Nuremberg Castle
[1] It represented the power and importance of the Holy Roman Empire and the outstanding role of the Imperial City of Nuremberg.
A few years later, during World War II and its air raids in 1944/1945, a large part of the castle was laid in ruins.
At present, it houses the ticket office, the small museum shop and a multimedia show about the building history of the Imperial Castle.
The Burgraves' Castle was situated on the area between the Sinwell Tower and the Luginsland, but after its destruction in 1420 and the purchase of its remains by the city, very little is left.
The Imperial Stables were built as a granary in 1494 to 1495 by Hans Beheim the Elder, Nuremberg's most important architect at that time.
Archeological excavations within the castle unearthed remnants of walls dated around 1000, and in deeper strata even older ones that may be attributed to a building of Henry of Schweinfurt.
[7] The first written record is of 1050, when Henry III issued the so-called Sigena document in Norenberc releasing a bondswoman.
[8] His father Conrad II, on voyages from Regensburg (Ratisbon) to Bamberg in 1025 and 1030, still had issued documents[9] in Megelendorf, a small village some 4 km further to the east where the river Pegnitz could be crossed by a ford (presently Mögeldorf, a district of Nuremberg).
[3] Upon the death of Henry V in 1125, the last member of the Salian dynasty, his elected successor Lothair of Supplinburg attempted to seize the crown lands from the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, Duke of Swabia and his brother Conrad who considered all these lands, including Nuremberg Castle, to be part of the Salian family property inherited by them.
[4] Frederick I (Barbarossa) used the castle for a number of Diets and receptions, e.g. of a legation from the Eastern Roman Empire in 1156, but according to recent research, he did not contribute to the building of the Palace.
[7] After the last count of Raabs had died, his son-in-law Frederick of Zollern, in 1192, was granted the Burgraviate by Emperor Henry VI.
[4] Frederick II made his last visit to Germany in 1236 and returned to Italy in 1237 for the remaining thirteen years of his life, leaving the German affairs to his son Conrad IV.
The Golden Bull of 1356 named Nuremberg as the place of the first Imperial Diet of a newly elected ruler.
[2] The Burgraves' rise to power reached its climax when King Sigismund transferred the Margraviate of Brandenburg to the Hohenzollern in 1411.
Finally, the Burgraves' Castle was attacked in 1420 by Duke Louis VII of Bavaria and burned down, probably with the consent of the city.
Emperors started to execute their governmental acts in the town hall completed in 1340 and preferred to stay in the luxurious houses of the leading families rather than in the less comfortable castle.
During the Thirty Years' War, in 1632, the armies of Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein appeared in front of the walled city, but were diminished less by their hostilities than by typhus and scurvy.
In 1806, during Napoleon's restructuring of central Europe, French troops occupied Nuremberg and, according to the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbundakte), handed it over to Bavaria, then raised to a kingdom.
His son Maximilian II later commissioned August von Voit to continue the refurbishment between 1852 and 1858 in a more moderate style.
During the Third Reich, Rudolf Esterer, director of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, removed most of the previous installations and returned the Castle to what was thought to be its original state.
In World War II, the castle was damaged in 1944-45, with only the Imperial Chapel and the Sinwell Tower remaining entirely intact.
After the war, the castle was restored under the direction of Rudolf Esterer and Julius Lincke to its historical form, including the Luginsland tower which had been completely destroyed.
The Castle is owned by the state of Bavaria and administered by its Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes (Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen).
