The ruins of Frauenstein Castle () are located on a granite rock on the crest of the Eastern Ore Mountains near the town of Frauenstein in the district of

Mittelsachsen Mittelsachsen (, ) is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. History The district was established by merging the former districts of Döbeln, Freiberg and Mittweida as part of the district reform of August 2008. Geog ...

History

The castle, which was first recorded by name in 1272, was built as a border fortification between the

March of Meissen The Margravate or Margraviate of Meissen () was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a March (territory), frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast ''Marca Geronis'' (Sa ...

and

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. It protected the trade routes and the silver mining industry. The original inner ward measured just 30 × 15 m and incorporated a

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

. In the period that followed a second tower house was erected. This was linked to the existing tower. In the final years of the 13th century the

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

and castle

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

were built. The construction of the great curtain wall was carried out in the first half of the 14th century. The margrave enfeoffed the castle in 1329 together with its dominion to the burgraves of Meissen. The parish of Frauenstein was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1411. In 1438 the Wettins largely destroyed the castle during a siege. The Margrave of Meissen then disputed the succession rights of the burgraves. The dispute had started when the Meinheringer line died out in 1426 and was taken over by the ''Vögte'' from the House of Plauen. The nobility of that house, the von Schönbergs, were given the castle in 1473. They had a palace (''

Schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...

'') built in the years 1585–1588 designed by the architect to the Elector, Hans Irmisch. On the completion of the palace, the castle remained unoccupied. Nevertheless, the chapel was renovated in 1615. The last Schönberg at Frauenstein sold his estate in 1647 to the prince-elector, John George I. The palaces was converted, first to a judicial office (''Gerichtsamt'') and later into a forestry office (''Forstrentamt'') and district court (''Amtsgericht''). In 1728 a fire destroyed a large part of the town of Frauenstein and affected both the castle and the palace very badly. Because the castle, unlike the palace, was not being used, it was not rebuilt. Today the 13th-century tower house, known as ''Dicker Merten'' and the {{convert, 1+1/2, m, ft, adj=mid, -thick curtain wall remain standing. The remaining rooms include the cellar, kitchen, castle chapel, prison, two parlours and several vaults.erzgebirge-explorer.de
accessed on 24 July 2009. Restoration work was carried out on the ruins in 1968, 1990 and 1992. In 2007 an interest group was founded with the aim of keeping the castle accessible to the public and preventing it falling into private hands. From this group, the Society for the Preservation of Frauenstein Castle (''Förderverein Burg Frauenstein e.V.'') was founded in 2009.

External links

Society for the promotion of Frauenstein Castle (''Förderverein Burg Frauenstein'')

References

Castles in Saxony Ruined castles in Germany Buildings and structures in Mittelsachsen

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...