The Knights of the House of Hutten on Schloss Frankenberg
Experience history up close
History of Schloss Frankenberg
Almost 800 years of steadfastness, a fortress never taken, in a landscape full of history and stories. The castle, the Amtshaus church Vorburg, the dairy and an area of 130 hectares of forests, fields, orchards and vineyards. Since 1254, Schloss Frankenberg the region around the municipality Weigenheim has been Steigerwald dominated, protected and shaped by the Knights of Franconia. Generations of Frankish knightly families resided here at an altitude of 498 meters on the hill of the Lords. Their virtues included loyalty, obedience, protection of the weak, respect for women, freedom and courage.
Courage, freedom, strength. Schloss Frankenberg.
They needed courage too, because the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries raged around the estate. The border that separates Protestant from Catholic territory still runs through the lands Frankenbergof today. It was the clan of the Huthens who Frankenberg lived during the Reformation Wars. By the time of Ulrich von Hutten, the most famous member of the noble family, the spirit of the Reformation and the humanist ideals of the Renaissance had taken hold. Ulrich was initially a poet, thinker, publisher and the first Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Later, however, he made a name for himself as a passionate reformer, friend and ally of Martin Luther. It could be that he came up with Südwall this phrase here, which still today shapes the coat of arms of Stanford University: „The air of freedom is bitter!“
Freedom! Ulrich von Hutten had opposed the Pope and the Emperor and thus contributed significantly to the division of the faith. The von Hutten family was therefore dispossessed and Schloss Frankenberg devastated during the Counter-Reformation for high treason. It took more than half a century to recover from the economic and structural setbacks. In the 17th century, among other things, viticulture helped Schloss Frankenberg to restore its former greatness and grandeur. They increasingly specialized in high-quality grape varieties and focused on increasing quality. Thus, in 1736 and 1748, Muscatel, Riesling and Burgundy were planted alongside red wine. For this purpose, the vineyards of Louisenbergs, the Wolfsgrube, and the Wallbergs that still remain today were used. Wines from these vineyards Schloss Frankenberg were soon delivered to Hamburg. The estate once again radiated power, protection, and strength.
Power! Until 1783, Frankenberg the rulers held supreme judicial authority. The well-preserved cellar vaults with cellar chambers, the torture instruments in the torture chamber, still bear witness to this. In the High Court, the „four high charges“ were adjudicated: murder, robbery, arson, and usury. But the bailiffs and the counts also adjudicated on serious thefts, beatings, poaching, and above all the frequent cases of usury. The future of the region Schloss Frankenberg was thus organized and regulated. All that remained was to decide on the fate of the castle itself. With the death of Johann Phillip Friedrich von Huttens, who had no descendants, the possession of the manor Frankenberg passed into the possession of the Pöllnitz family, who struggled with lengthy inheritance disputes. However, this possession of such a large castle complex proved to be too much for them and they found it a burden. A gradual process of decline began that would continue until this century.
First official mention of „Castrum Frankenberg“.
Burgrave Konrad I of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern builds Vorderfrankenberg Castle.
The lords of Hutten acquire the castle and build Schloss Frankenberg.
The Frankenberg manor passes into the ownership of the Lords of Pöllnitz.
The Lords of Lerchenfeld, who are among the traditional Bavarian nobility, are becoming the new castle owners.
Roland Beltz acquires the castle and has ambitious plans. Just four years after the purchase, he passes away.
Prof. Dr Dr Peter Löw acquires Schloss Frankenberg as part of the European Heritage Project.
Schloss Frankenberg The hotel opens and the restaurant Le Frankenberg receives the Michelin star.
Courage? Freedom? Strength? The past!
Schloss Frankenberg It had lost its landmark function and its roots in the region. When people looked up, they no longer did so with awe but only with concern: „What will happen to our castle now?“ Not only its strong walls, but also Schloss Frankenbergits cultural and historical heritage were almost completely destroyed. In 2014, European Heritage Project the castle Schloss Frankenberg and its adjacent lands were able to be purchased. Now this heritage has been returned to the region, painstakingly and lovingly restored over the years through years of work.
Myths, sagas, legends
At the beginning of the 19th century, legends about the Frankenbergmanor began to proliferate. The spread of these tales attests to their local and regional roots. Moreover, the stories highlight the special charm of this place, where time seems to have stood still in a miraculous way, elevating the castle into a kind of myth.
Many played in the dark, mystical forests around the castle Frankenberg, where bearded figures like the Black Jobst roamed as bandits. The castle Steigerwald, it becomes clear, must have been a place that provided food for the people but also frightened them. The castle, high up on the hill Frankenberg, therefore promised protection and security to the people.
Juliana, the child from the well of happiness
It is said that once upon a time Gründleinshof, a childless farmer named Mother Hadwig received a miraculous root of happiness from a water nymph named Alraune. From that alraune a girl was born, whom the Gründleinshöferin Juliana named. However, the also childless wife of Frankenbergs claimed the child for herself.
When the Virgin Juliana was to be married to a knight, the old peasant woman begged that at least her child’s wedding might be witnessed. Furious at the old woman’s rude behavior, she had the knight killed. As penance for his wrongdoing, he was sentenced to move to Jerusalem. But the knight never returned from this pilgrimage of penance. And so the grieving Juliana decided to return to her birthplace – to the farm she was given at the foot of the mountain of dominion, the Gründleinshof.
The gloomy scene of the three oaks
Not far from the south-east of today's dairy farm, a cross at three oaks by Schäfersee commemorates those three shepherds or farmers who were apparently killed by a storm and a lightning strike right here. The three oak trees are also where the remains of three children from the Seckendorff family, who managed the Vorderfrankenberg Castle from 1390 to 1423, are said to lie. According to the grim legend, the children were attacked and torn apart by a pack of wolves in the adjacent forest.
The Schönelse and her Elf Dance
In the dark forest, on the main road leading Schloss Frankenberg to Hohenlandsberg the Elfenstuhl, there is still a signpost pointing to the „Elfenstuhl“. Here, in the Middle Ages, the Schönelse, the virgin daughter of a doctor from Ippesheim, regularly combed her golden hair while singing. According to legend, she even danced with the elves of the Elven Queen. Her songs and her beauty, according to legend, attracted and bewitched the men. Subsequently, they wandered into the forest and were driven to madness.
Too much magic for the Middle Ages. Because of her knowledge of medicinal herbs, Schönelse was Frankenberg accused of witchcraft. She was brought before the High Court and sentenced to death by the guillotine. She was to die in the market square of Ippesheim, where all the verdicts that had been Schloss Frankenberg passed were carried out. But the Count of Castel, according to legend, saved Schönelse at the last moment with a risky maneuver with his horse before the guillotine.
Kunigunde’s rescue from the woods around Frankenberg
The significance as a historically significant region is also underscored by the legend of the Kunigunden Chapel at Bullenheim. It is named after Kunigunde of Luxembourg, who later co-founded the cathedral and the bishopric of Bamberg as the wife of Emperor Henry II – by providing her widowed estate for this purpose. According to the legend, the Kaiserin von Bamberg, revered as a saint in Franconia, wanted to travel to Würzburg. In the dark forests around the Frankenberg town, she and her retinue left the path and got lost in the night. In great fear, she vowed to have a chapel built there where God would show the first sign of a settlement. Immediately afterwards, a light appeared, and the Kaiserin heard the bell of Bullenheim. True to her vow, she had that chapel built on the hill top as a sign of salvation; today, even as a ruin, it still exudes a special aura and offers a magnificent view of the Steigerwald surrounding countryside.
The Luisensäule on the Luisenberg bears witness to the Prussian rule Schloss Frankenberg from 1792 to 1806. Or maybe not; that’s just how legends work: Ludwig Karl Freiherr von Pöllnitz, castle owner in the 18th century, was already a chamberlain and a member of the tobacco collegium of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I. Later he Schloss Frankenberg invited Queen Louise, the wife of the successor, successor and successor of Friedrich Wilhelm III., to the palace. Queen Louise, that woman who later had to beg Napoleon for mercy for her defeated Prussia, had Frankenberg wandered there and lost her glove. The legend says that this is where the Luisäule was found again. But that is probably not true. Prussia’s Queen Luise, as we know today, was probably never at Schloss Frankenberg. But the castle wine estate had a wonderful name for its wonderful location: the Louisenberg.
A tomb in the spirit of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
And once again, the ghosts of the French Revolution haunt the Frankenberg. Not far from the castle and the castle cemetery near the summit plateau lies Scheinberg, which at 499 meters Steigerwald is the highest elevation in the area. Here, the second castle owner from the Pöllnitz family, Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von Pöllnitz (Frankenberg from 1801 to 1826), rests. He was devoted to the nature-loving and socially reformist ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He had a weakness for landscape architecture, creating a park-like, idyllic landscape there, modeled after English gardens with swings and other play equipment in the adjoining forest. In the midst of this idyll he later found eternal peace: a tomb and a gravestone lie on an island in the middle of Scheinbergsee.
European Heritage Project
Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Löw, a lawyer and historian, is a successful businessman. As an entrepreneur, he has taken over and rebuilt more than 200 failing companies, thereby saving many jobs. But as a professor of honor in business ethics, he also knows that success in business is important, but not everything. In the best tradition of Anglo-American patronage, he has therefore established the European Heritage Project founded.
A private initiative that aims to identify historically unique properties and preserve them as symbols of identity. The generous patron Prof. Dr. Dr. Löw wants to give people access again to the „lighthouses“ of their ancestors.