Burg Lobenhausen: A Medieval Hilltop Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Burg Lobenhausen is an eleventh-century hilltop castle in Germany, built by the Counts of Lobenhausen, also known as the nobles of Lobenhausen. The castle is documented by 1295 and later belonged at times to the Lords of Hohenlohe, a German noble dynasty whose territories lay partly in what is now northern Baden-Württemberg.
War and Decline
In 1525, during the German Peasants’ War, a major uprising of peasants and other lower-status groups in the Holy Roman Empire, Burg Lobenhausen was partly destroyed. It was subsequently rebuilt. In 1645, during the Thirty Years’ War, the European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648, the castle was plundered and again partly destroyed. It fell into decay during the eighteenth century.
The Revived County Title
The name Lobenhausen was revived as a comital title in 1856, when the King of Württemberg granted the title “Count of Lobenhausen” to Prince Heinrich, the son of Friedrich Karl, Prince and mediatized lord of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg. A mediatized lord belonged to the high nobility but had come under the sovereignty of a larger state after his territory lost its direct imperial status. The grant was connected with Heinrich’s forthcoming morganatic marriage to Anna Therese von Landzert, a legally recognized marriage in which the lower-ranking spouse and children generally did not receive the higher partner’s dynastic status or inheritance rights. The title was granted to Anna Therese and their descendants.
Anna Therese was widowed in 1859, and the marriage produced no children. A genealogical work published in 1874 still described her as the widowed Countess of Lobenhausen.
Remains
Hilltop Setting and Castle Fabric
Burg Lobenhausen occupied the eastern end of an elongated, former abandoned river-loop hill of the Jagst, on the Schlossberg ridge at approximately 412.6 metres above sea level. The larger part of Lobenhausen lies at the southern foot of the ridge. The former Jagst valley is approximately 20 to 30 metres below the castle beneath the southwest slope, while the river’s present course passes the northeastern foot of the hill more than 50 metres below it.
Curtain Wall
Only slight remains of the castle’s curtain wall survive. The surviving wall fabric has been incorporated into a farmhouse, preserving part of the enclosure within a later building.
Chapel and Church
The castle chapel stood against the southern side of the curtain wall. Lobenhausen Church of St John was formerly part of the castle complex, linking the surviving religious building with the site’s earlier fortified arrangement.
Nearby sites
