Gräfenberg Castle (), also called Landesehre Castle (''Burg Landesehre''), is a levelled

hilltop castle A hilltop castle is a type of hill castle that was built on the summit of a hill or mountain. In the latter case it may be termed a mountaintop castle. The term is derived from the German, ''Gipfelburg'', which is one of a number of terms used ...

near on the hill of . It is located near in the market municipality of

Hösbach Hösbach is a market community and municipality in the Aschaffenburg (district), Aschaffenburg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. As of 2023, It has a population of 13,323. Geography ...

in the district of

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; Hessian: ''Aschebersch'', ) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg. Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...

in the south German state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

History

The castle was probably built in the mid-13th century on and next to a fort of the

La Tène period LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

, probably later than the castle on nearby . By 1261 the castle had been destroyed during a conflict between the Rieneck counts and

Electoral Mainz The Electorate of Mainz ( or '; ), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Archbishop-Elec ...

. In the 18th century the castle was used as a quarry and demolished apart from a few wall remains.

Description

The castle had a sturdy

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...

, which enclosed the entire site and guaranteed protection for its occupants. The roughly 2-metre-thick and probably over ten-metre-high

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

with its wooden

wall walk A ''chemin de ronde'' (French language, French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; ), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. In early fortifications, high castle wa ...

and tiled roof was integrated into the early mediaeval enceinte. The buildings in the castle courtyard were made of stone and wood. From the then treeless summit, the

Aschaff The Aschaff (in its uppermost course: ''Kleinaschaff'') is a river in the northern Spessart in Bavaria, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Main and is long. It begins at the Aschaffquelle near Waldaschaff. Loosely translated the name Asch ...

valley could be overlooked. In 1904, the Aschaffenburg chemist, ''Deinlein'', carried out the first excavations on the Gräfenberg. Today there are the wall foundations of a rectangular building, a five-metre-long and 1.8-metre-side longitudinal wall, a four-metre-long and 0.4-metre-wide transverse wall which abuts on another wall that has yet to be uncovered. Also recognisable are elements of a vaulted ceiling and a circular wall that could be a

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

or a

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (fr ...

.Der Gräfenberg – Forschungsgeschichte
bei spessartprojekt.de

Literature

* Björn-Uwe Abels: ''Die vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Geländedenkmäler Unterfrankens''. (Materialhefte zur bayerischen Vorgeschichte, Series B, Vol. 6). Verlag Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz, 1979, , p. 67. * Karl Bosl (ed.): ''Handbuch der historischen Stätten'', 7th volume, Bayern, 3rd edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1981, .

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grafenberg Castle Aschaffenburg Castles in Bavaria Aschaffenburg (district)