Castell was a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of northern

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 ...

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 ...

, ruling a string of territories in the historical region of

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...

, both east and west of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

. Little is known about the

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

Counts of Castell, although they were the counts of Kreis Gerolzhofen, Regierungsbezirk, and Unterfranken of Bavaria. They were a member of the ''Fränkische Grafenkolleg'' ("Franconian Counts College"). The two main branches of the House of Castell were

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Castell-Remlingen Castell-Remlingen was a County located in the region of Franconia in northern Bavaria, Germany, ruled by a branch of the Counts of Castell. It was created as a partition of Castell in 1597, and in 1668 it was partitioned between itself and Castell- ...

(later split into Castell-Castell) and Protestant and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Castell-Rüdenhausen. Castell was composed of three territories (''Flecken'') and 28 villages, with about 10,000 inhabitants at the time of mediatisation. The County of Castell joined Bavaria in 1806.

Partitions of Castell

(1597–1806) ** Castell-Castell (1668–1806) * Castell-Rüdenhausen (1597–1806) Castell, County of Franconian Circle 1709 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-hist-stub de:Castell (Unterfranken) pl:Castell (wieś) ru:Кастелль (Нижняя Франкония)