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 The term lowland castle or plains castle (german: Niederungsburg, Flachlandburg, Tieflandburg) describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The cl ...

(''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 A rock castle (german: Felsenburg) is a type of medieval castle that directly incorporates natural rock outcrops into its defences to such an extent that the rock formations define the structure of the castle. Topographically, rock castles are c ...

or ''Felsenburg''. *

Ridge castle A ridge castle (german: Kammburg) was a medieval fortification built on a ridge or the crest of mountain or hill chain.Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon''. Flechsig, Würzburg 2000, , p. 18. It was one ...

(''Kammburg''), that is built on the crest of a ridge. *

Hillside castle A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the particul ...

(''Hangburg''), that is built on the side of a hill and thus is dominated by rising ground on one side. *

Spur castle A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that is sited on a spur of a hill or mountain for defensive purposes. Ideally, it would be protected on three sides by steep hillsides; the only vulnerable side being that where the spur joins the ...

(''Spornburg''), that is built on a

hill spur A spur is a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge. It can also be defined as another hill or mountain range which projects in a lateral direction from a main hill or mountain range. Examples of ...

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 character and were increasingly built as residence castles for the kings and the nobility, the hill castle was the preferred choice owing to its better defensive capability. In Germany, almost 66 percent of all medieval castles (''Burgen'') known today are of the hill castle type.F.-W. Krahe: ''Burgen und Wohntürme des deutschen Mittelalters'', p. 22. In the earliest centuries of castle construction only great nobles and kings had the power to build them. From the 12th century, however, the higher imperial ministeriales also built representative hill castles. This pattern was followed in the 13th century by the lesser nobility. Today hill castles primarily serve as tourist attractions, mainly because they often have good views − albeit in some cases for the cost of an entrance fee. They also often have restaurants or kiosks. In some cases, where they are preserved, the interior of the castle may be visited. Examples of hill castles are

Kriebstein Castle Kriebstein Castle (german: Burg Kriebstein) is a castle in Kriebstein near the town of Waldheim in the German state of Saxony. Location The castle rises above steep crags over the River Zschopau. Within the topographical grouping of hill c ...

(spur castle), the

Marksburg The Marksburg is a castle above the town of Braubach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is one of the principal sites of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress was used for protection rather than as a residence for royal famil ...

(hilltop castle), Ehrenfels Castle (hillside castle) and

Schachenstein Castle The ruins of Schachenstein Castle (german: Burg Schachenstein) are located in the municipality of Thörl, above the village not far from the Thörlbach stream and north of Bruck an der Mur in the Styria, Austria. Schachenstein Castle was th ...

(rock castle). File:Marksburg-Braubach.jpg, The

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

is a typical example of a hill castle File:Ljubljana_BW_2014-10-09_13-59-37_1.jpg, The

Ljubljana Castle Ljubljana Castle ( sl, Ljubljanski grad, german: Laibacher Schloss) is a castle complex standing on Castle Hill above downtown Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is a key landmark of the town. Originally a medieval fortress, it was probably ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

is Medieval fortress, built in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 12th century File:Burg Hohenzollern 10-2016.jpg, alt=A castle atop a mountain, a very usual position to defend it from a higher position.,

Hohenzollern Castle Hohenzollern Castle (german: Burg Hohenzollern ) is the ancestral seat of the imperial House of Hohenzollern. The third of three hilltop castles built on the site, it is located atop Mount Hohenzollern, above and south of Hechingen, on the ...

at a height of 855 m in the Swabian Jura,

File:Castello_di_montechino.jpg, The Montechino castle in Montechino, example of an Italian castle built on a hill

Literature

* Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): ''Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, , p. 156. * Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen und Wohntürme des deutschen Mittelalters''. Vol. 1. Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, , pp. 21–23.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hohenburg Castles by type ca:Quer (orografia)

See also

Literature

References