Lahneck Castle
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Lahneck Castle (German: Burg Lahneck) is a medieval fortress located in the city of Lahnstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, south of Koblenz. The 13th-century castle stands on a steep rock salient above the confluence of the Lahn River with the Rhine, opposite Stolzenfels Castle, in the district of Oberlahnstein. Its symmetrical plan, an oblong rectangle, is typical of the later castles of the time of the Hohenstaufen. The pentagonal shape of the bergfried is rare for castle towers.
The castle became well known in Britain by the death of
History
Lahneck Castle was built in 1226 by the
The castle chapel, dedicated to Saint Ulrich of Augsburg, was built in 1245, in the same year the first burgrave took up residence in the castle.
In 1298, King Adolf of Nassau was a guest at the castle, shortly before his death in the Battle of Göllheim against King Albert I of Habsburg. In order to avenge him, the Burgrave of Lahneck, Friedrich Schilling of Lahnstein, participated in a conspiracy against Albert. The castle was stormed in 1309 and Friedrich Schilling was executed.
According to legend, when the Knights Templar were ordered by Pope Clement V to disband in 1312, the last 12 Templars took refuge in the castle, where they perished in a heroic fight to the death with forces of Mainz Archbishop Peter of Aspelt.
In 1332, Pope John XXII granted a 40-day indulgence to those attending services in the castle chapel.
On 4 June 1400, King
In 1475, the Archbishop of Mainz,
In 1633, during the
On July 18, 1774, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote the poem Geistesgruß. It was inspired by the sight of Lahneck Castle during his travels along the river Lahn.
In the
Literary references
In Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838 is Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poetical illustration to an engraving of a painting by Samuel Prout entitled The Church of St. John, and the Ruins of Lahneck Castle.[2]
The castle features in chapter 14 of Unless Victory Comes, Gene Garrison's memoir of the United States 3rd Army's crossing of the Rhine on the morning of 25 March 1945.[3]
References
- ^ http://www.arlindo-correia.org/Idilia_tagebuch.jpg [bare URL image file]
- ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.
- ISBN 1-932033-30-0.
External links
Media related to Burg Lahneck at Wikimedia Commons