Lichtenstein Castle (german: Burg Lichtenstein) is a high to late medieval

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 a ...

, , about six kilometres north of

Ebern Ebern () is a town in the Haßberge district of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated southwest of Coburg and northwest of Bamberg. Its population is about 8,000. Its mayor is Robert Herrmann. Ebern is about 1,000 years old and has an intact defen ...

in the

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...

n county of Haßberge in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. It is located in the municipality of Pfarrweisach. Of the originally four sub-castles of this great joint-fief or ''

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 th ...

'' only one, the South Castle, is still occupied. The North Castle only survives as ruins. On the site of the now vanished third castle the Protestant Church of the Eternal Flame (''Zum Ewigen Licht'') was built in the Baroque era. In the southwestern part of the site lie the ruins of a fourth joint-vassal castle seat.

Literature

Castle history

* ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Königreichs Bayern III, 15, Bezirksamt Ebern''. München 1916, S. 128–146. * Joachim Zeune: ''Burg Lichtenstein''. Schnell & Steiner Kunstführer 2364, Regensburg 1998. * Joachim Zeune: ''Burgen im Eberner Land''. Ebern 2003 (Eberner Heimatblätter, 2 Hefte).

Castle legends

* Ludwig Bechstein: ''Der Sagenschatz des Frankenlandes''. Wurzburg, 1842. * Ludwig Bechstein: ''Deutsches Sagenbuch''. Leipzig, 1853
Digitalisat
. * George Winter: ''Das Schneidersloch, Das verlorene Kind, Die Gründung des Klosters zu Fürstenfeldbruck… - Fünfzehn Sagen aus dem Bayernlande''. Nuremberg, 1849

digitalized).

External links

Castles in Bavaria Hill castles Heritage sites in Bavaria