Germany · 13th century
Rabeneck Castle (German: Burg Rabeneck) is a former high mediaeval aristocratic castle which stands high above the valley of the Wiesent in the Upper Franconian district of Bayreuth in the German state of Bavaria.
The castle is open to the public; however, there is an entrance fee.
The hill castle is located within the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park on a rocky hill spur at a height of about 415 metres above the valley of the River Wiesent in the region of Franconian Switzerland, about three kilometres south-southwest of Waischenfeld.
Nearby are the ruins of Waischenfeld Castle and, to the east, Rabenstein Castle, which was probably the family seat of the Rabenecks, who belonged to the family of ministeriales the House of Rabenstein.
Further up the Wiesent valley on the gallows hill (Galgenberg) above the powder mill stood Schlüsselberg Castle, the ancestral castle of the lords of Schlüsselberg.
The family name, Rabeneck, first surfaces in 1217 in a list of fiefs of Tegernsee Abbey in conjunction with Ebertshausen Castle; then, in 1242, with Ulrich, a citizen of Munich; and subsequently in a 1257 document which mentioned the witnesses Siboto de Rabeneck and Chunrad de Rabenekke.
A Nentwich of Rabenekke, presumably clergy, appeared in 1261 and 1296 in a document; and a Henry of Rabeneck (Heinrich von Rabenec) in 1276.
The Ravenecks of Babenberg probably come from the family of the lords of Rabenstein, as the word Raben ("raven") in both Rabenstein and Rabeneck and the close proximity of the two castles suggests.
The suffix Eck ("corner") also indicates that the castle may have been built later that those whose names end in Stein ("stone"). In addition, both names suggest a connection with capital punishment. The Rabenstein with a site of a gallows, and Rabeneck with an executioner's sword.
A branch of the Rabensteins built Rabeneck before 1200 as an allodial castle, and named a cadet line of the family after it. Unlike Rabenstein, Rabeneck Castle was did not belong to the Barony of Waischenfeld, which the barons of Schlüsselberg occupied at that time, nevertheless they still had stakes in the castle. How they came to own these shares is not known.
Text adapted from “Rabeneck Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Rabeneck Castle ranks #7,308 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #658 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 1080 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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