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Knight Castles Eisenberg and Hohenfreyberg

The castle ruins of Hohenfreyberg and Eisenberg near Füssen are picturesque on a hilltop.

The two castle ruins lie about 10 minutes apart ... - If you want to know how to continue with the lively history, explore the castle near the castle Neuschanstein in the beautiful Königswinkel!

Knight Castle Hohenfreyberg

The Hohenfreyberg castle together with Eisenberg Castle, which is directly opposite, forms a widely visible castles group in southern Allgäu, about four kilometers north of Pfronten in the district of Ostallgaeu.
The late medieval castle was abandoned during the Thirty Years War and set on fire. From 1995 to 2006, the former nobility was extensively secured and preserved as part of a much-respected "pattern renovation". The castle is one of the last large new buildings of the German Middle Ages. The builder consciously relied on the - actually anachronistic - building type of the high-medieval Höhenburg, while other places had already left the first castles or expanded as a castle.

The Veste was erected from 1418 by Friedrich von Freyberg to Eisenberg, the eldest son of the lord of Eisenberg Castle of the same name. The construction continued until the year 1432, the means for this were from the income of the small surrounding dominion, which the builder was able to transfer as an inheritance prematurely.For this first construction phase, the masonry of the Kernburg with the main tower similar to the minerals and large wall sections of the Vorburg back.

This first Burganlage offered the image of a two-hundred-year-old, high-medieval summit castle with an impressive "Bergfried" and two palaces. Frederick of Freyberg evidently wanted to create a symbol in a period of gallant decline and the rise of the bourgeoisie, a manifesto of unbroken aristocratic power.
Of course, he was also oriented to the size and the demands of the paternal tribe, which was only a five-minute walk away. The building and the immense entertainment costs forced the sons Georg and Friedrich from Freyberg-Eisenberg to Hohenfreyberg as well as their cousin Georg von Freyberg- Eisenberg zu Eisenberg, which also owned goods of the Hohenfreyberg domination, in 1484 for the sale of the castle to the Archduke Sigmund of Austria.


There was also a lack of a male heritage. The successor of the Archduke, the later Emperor Maximilian I, Hohenfreyberg pledged in 1499 to the Augsburg merchant Georg Gossembrot, the keeper of the nearby Tyrolean castle Ehrenberg. This invested large sums in the Veste, the plant was strengthened and modernized in defense technology. The merchant Gossembrot married his daughter Sibylle with Lutz von Freyberg to Öpfingen-Justingen, a relative of the Freybergs at the neighboring Eisenberg.
In 1502, the Augsburger died, his widow Radegunda Eggenberger returned the pledge of Hohenfreyberg to Austria with a treaty of 9 May 1513. She claimed that her deceased husband had spent 17,000 to 18,000 guilders on buying and building.

The modernization of the fortifications by the Pfandherren paid off as early as 1525 in the Bauernkrieg. The Austrians were able to defend the insurgents successfully, after he had demanded reinforcements and war crusades in Innsbruck. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, on September 15, 1646, the Austrian outpost Hohenfreyberg, Eisenberg and Falkenstein were set on fire by order of the Tyrol government.
The burgeoning lands should not fall into the hands of the approaching Protestants intact. However, the attackers changed their route, the task of the castles was therefore pointless. All three plants have since been uninhabited ruins. After the Battle of Austerlitz, Austria had to surrender its Allgäu possessions to Bavaria. In 1841, the Kingdom of Bavaria sold Hohenfreyberg back to the Freiherren of Freyberg, which still belongs today to the castle.

In 1995, a complex renovation began, the Burgenlage, which was almost uninhibited until then. The Alp Action Foundation, under the umbrella of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, made the start of the security work, which for financial reasons could not be completed until 2006. The aim of the measures was to preserve the state at the beginning of the renovation work, preservation of the state as well as the additions and major archaeological interventions.

The international "pattern renovation" is a model for numerous similar monument conservation projects across Europe. In the course of the development of the Allgäu castles region from 2004 onwards, two didactic installations and some infotafes were added to the castle interior. The planning concept of the Allgäu castles region is an extension of the cross-border fortified region of Ostallgäu, which also includes the spectacular fortress complex around the Ehrenberg castle near Reutte in Tyrol.

 


Knight Castle Eisenberg

 

The Eisenberg Castle is the ruin of a high-altitude fortress on Isenberch, a 1055-meter-high foothill of the Tannheimer Mountains, four kilometers north of Pfronten in the district of Ostallgäu in the south-west of Bavaria.

The castle ruins together with the Hohenfreyberg castle form a dominating and widely visible castles group. In 1315, the new castle was built by Hohenegg. The Hohenegger had moved northwards into the Allgäu before the expansion efforts of the Tyrolese count Meinhard II - who had occupied their two castles Loch and Vilsegg.

The first documentary mention of the new castle is dated 1340 with "uf the Isenberch".
As early as 1382, the Hoheneggers had to sell the fortress to the Austrian Archduke Leopold, who soon afterwards gave the fortress and dominion to Frederick of Freyberg, the father-in-law of the last noble-minded Burgherren Berthold von Hohenegg Damaged, for which the family was compensated ten years later.

Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, Eisenberg shared the fate of its two neighboring castles, Hohenfreyberg and Falkenstein. In September 1646, the Tyrolese Provincial Government determined the task of their three Allgäu outposts, in view of the threat of the advancing Protestant army.

The castles were cleared and set on fire; they were not to fall intact into the hands of the assailants. Since the Protestants changed their position shortly afterwards, the sacrifice of the fortifications was completely useless. All three castles have been uninhabited ruins since then. The ruin remained until 1952 in the possession of the family of Freyberg-Eisenberg.

In 1980, the municipality of Eisenberg bought the ruins of the ruins to begin renovation work a year later, together with the "Association for the Preservation of Eisenberg Castle".



Open times & Price

The ruins are open all year round.

Hike to the castle ruins Eisenberg and Hohenfreyber, 1041 m and 1055 m

Duration: 2 hours

Increase: 400 meters

Characteristics: Pleasant, easy hike to two magnificent castle ruins with a view of the nearby peaks of the Allgäu Alps - from the Schlossbergalm between Zell and Eisenberg

Medival times experience

Dukes, princes were once the masters of the castles. Today you can visit these castles. In the summer there is once a week a guided tour organized by the tourist information office Eisenberg.

You can experience medieval times on the castles in August, when knights, jugglers and merchants meet there.