Lindelbrunn Castle (german: Burg Lindelbrunn) (also called Lindelbol, Lindelbronn or Lindelborn) is the

medieval 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, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

ruin of a

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 ...

near the village of

Vorderweidenthal Vorderweidenthal is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous coun ...

in the county of

Südliche Weinstraße Südliche Weinstraße ( pfl, Siedlischi Woischdrooß; en, "Southern Wine Route") is a district (''Kreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Südwestpfalz, Bad Dürkheim, the district-f ...

in 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 ...

. The name of the castle is probably derived from the castle well which stands under a large

lime tree ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...

(German: ''Linde'').

Geographical location

The ruins of Lindelbrunn lie about 2.3 km northeast of Vorderweidenthal, on whose territory they stand, and 1.7 km (both as the crow flies) south-southeast of Darstein. It is located at a height of on the conical summit of the ''Schloßberg'' ("castle hill"). At its foot is a forester's lodge and a tourist café, the ''Cramerhaus'', formerly belonging to the Palatine Forest Club.

History

Lindelbrunn Castle was founded in the middle of the 12th century, presumably as an imperial castle to defend the Trifels. Prior to that, it may have been owned by the imperial church at

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

. In 1268 the

ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...

, Dieter von Lindelbol, is mentioned for the first time in the records as a descendant of the imperial seneschal (''Reichstruchseß''),

Markward von Annweiler Markward von Annweiler (died 1202) was Imperial Seneschal and Regent of the Kingdom of Sicily. Biography Markward was a ministerialis, that is, he came not from the free nobility, but from a class of unfree knights and administrators whose purpose ...

(ca. 1140–1202). It is likely that the main construction phase of the castle with its ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, ...

'' and separate

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

dates to around 1190/1200. At that time, large halls and independent chapels were only built by relatively high-ranking lords; around 1200, not a single count had such facilities. In 1274 the castle was transferred by King Rudolph of Habsburg to Counts Emich IV and Frederick III of Leiningen. In the course of time, Lindelbrunn became a joint-inheritance 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 ...

''. As a result of the enfeoffment of various parts of the castle, there were so many co-owners that disputes arose. In 1381, St. Nicholas' Chapel was first mentioned in a deed. In 1441, troops of the Palatine

prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...

and the

Bishop of Speyer The Bishop of Speyer is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer, which is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Bamberg.Reinhard von Helmstatt besieged the castle for seven weeks until a peaceful agreement ended the

investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

. Shortly after Easter 1450, as a result of a feud and the seizure of Hans von Helmstadt, troops from the town of Landau and Bishopric of Speyer advanced on the castle. After four days of unsuccessful

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

, Holzapfel was ransomed. In June that year, Count Emich VI of Leiningen-Hardenburg and his son, Frederick of Zweibrücken-Bitsch, besieged the castle, captured it and so ended the disputes. During the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

of 1525, the castle was razed by rebellious peasants of the Kleeburg ''Kolbenhaufen'' band. Since then it has remained unoccupied and fallen into ruins. In 1963, the castle became the possession of the state of

. In 1979 to 1981 comprehensive remediation measures were carried out which saw the remains of the detached chapel being uncovered and partially restored.

Layout

As there are steep

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

rock faces on all sides, the castle did not need a neck ditch or a ''

Zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or bailey (castle), outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the Post-classical history, post-classical and early ...

''. The curtain walls, of what is largely a stately home, are also the castle walls and follow the line of the terrain. Of the outer entrance to the castle nothing visible remains. The surviving inner gate is in the northeast. An older castle entrance, south of it, can be seen as a shaft that was hewn in the rock. The foundations of the former St. Nicholas' Chapel (around 1190/1200) have been restored. The most important visible remains are the preserved parts of the ''

'' (around 1190/1200) in the southwest of the castle. The outer wall on the valley side is made of

rusticated ashlar Two different styles of rustication in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below.">Florence.html" ;"title="Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence">Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and r ...

s and has three niches with adjacent windows and a fireplace, which has not quite been faithfully reconstructed. The interior probably contained a large hall. Although other outer walls and the remains of residential buildings have been partially reconstructed, it is still difficult to get a clear picture of what the castle looked like. At the highest point of the castle in the northeast, Lindelbrunn could have had a ''

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 ...

'', but it has not yet been uncovered. Also unclear is the original purpose of the building remains on an overhanging rock outcrop in the southwest as well as the discovery of a well south of the outer wall of the ''palas'' and thus outside the curtain wall. Another well was located in the south of the castle near the chapel.

Access and views

From the forester's lodge, ''Forsthaus Lindelbrunn'', it is a 15 to 20 minute walk to the ruins of Lindelbrunn Castle. In clear weather, there is an extensive 360-degree panoramic view which also takes in the imperial castle of Trifels.

Legends

Derivation of the name

When the knight who ruled the castle called his followers together in the courtyard to announce the name of the newly built castle, an old gray-haired woman suddenly appeared and stood in the middle of his retinue. While the knight and his entourage looked on amazed, she planted a lime branch by the well. She then said to the knight that as long as the lime tree blossomed, his family would also flourish and not wither. Before disappearing, she also said that the castle was henceforth to be called ''Lindelbrunn''. The lime tree thrived and flourished, and so did the knight's family; he was popular throughout the land. But one day, the old gray woman met Rothkopf, the brother of the knight, who had been outcast many years before, in the forest. She wanted the brothers to reconcile and took him to the castle. But the knight at Lindelbrunn did not want to see his brother nor the old gray woman in his castle and threatened that if they did not go away they would be hanged on the lime tree. Then the old gray woman rose and stuck a

distaff A distaff (, , also called a rock"Rock." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989.), is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly use ...

in the lime tree. With a rustling of the leaves the lime tree fell down the well. The old woman had broken off a small branch before the lime tree disappeared. She then left the castle with Rothkopf. At the foot of the mountain, she planted the branch and said to Rothkopf, he should build a new castle at this spot using the stones of the old castle. She disappeared and Rothkopf looked up to see the castle disintegrate in a violent storm and the stones roll down to him in the valley. Rothkopf rushed back up the hill to save his brother, but found only the ruins and no survivors. Back in the valley he began to build a house with the stones of the castle, as the old gray woman had told him. Today there are just ruins at the top of the hill and the forester's lodge is at its foot.

How the castle was destroyed in the Peasants' War

When the peasant mobs had made several attempts to burn the castle down and cause a bloodbath but failed because the castle was well defended by the knight and his foot soldiers, the peasants withdrew with heavy losses and gave up. The knight of the castle was celebrating his victory in fine style when a commoner stood before the gate in order to report the withdrawal of the peasants. He was invited in and given a meal. He praised the lord of the castle and wished him happiness. Believing he was safe the knight allowed him to stay the night in the castle. But when almost all those in the castle had fallen into a drunken sleep, the commoner seized his chance. He let down the

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

and the peasant mob, which had been waiting outside the castle, stormed in. They caused a bloodbath, stole what they could and burned the castle to the ground.

Punker of Rohrbach

The squire,

Punker of Rohrbach Punker () is a legendary figure of the 15th century from the German village of Rohrbach (now part of the city of Heidelberg). According to the ''Malleus Maleficarum.'' around 1430 there was an extremely accurate archer named Punker who was rumoure ...

, once worked for the knight of the castle and served him well. So one day he asked his master to make him a ''

junker Junker ( da, Junker, german: Junker, nl, Jonkheer, en, Yunker, no, Junker, sv, Junker ka, იუნკერი (Iunkeri)) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German ''Juncherre'', meaning "young nobleman"Duden; Meaning of Junke ...

''. When the knight refused him contemptuously, he left the castle and joined the army of the Count Palatine, Louis the Bearded. He was welcomed; his skills as an archer were widely known. Punker told the Count Palatine of several raids by the

robber knight A robber baron or robber knight (german: Raubritter) was an unscrupulous feudal landowner who, protected by his fief's legal status, imposed high taxes and tolls out of keeping with the norm without authorization by some higher authority. Some re ...

at the Lindelbrunn, whereupon the Count Palatine sent his troops to the castle. But the castle was well defended and the attack went nowhere. Then Punker climbed a nearby rock, which was higher than the castle and managed to fire an arrow into the heart of the robber baron of Lindelbrunn. Punker continued to fire and hit all the defenders of the castle. The troops of the Count Palatine were able to break down the gate, but all their opponents in the castle were already dead or dying, struck down by the Punker's arrows. The Count Palatine could not believe what he saw, suspected Punker of a lust for revenge guided by a magic hand and had imprisoned him for life in the tower. Punker died within the damp walls and his lament is sung today even by the

thrushes The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flycat ...

at Lindelbrunn. According to another legend, the Count Palatine was suspicious of Punker and wanted to test his accuracy as an archer. To do this Punker was asked to place a coin on the head of his son and shoot it off without injuring the boy. Punker refused out of fear that the devil could jog his hand and so his son would die. But the Count Palatine insisted on the trial on pain of death. Punker shot the coin from the head of his son without even grazing him and prepared another one even during the flight of the first. The Count Palatine was pleased but he asked Punker why he had prepared the second arrow. Punker replied that if his son had died, the second arrow would have been for him (the Count Palatine).

Novel

Around 1950, priest and regional author, , wrote the

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

''Lindelbrunn. Erzählung'' ("Lindelbrunn. A Story"). Using the device of a first-person narrator (gallows priest in

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

, castellan at Lindelbrunn Castle, hospital priest in

, vicar in Eschbach) he brought the period of the peasants' uprising to life – highlighting the themes of

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and mercy.

References

Alexander Thon: ''… wie eine gebannte, unnahbare Zauberburg – Burgen in der Südpfalz'' (2005), p. 95 (see

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

) Viktor Carl: ''Das Lindenmütterlein'' from ''Pfälzer Sagen und Legenden'' (2000), pp. 291–293 (see

) Viktor Carl: ''Lindelbronn und Bäuerliche Liste'' from ''Pfälzer Sagen und Legenden'' (2000), pp. 293–296 (see

) Alexander Schöppner: ''Wie die Bauern Schloß Lindelbronn nahmen'', aus ''Sagenbuch der bayerischen Lande'', 1852, in Henri Frank's ''Pfälzische Sagen'' (1990), p. 82 (see

) Viktor Carl: ''Der Zauberschütze'' from ''Pfälzer Sagen und Legenden'' (2000), pp. 296–298 (see

) Alexander Schöppner: ''Der pfälzische Tell'' aus ''Sagenbuch der bayerischen Lande'', 1852, in Henri Frank's ''Pfälzische Sagen'' (1990), p. 85 (see

)

Literature

* Magnus Backes, Heinz Straeter: ''Staatliche Burgen, Schlösser und Altertümer in Rheinland-Pfalz''. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, 2003, . * * Viktor Carl: ''Pfälzer Sagen und Legenden''. Ardwig Henning, Edenkoben, 2000, . * Arndt Hartung, Walter Hartung: ''Pfälzer Burgenbrevier: Aufbaustudien''. 6th edn., Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Ludwigshafen, 1985, . * Walter Herrmann: ''Auf rotem Fels. Ein Führer zu den schönsten Burgen der Pfalz und des elsässischen Wasgau''. DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2004, , S. 120-121. * Jürgen Keddigkeit (ed.), Ulrich Burkhart, Rolf Übel: ''Pfälzisches Burgenlexikon, Band 3: I-N''. Institut für pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern, 2005, , pp. 430–448. * Elena Rey: ''Burgenführer Pfalz''. Superior, Kaiserslautern, 2003, . * Meinrad Schaab: ''Die Ministerialität der Kirchen, des Pfalzgrafen, des Reiches und des Adels am unteren Neckar und im Kraichgau – Hans Jänichen zum 65. Geburtstag''. In: Friedrich Ludwig Wagner (ed.): ''Ministerialität im Pfälzer Raum – Referate und Aussprachen der Arbeitstagung vom 12. bis 14. Oktober 1972 in Kaiserslautern''. Speyer, 1975, pp. 13–114. (dort die Vermutung, dass die repräsentativen Bauteile wie der Palas und die freistehende Kapelle in den 1190er Jahren unter Markward von Annweiler als Besitzer entstanden sein könnten, etwa parallel zum Kapellenturm auf dem Trifels). * Alexander Schöppner: ''Sagenbuch der bayerischen Lande''. 1852. In: Henri Frank: ''Pfälzische Sagen''. Speyer, 1990, , p. 82. * Günter Stein: ''Burgen und Schlösser in der Pfalz''. Weidlich, Frankfurt/Main 1976, . * Alexander Thon (ed.): ''… wie eine gebannte, unnahbare Zauberburg – Burgen in der Südpfalz''. 2nd edn., Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg, 2005, , pp. 90–95.

External links

{{Commons category, Burg Lindelbrunn, Lindelbrunn Castle
Panorama from the ruins of Lindelbrunn
panofotos.de

at burgenparadies.de Buildings and structures in Südliche Weinstraße Rock castles Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Buildings and structures in the Palatinate Forest Imperial castles