Altenburg (Bamberg)

The Altenburg is a castle that sits on the tallest of the seven hills of Bamberg, southern Germany, overlooking the town. It is located in Upper Franconia, a region in the state of Bavaria, and dates back to at least 1109.

The first mention of the Altenburg was in 1109. Its name, meaning "old castle", suggests that it was already considered old at that time; its origins may predate the year 1000.

In 1109 the castle was church property belonging to the collegiate chapter of St James and had little military significance. Only from the late 14th century onwards did the prince-bishops develop it into a fortified residence above the town.

A charter of 1251 placed the castle in the temporary custody of Bishop Heinrich I of Bilversheim for four months only; the collegiate chapter of St James remained its owner. Effective control by the prince-bishops began around 1307, and from then until 1553 the castle served as their second residence.

In 1553, during the Second Margrave War, the army of Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach forced the castle's surrender and burned its residential buildings; the keep, the curtain walls and the core of the gatehouse survived, and the gatehouse was rebuilt in 1554–1556 under Bishop Weigand von Redwitz. After the bishops moved to Geyerswörth Palace in 1586, the ruined castle served for a time as a state prison.

In 1801, the Bamberg physician Adalbert Friedrich Marcus bought part of the decaying castle for 400 gulden and made the surviving gatehouse habitable as a summer retreat, saving the complex from demolition; a systematic restoration was carried out only from 1818 onwards by the Altenburgverein. The author E. T. A. Hoffmann, a friend of Marcus, sought recreation in one of the wall towers during his Bamberg years (1808–1813).

In 1818, Bamberg citizens founded a society for the preservation of the Altenburg and purchased the castle for 4,800 gulden. The society, today known as the Altenburgverein, was initiated by the royal postmaster Anton von Grafenstein.

From 1952 to 1982, a brown bear named Poldi – regarded as the last castle bear in Germany – lived in a Zwinger (an enclosure) at the castle. The Zwinger still exists but today contains only a bear display figure; Poldi's preserved head is on show at the Natural History Museum in Bamberg.

Text adapted from “Altenburg (Bamberg)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Altenburg (Bamberg) ranks #1,946 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #146 of the 492 mapped in Germany. Founded 1109, it is older than 86% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 544 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,265 times in the last 60 days, more than 77% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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