Location: 80 km (50 mi) East of Frankfurt Map
Constructed: 1151 by Ludwig I, Count of Loon and Rieneck
Open: 7:30am- 1pm Mon- Fri
8am- 12pm Sat, Sun
Tel. 09354 902317
Rieneck Castle is located 80 km (50 mi) East of Frankfurt in Bavaria region of Germany. Rieneck Castle was found in 1151 by Ludwig I, Count of Loon and Rieneck. This stronghold was mostly occupied by a small garrison of soldiers. Most of the residents didn't live here due to its cramped conditions. However in a time of war all the residents in the surrounding lands would flee here. Today the stronghold is managed by German Christian Guide and Scout Association as a scouting facility. There is a small campground available just next to Rieneck Castle.
Ludwig I, Count of Loon and Rieneck, had the so-called castrum Rinecke built around 1150 on the northeastern border of the County of Rieneck in order to protect his sphere of influence against the interests of the surrounding territories of Kurmainz, the Würzburg monastery and the Fulda monastery. The small hill in the Sinntal offered excellent conditions for this due to natural obstacles: the castle only had to be secured in one direction by creating a weir ditch and the smallest possible attack surface on this side.
This can be clearly seen in the floor plan of the keep, the 19 m
high thick tower, which on the outside represents an irregular
heptagon, one point of which points towards the nearby hill. The
castle complex initially only consisted of the castle courtyard and
keep with its four to eight meter thick walls surrounded by
fortification walls. Half-timbered buildings were also built within
the castle walls, as well as residential buildings, warehouses and
stables, of which essentially only the castle's vaulted cellar
remains.
Since living in the tower of the castle was
relatively uncomfortable, people only lived here in times of war.
There was no entrance on the ground floor (today's entrance dates
from the 19th century), but there were two entrances on higher
floors, to which wooden stairs on the outer wall that could be
removed quickly led. The access at the level of the second floor
opened up the main room of the tower, the Count's hall. Equipped
with a stove, sink and a secret place (toilet), it was very
comfortably furnished for the time. The third floor, with its own
entrance, housed the bower, in which the countess and her entourage
were safely and warmly housed during a siege - because of the
fireplace in the count's hall. The tower chapel, which is unique in
mainland Europe, is also located on this floor. It is completely
embedded in the outer wall of the tower, which must have presented
the builder with a great challenge at the time. The few remaining
stone carvings on the walls still give an impression of the formerly
magnificent furnishings.
Around the year 1200 the castle
complex was strengthened and the now 29 m high octagonal thin tower
was built to secure a larger castle crew. Originally, it too had no
windows and no level access. Inside the tower, all traces of the
former furnishings have now been blurred and its exterior has also
been significantly changed. The sixth floor of the eagle's nest and
the current roof of the tower were not added until the 20th century.
In the course of expanding the fortifications, the Romanesque
court chapel was also built. Only parts of the portal remain from
the gable wall. The origin and meaning of the two figure panels on
the outer facade, dating from around 1300, have not been clarified.
So it is uncertain whether they originally belonged to the castle or
were only used in the 19th century.
The castle was
a magnet for the local population. This contributed to the growth of
the town of Rieneck, which lies below the castle hill and has been
called a town since the beginning of the 13th century. There are two
different representations in the literature about the transition
from the castle to a condominium shared between Kurmainz (¾) and the
Hanauers (¼):
When the Rieneck-Rothenfels line expired in 1333,
Ulrich II. Von Hanau inherited ¼ of the town and castle of Rieneck
through his mother, Elisabeth von Rieneck-Rothenfels, and Kurmainz
kept the rest himself.
The house of Rieneck died with Count
Philipp III. from Rieneck on September 3, 1559. He had close with
Philip III. von Hanau-Münzenberg worked together. When it was
foreseeable that Count Philip III. von Rieneck would die without a
male heir, the two agreed to appoint the Hanauer Count as heir. The
project failed due to a formal error. (For details see here.) There
was a dispute between Kurmainz and Hanau over the inheritance. This
was finally resolved to the effect that a condominium was formed,
which was due to ¾ Kurmainz and ¼ Hanau-Münzenberg.
Since the castle was now in strange hands, it was
unsuitable as a residence for the Counts of Rieneck and they moved
to Lohr am Main. The castle retained its strategic importance as it
controlled Birkenhainer Straße, the most important medieval traffic
route in the region. This use was also given up in the 16th century
and the castle fell into disrepair.
The Mainz share was
bought in 1673 by Johann Hartwig Graf von Nostitz, who thereby
secured the status of an imperial count with a seat and vote in the
Reichstag. This share was sold to Counts Colloredo and Mansfeld in
1803. In 1806 Rieneck was mediatized and added to the Principality
of Aschaffenburg. With him it fell to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
and with the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 to the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Around 1860 Prof. Dr. Franz von Rinecker bought the
castle because he believed that it was closely related to the
Rienecker Grafhaus. He used his fortune for extensive restoration
and conversion measures in the neo-Gothic style, so that today it is
sometimes difficult to differentiate between the medieval building
fabric and the structural changes of the 19th century.
In the
1920s, the castle was owned by the poet and writer Walter Bloem. In
1929 a massive renovation was carried out: Windows were broken in
the thin tower, the connecting wing between the two towers was built
and the roof received the first larger dormers. After that, Rieneck
Castle was first used as a children's holiday home, then as an SA
sports school, as a military hospital, as a prison of war and
finally as a hospital.
The Rieneck Boy Scout Castle is today one of the federal centers of
the Association of Christian Scouts and Boy Scouts (VCP) as the
legal successor to the CPD and is its international training and
meeting center. In addition to conferences and training courses, the
VCP also hosts musical offers here, including the International
Musische Werkstatt (IMWe), an annual multi-day international music
and creative training course for scouts aged 17 and over, each with
around 100 participants.
In 1959, the castle was built by a
legally competent association, Erholungs- und Bildungswerk der
Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands e. V. initially leased and
acquired in 1967. The association was intended to ensure economic
independence, but above all to protect the scout association from
the risks arising from maintenance and operation. Since the merger
of the evangelical scout associations (CPD, EMP and BCP) to form the
Association of Christian Scouts and Scouts (VCP), the association
has been called the education and recreation center Burg Rieneck e.
V. of the Association of Christian Scouts and Boy Scouts - BEW for
short (change on May 5, 1973).
In 1976, with the construction
of the hall building, the structural scope of the castle was
expanded. After a general renovation of the hall wing by May 2003,
another attic was built. In the years 2017 to 2019, as part of the
"Energetic renovation of a historical monument" project, the
previously oil-powered heating was replaced by a multi-stage system
(solar thermal, heat pump, pellet), the fire protection upgraded,
the kitchen expanded with an extension in the courtyard and thus
achieved the current structural condition.
The castle has 134
beds as well as several conference rooms with modern conference
technology. In addition, there has been a boy scout campground for
around 100 people at the foot of the castle since 1998, on which
there has also been a permanent sanitary building since 2003. There
has been a permanently installed high ropes course there since 2006.
In 2020, financial profitability issues were announced due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.