Salzburg Castle (german: Burg Salzburg) stands on the edge of a plateau above the town of

Bad Neustadt an der Saale Bad Neustadt an der Saale, officially Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale and often simply called Bad Neustadt, is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia. It is situated on the rivers Fränk ...

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 ...

in southern

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 ...

. The large ''

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 ...

'' (jointly inherited castle) is still partly occupied today and not all areas are accessible to the public.

Location

The castle was built about a kilometre east of Bad Neustadt on the western end of the plateau above Neuhaus and is separated from the land in front of it by a roughly 160-metre-long

neck ditch A neck ditch (german: Halsgraben), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

. Until the 19th century the whole hillside was cleared and was used as early as the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...

for

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

. The present, thickly wooded ridge on which the castle stands is also the site of the extensive Franconian Clinic ( Rhön-Klinikum AG), which dominates the landscape.

History

Early Middle Ages

By the Carolingian era, the Salzgau around Neustadt was already very important. An imperial palace (''Pfalz'') was even built here; it was given to the Bishopric of Wurzburg in 1000 A.D. by Emperor Otto III. This palace was probably on the site of the present village of Salz or in its immediate vicinity. A castle was built on the nearby ''Veitsberg'' hill, probably in

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the ...

times during the period of the

Hungarian invasions The Hungarian invasions of Europe ( hu, kalandozások, german: Ungarneinfälle) took place in the 9th and 10th centuries, the period of transition in the history of Europe in the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Em ...

, to protect the local populace. A fortified enclosure of unknown date may have been located on the site of the present castle of Salzburg. These fortifications, too, may have been upgraded in the first half of the 10th century into a refuge castle in the face of attacks by the Magyars. The first record of the Salzburg occurs in a copy of a deed by Emperor

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

dated around 1160. The original document is missing and could have been inadvertently and mistakenly amended by its scribe, Friar Eberhard of

Fulda Abbey The Abbey of Fulda (German ''Kloster Fulda'', Latin ''Abbatia Fuldensis''), from 1221 the Princely Abbey of Fulda (''Fürstabtei Fulda'') and from 1752 the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda (''Fürstbistum Fulda''), was a Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastic ...

, to show the place of publication (''Actum-Zeile'' or ''Ausstellungsort'') as the Salzburg or Salzberg: "''Act(um) in Salzb. Curia regia''".Hessian State Archives, Marburg (''

Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg The Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAM, "Hessian State Archives in Marburg") is one of the three archives of the Hessisches Landesarchiv and is based in Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesla ...

''), K425. Codex Eberhardi, fol. 82r and v. The copy of this

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

document clearly suggests that the royal palace of Salz was actually located on the castle hill and older research invariably locates this royal court on the site of the more recent castle. Later on, the Veitsberg near Salz was generally reckoned to be the location of the palace while, today, historians favour the village of Salz or its immediate surroundings as the likely site. Friar Eberhard may have only known of the new site of the castle and replaced the village name of Salz by the abbreviation "Salzb." (''Salzburg'') throughout his transcript.

High and Late Middle Ages

The walled stone castle replaced an older palisaded ditch hewn from the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

rock. This discovery was only made in 1984 during an official excavation of the foundations. This originally wooden, protective rampart is about a metre behind the stone wall and was probably a provisional enhancement to protect the site. The oldest curtain wall was obviously not fully developed. The elements of the fortified site datable to the first phase of construction are up to four metres high, but there are long stretches where only the foundation seems to have been laid. Whether the Bishop of Würzburg intended to form a major administrative centre or even a fortified village, here, remains speculative.

Gallery

File:Burg Salzburg 18.jpg, View of neck ditch File:Burg Salzburg 5.jpg, The gate tower and curtain wall File:Burg Salzburg 15.jpg, The gate bergfried seen from the castle court File:Burg Salzburg.jpg, The Romanesque main gate File:Burg Salzburg 2.jpg, View through the main gate into the castle court. Right: the neo-Romanesque castle chapel File:Burg Salzburg 3.jpg, The ''Münz'' and central ''bergfried'' File:Burg Salzburg 16.jpg, The central ''bergfried'' from the east File:Burg Salzburg 4.jpg, The watchtower (interior) File:Burg Salzburg 6.jpg, The south side of the site. View looking west File:Burg Salzburg 17.jpg, Counterview looking east File:Burg Salzburg 7.jpg, The west side and the ''Voitschen Ansitz'' File:Burg Salzburg 8.jpg, View inside chapel of St. Boniface

References

Literature

* Heinz Gauly: ''The Bonifatius-Kapelle auf der Salzburg''. Salz, self-publication, 2006. * Leonhard Hegewald: ''Neustadt an der Saale, Der Kaiserpfalz auf dem Schlossberg und Bad Neuhaus mit seinen Quellen – ill. Führer für Fremde und Einheimische''. Neustadt a.d. Saale, 1880. * The Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern, III, 22, Bezirksamt Neustadt a. pp., pp. 166–193. Munich, 1922 (Nachdruck Munich, 1983), . * Klaus Leidorf, Peter Ettel: ''Burgen in Bayern – 7000 Jahre Burgengeschichte im Luftbild''. Stuttgart, 1999, . * ''Programm für The Salzburgfest, The eilfte Säcularfeier The Stiftung fränkischer, thüringischer und hessischer Bisthümer through den heiligen Bonifacius auf d. Salzburg bei Neustadt an d. Saale, begangen d. 12. Juli 1841''. Würzburg, 1841. * Georg Joseph Saffenreuter: ''Der eilfte Säcularfeier auf der Salzburg bei Neustadt an der Saale am 12. Juli 1841''. Würzburg, 1841. * ''Salisburg, der eilfte Säcularfeier der Weihe der ersten Bischöfe von Würzburg, Eichstädt, Erfurt und Buriburg durch den heiligen Bonifacius im Jahr 741 und die Grundsteinlegung zum Wiederaufbau die Bonifacius-Kapelle …''. Würzburg 1841. * Otto Schnell: ''Salzburg-Führer – Geschichte u. Beschreibung d. alten Kaiserpfalz Salzburg a.d. fränk. Saale''. Würzburg 1900. * August Voit von Salzburg: ''The uralte Kaiserburg Salzburg bei Neustadt an The Saale''. Bayreuth 1832, (reprint of the 2nd edn. 1833: Bad Königshofen, 1989) * Heinrich Wagner, Joachim Zeune (eds.): ''Das Salzburgbuch''. Bad Neustadt, 2008, . * Joachim Zeune: ''Burg Salzburg – Führer durch die Salzburg''. Bad Neustadt, 1994.

External links

Castle panorama
Castles in Bavaria Heritage sites in Bavaria Hill castles Rhön-Grabfeld House of Guttenberg