Scherenburg Castle (german: Burgruine Scherenburg or ''Schloss Scherenberg'') is a

ruined Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles ...

(

hillside castle A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the particul ...

) at an elevation of which stands on a hillside above the town of

Gemünden am Main Gemünden am Main (officially ''Gemünden a.Main'') is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg. Gemünde ...

in the province of

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally r ...

in the German state of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

History

The castle was probably built before 1243 by the

Counts of Rieneck The County of Rieneck was a comital domain within the Holy Roman Empire that lay in what is now northwestern Bavaria (in the west of Lower Franconia). It bore the same name as its original ruling family, the Counts of Rieneck, from whom the count ...

, to whom the land belonged, as a

toll castle Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use ** Shadow toll, ...

to ensure collection of tolls at the river crossing of the

River Main The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, Hesse. The cities of Mainz and Wies ...

and the borders with the state of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

. As a result, there were conflicts with the

Bishop of Würzburg A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, , who built Slorburg Castle in the immediate vicinity in order to demonstrate his power. In 1243, the dispute was settled by a treaty. In 1469, the castle finally went to Würzburg and was given the name of its

Prince-Elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...

, Rudolph II of Scherenberg. Until 1598 it was used as the Amtskeller and was inhabited until the 18th century. A wedding took place at the castle chapel in 1732. In the second half of the 18th century the castle began to fall into ruins. In 1825 it went into private ownership and in 1965 became the property of the town of Gemünden. Scherenburg Bergfried

Description

Of the former castle, all that has survived is the castle gate in the southeast, part of the

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

(once joined to the town walls in a continuous curtain wall), the round ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German ...

'' (occupied by

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

s and therefore no longer climbable), a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

walls of the

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, ...

, which had cellars, and a small ''zwinger'' (now a terrace with views over the Main and Saale valleys and the

Spessart Spessart is a ''Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg at 586 metres above sea level. Etymo ...

hills). Since the 1990s, the ''Scherenburg Festival'' (an open-air theatre festival) has taken place every summer in the courtyard of the ruins.

References

Literature

* Walter Schilling: ''Die Burgen, Schlösser und Herrensitze Unterfrankens'', 1st edition. Echter Verlag, Würzburg, 2012, , pp. 330–331. * Ursula Pfistermeister: ''Wehrhaftes Franken.'' Vol. 2: ''Burgen, Kirchenburgen, Stadtmauern um Würzburg''. Verlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg, 2001, {{ISBN, 3-418-00386-9, pp. 41–42.

External links

''Burgruine Scherenburg'' at stadt-gemuenden.de

The Scherenburg Festival
Hill castles Ruined castles in Germany Castles in Bavaria Main-Spessart Toll castles