Leonrod Castle (german: Ruine Leonrod, links=no), also called Lewenrode Castle, is a ruined

water castle A water castle is a castle whose site is largely defended by water. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle st ...

on a manmade lake in the Bibert valley on the edge of the parish of Leonrod in the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

of Dietenhofen in Ansbach county in the German state of

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 ...

History

The water castle was built in the 13th century as the family seat and ''

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 ...

'' of the lords of Leonrod, who were descended from the lords of Buttendorf, in order to protect an important road link to the city of

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. The castle was first mentioned in 1235 with a Rudolf ''miles de Lewenrode''. In the 14th and 16th centuries structural changes were made to the castle. The castle survived the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

unscathed, but shortly afterwards, in 1651, it burned down as a result of negligence - attempts to burn off vegetation in the moat got out of hand - and it was never rebuilt. In the 17th and 18th century a hunting lodge was built. The castle is owned today by a community of heirs that go back to the aristocratic line that died out in 1951. One of the members of the nobile family was Franz Leopold, Baron of Leonrod, who was Bishop of Eichstätt from 1867 to 1905 and is one of the most important bishops of this diocese.

Description

This very large castle is surrounded by a deep

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

. It has four buildings around a rectangular 20-metre-high ''

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 ...

'' with an

elevated entrance An elevated entrance is a type of entrance, common in the design of medieval castles, that is not accessible from ground level, but lies at the level of an upper storey. The elevated entrance is the lowest and frequently the only way of ent ...

, 9 metres above ground level. The ''bergfried'' has a ground plan 6 x 6 metres in area and a wall thickness of about 2 metres. In the

outer ward An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bui ...

is the

castle chapel Castle chapels (german: Burgkapellen) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the ...

, St. George's, which dates to 1327, and the hunting lodge with its

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

and

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

upper storey. Today, the castle still has the almost fully preserved ''bergfried'', considerable wall remains, vaults, the castle well in the courtyard and an outlying tower. It has been designated a heritage site.

Literature

* Wolfgang Krüger: ''Die Deutschen Burgen und Schlösser in Farbe. Burgen, Schlösser, Festungsanlagen, Herrenhäuser und Adelspalais in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Berlin (West)''. Wolfgang Krüger Verlag/S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt, 1987, . * Ursula Pfistermeister: ''Wehrhaftes Franken: Burgen, Kirchenburgen, Stadtmauern. Band 1: um Nürnberg''. Verlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg, 2000, , pp. 64–65.

External links

Ganerbenburg Leonrod bei weinlaender.de
* http://www.erüca.de "Schönes Franken lohnende Ausflugsziele" Leonrod {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Ansbach (district) Castles in Bavaria Water castles in Germany