In 1231, the free knight, Louis of Ruheneke, placed himself, half the castle and other sundry estates under the lordship of the Bishopric of Würzburg.

To protect their barony, the Rauhenecks allied themselves with numerous lesser noble families in the surrounding area and enfeoffed their own estates to vassals.

In 1841/42, Georg Ludwig Lehnes, in his History of Baunach Valley, counted the lords of Lichtenstein, Kößeln, Gemeinfeld, Brünn, Hofheim, Ostheim, Scherschlitz, Kotzenwinden (Kurzewind), Redwitz, Breitenbach, Westheim, Mehried, Holfeld, Neubrunn, Schoder and Kliebern amongst the retinue of the Rauhenecks.

The names of some of these vassals (Dienstleute) evince that, in the High Middle Ages, a local noble family was resident in virtually every village.

Because of a dispute with his nephew, Frederick, Louis of Rauheneck placed his estates under the Bishopric in 1244 for a second time as a feudal possession.

After this pledge, the administrative districts (Ämter) of Ebern, Sesslach, Bramberg and Rauheneck began to merge gradually.

July 2006 saw the start of the emergency safety work at the castle after the county of Haßberge was able lease the area for the next few decades.

The population of the surrounding villages of Jesserndorf and Bischwind attended the chapel for church services and had to pay the pastor of Ebern five pounds in Heller coins annually.

The chapel was consecrated to Saint John the Baptist and was located in the zwinger or outer defensive enclosure of the castle.

In 1842, the History of the Baunach Valley in Lower Franconia[1] appeared in Würzburg, self-published by author, Georg Ludwig Lehne.

He maintained that a George of Raueneck lost his fortune as a result of family disputes and so, in 1508, entered the service of the Imperial Army.

In fact, the name of Müller von Raueneck appears even to the present day in some lists and directories of the nobility, but the surname seems to have disappeared in Germany today.

The author of the "correction" even added his observations to a family tree of the Müllers of Raueneck citing unspecified "documentary excerpts".

Lehne was just a simple archive writer without any academic training; an early, dedicated local historian, whose work was possibly just being denigrated by someone.

Parts of the impressive Hussite period zwinger systems (walled fighting enclosures) have survived with their two round towers and a bretèche (Schießerker), as well as the ruins of the palas, with its great hall, the late Gothic chapel and two basement Vaults.

The bridge was needed when the main entrance had been moved next to the palas and the neck ditch in front of the zwinger system had to be crossed.

The original main gate could have been located in the gap in the wall in front of the chapel on the other side of the castle (see Zeune's artist's impression).

This illustration is considered as evidence of the existence of a bergfried in the web project "Castles in Bavaria" (Burgen in Bayern) by the House of Bavarian History.

Some structural damage resulted from a failed attempt by a youth group to renovate the top of the wall in the late 20th century.

The quarry that can be made out behind it probably dates to the Middle Ages, used to produce building stone for the construction of the castle.

The buildings are in severe danger of collapse, In the summer of 2006, however, essential emergency work started to make the site safe.

The treasure hunter must have been rocked in a cradle made from the wood of a cherry tree growing on the top of the castle.

The similarity between the two legends was already noted by Ludwig Bechstein in his 1853 German Fairy Tale Book (The Little Cherry Tree at Raueneck Castle, No.

Perhaps the legend was transferred in the early 19th century because of the similarity of the castle's name to its better-known counterpart in the Vienna Woods.

In the course of the archaeological educational dig, several pits that had been opened by grave robbers were filled and part of the high medieval enceinte of the inner bailey were exposed.

The garderobe opening was in the wall, the partially preserved waste pipe led into the moat before the construction of the zwinger system.