Rotenhan Castle

Rotenhan Castle
Burgruine Rotenhan
Germany
Rotenhan Castle
Coordinates 50°6′52.2″N 10°47′22.8″E / 50.114500°N 10.789667°E / 50.114500; 10.789667Coordinates: 50°6′52.2″N 10°47′22.8″E / 50.114500°N 10.789667°E / 50.114500; 10.789667
Type Castle
Site information
Condition Ruined
Site history
Materials Sandstone
Inaccurate overview map on the information board in front of the castle (after recording the monument's inventory in 1916): 1: Moat 2: Alleged main gate (Zeune) 3 and 4: The secondary gate (Zeune) or actual main gate 5: sunrises to the upper floor of the gate building 6: Supposed Torgasse to the main gate 7: Well 8: Cistern 9: Northwest rocks, tank cistern 10: Eastern rock 11: Ostfels with the last remaining walls 12: Courtyard. The terrain profile with height differences of up to three meters (not shown)
Reconstruction of the castle from the 19th Century.

Rotenhan Castle (German: Burg Rotenhan) is a castle ruin about two kilometres north of the village of Eyrichshof in Lower Franconia in the south German state of Bavaria. Eyrichshof lies within the borough of Ebern in the district of Haßberge. The castle is the ancestral home (Stammsitz) of the House of Rotenhan, a family of imperial knights.

History

The Rotenhan family has its roots in three von Langheim brothers, who were the co-founders of Langheim Abbey in 1132. Later the name "de Rotha(ha)" was used. In 1229, reference is made to a Winther and Wolfram "de Rotenhagen" in connexion with an allodial holding of the family rather than a fief. The doorway to the staircase entrance belongs to the late Romanesque-early Gothic period. In 1323 the castle was besieged by the Bishop of Würzburg, Wolfram Wolfskeel von Grumbach, for a year under the pretext of that the family had been involved in counterfeiting and a breach of feudal loyalty. After it was finally captured, the structure was destroyed and, according to a treaty of 1324, was never to be rebuilt. Later, the House of Rotenhan built a new castle, Eyrichshof, further down the hill below the site of Rotenhan.

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Literature

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