstructed medieval castle at an elevation of near the small town of Annweiler, in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. It is located high above the Queich valley within the Palatin ...

, where the

Imperial Regalia The Imperial Regalia, also called Imperial Insignia (in German ''Reichskleinodien'', ''Reichsinsignien'' or ''Reichsschatz''), are regalia of the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important parts are the Crown, the Imperial orb, the Imperial sc ...

were guarded. After the death of the imperial chamberlain of

Münzenberg Münzenberg is a town in the Wetteraukreis district in Hesse, Germany. It is located 13 km north of Friedberg, and 16 km southeast of Gießen. Münzenberg Castle Münzenberg Castle (German. ''Burg Münzenberg'') is a ruined hill castl ...

Philip I took over the office. In 1255 he inherited the ''

Landvogtei During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

'' in the

Wetterau The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains. Bettina von Arnim writes of ...

Lich In fantasy fiction, a lich (; from the Old English , meaning "corpse") is a type of undead creature. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's " The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term f ...

was later the centre of the territory of Philip I of Falkenstein. In the mid-14th century the Falkensteins built New Falkenstein in the

Taunus The Taunus is a mountain range in Hesse, Germany, located north of Frankfurt. The tallest peak in the range is '' Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are ''Kleiner Feldberg'' (825 m) and '' Altkönig'' (798 m). The Taunus range span ...

region of Germany. Around 1500 Uhland I acquired the castle rights and expanded the castle further. His descendants purchased

Schloss Bertholdstein ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cog ...

near the town of Fehring in the

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

in Austria and subsequently settled there. In 1647 Falkenstein was besieged by French troops, stormed and

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

. In 1736, Falkenstein Castle and the County of Falkenstein went to the imperial House of

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

. In 1794, it was destroyed once more by the French during the

Coalition Wars The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, sometimes called the Great French War, were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars agains ...

, since when it has remained a ruin, albeit partially restored after 1979.

Description

Partly preserved are the ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German ...

'', remains of the outer walls of the great hall (''Ritterhaus''), the

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

, the

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. Fo ...

and the

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

Gallery

File:Falkenstein Burg Südseite 02.jpg, South side File:Falkenstein Burg Gedenkstein Jahrhundertfeier.jpg, Stone recording its 850th anniversary File:Falkenstein Burg Amphitheater.jpg, Amphitheatre File:Falkenstein Burg heutiger Zugang.jpg, Present-day entrance File:Falkenstein Burg Innenansicht 02.jpg, Courtyard File:Falkenstein Burg Zisterne.jpg, Cistern File:Falkenstein Burg Innenansicht 01.jpg, Interior view File:Falkenstein Burg Ritterhaus Südwestansicht.jpg, Southwest view of the ''Ritterhaus'' File:Falkenstein Burg Treppenanlage.jpg, Staircase to the ''Ritterhaus'' File:Falkenstein Burg Wachtturm 01.jpg, Guard tower File:Falkenstein Burg Ringmauer.jpg, Enceinte

Literature

* Jens Stöcker, Alexander Thon: ''Falkenstein/Donnersberg''. In: Jürgen Keddigkeit, Alexander Thon and Rolf Übel (eds.): ''Pfälzisches Burgenlexikon''. Beiträge zur pfälzischen Geschichte Bd. 12/2, Institut für Pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern, 2002, pp. 46–59, . * Alexander Thon: ''Philipp I. von Falkenstein (1220/33 – 1270/71). Reichstruchsess und Reichskämmerer''. In: Karl-Heinz Rothenberger (ed.): ''Pfälzische Geschichte''. Vol. 1, 2., verb. Aufl. Institut für Pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern, 2002, pp. 210−212, . * Alexander Thon (ed.): ''Wie Schwalbennester an den Felsen geklebt. Burgen in der Nordpfalz''. 1st edn. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg, 2005, pp. 48–53, .

External links

* {{Authority control Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Donnersbergkreis