Schloss Frankenberg

Schloss Frankenberg stands high on a spur of the southern Steigerwald, surrounded by dense forest and steep vineyards. Two medieval castles once crowned the ridge: Hinterfrankenberg, the older of the pair, and Vorderfrankenberg built by the Burggrafen of Nürnberg in 1256. The surviving wings of the later palace rise above the treetops and can be seen far across the Ochsenfurter and Uffenheimer plains. The ruins of Hinterfrankenberg still show parts of its double-towered defences, a partly filled well and the remains of its curtain wall. A small park and the private cemetery of the Poellnitz family lie at the foot of the spur. The castle’s history is marked by shifting power among bishops, burggraves, knights and margraves. The Lords of Hohenlohe controlled Vorderfrankenberg in the 14th century, then the Seckendorffs, Absbergs, Hutten and finally the Poellnitz family from 1783 to 1971. In 1554 Markgraf Albrecht Alcibiades destroyed Hinterfrankenberg during the Margrave War. The Hutten family rebuilt Vorderfrankenberg in the early 16th century with advanced Renaissance features. After the last Hutten died in 1783, the estate passed through several noble hands until a private investor bought it in 2008. Today the restored forecourt and chapel form the heart of a luxury hotel. The estate’s 29 hectares include vineyards that now produce Frankenberg wine again. A restaurant occupies the former Amtshaus, and the Fränkischer Marienweg crosses the grounds. Below Hinterfrankenberg’s ruins the Poellnitz family cemetery holds both aristocrats and servants, arranged around a classical round temple. Nearby, on the Scheinberg’s summit, the grave of Karl Friedrich von Poellnitz lies on a Rousseau Island in a small forest lake. The surrounding Steigerwald nature park offers woodland walks, vineyard paths and orchards stretching to the horizon.