Meistersel Castle is a ruined castle near
Ramberg on the outskirts of the
Palatinate Forest in
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 ...
,
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 ...
. It is located on a 492-metre-high hilltop that towers above the
Modenbach valley near the Three Beeches pass (''
Drei Buchen'') on the road from Ramberg to
Edenkoben
Edenkoben () is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It lies approximately halfway between Landau and Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Edenkoben is one of the towns situated along the German Wine R ...
.
Meistersel Castle is one of the oldest castles in the
Palatinate. Its name is derived from the words ''Meister'' ("master") and ''Saal'' ("hall") and hence the term ''Meister des Saales'' or master of the hall/chamberlain. It is likely that it was a seat for ''
ministeriales
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, ''Minist ...
'' of the
imperial castle
An imperial castle or ''Reichsburg'' was a castle built by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, whose management was entrusted to '' Reichsministeriales'' or ''Burgmannen''. It is not possible to identify a clear distinction between imperial castles an ...
of
Trifels. Its other name, ''Modeneck'', comes from the name of the nearby stream.
Landmarks in Germany
Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate
Ruined castles in Germany
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