Falkenburg Castle
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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia. (February 2009)
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Falkenburg Castle is a castle ruin overlooking Wilgartswiesen in the Palatinate Forest in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Like almost all castles in this region it was built on sandstone.
History [edit]
In the documents of Archbishop Erkinbalds of Mainz letters of 1019 are writings of a cliff called Falkenstein and this was considered as the most northerly border belonging to the Kaiserslauterer Empire. Werner I. of Bolanden is thought to have began construction of the castle upon this cliff in 1125, he was a vassal of Duke Friedrich II. of Schwaben.[1]
At the Bolanden family monastery in Hane were mentions of Sigbold of Falkenstein in 1135, he was one of the first to take the name of the castle on himself. Then in 1233 Reichsministeriale Philipp IV. of Bolanden was the first to clearly say that he is from Falkenstein in a legal document.[1]
A Werner von Falkenburg is mentioned among legal documents dating from 1290. From 1300 to 1313 the castle was pledged to Friedrich IV von Leiningen. Then in 1317 it was pledged to the Counts of the Palatinate Rudolf II and Ruprecht I by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1375 Emich V von Leiningen became the proprietor of the castle and in 1398 the fiefdom of Falkenstein became its own county.
From 1420 the Bolanded/Falkenstein lineage faded away and the Counts of Virneburg took over the castle until 1456 when it was the Counts of Dhaun-Oberstein. In 1458 the Duke of Lorraine took over and became the high feudal lord.
The Falkenburg withstood the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525. In 1545 with the fall of the empire the House of Austria took over under the charge of the Austrian government in Freiburg.[1]
During the 30 Years' War the castle was overtaken by Spanish troops in 1631 and again in 1632 by Swedish troop until troops from Lorraine recaptured it. The castle was demolished by the French Marshal Schönbeck in 1638.[1]
The entire region of Frankenweide was administered from Falkenburg up to its destruction when it was then moved to Wilgartswiesen.
Restoration work on the castle was done in the 1930s and 1970.[1]
Location [edit]
The elongated Castle building is in two parts a 50 by 11 meter higher part which was connected by a staircase.
The main tower occupied a space of 6.8 meters by 7.2 meters. Its walls have a thickness of 1.8 meters of which remains a 2.5 meter stub. The ruins comprise a cistern, gatehouse, living quarters and further remnants of walls on the castle cliffs.
References [edit]
Coordinates: 49°12′22″N 7°51′36″E / 49.206°N 7.860°E
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