Brauneck Castle

Brauneck Castle is the ruin of a high medieval spur castle of the Imperial Counts of Hohenlohe-Brauneck. It is located northwest of Niedersteinach in the town of Creglingen in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg.

The remains of Brauneck Castle are located near the present-day Bavarian border on a 330.4 m above sea level high plateau spur above the steep drop of the Steinach, a right tributary of the Tauber.

Brauneck Castle was built and first mentioned in a document around 1230 under Konrad von Hohenlohe, who founded the Hohenlohe-Brauneck line, which owned a large number of the surrounding villages. For the Hohenlohe family, it was one of the ancestral seats and one of the most extensive castle complexes of its time. However, the Brauneck line died out around 1390 (also because many of the family became ecclesiastical dignitaries). The last descendant of Count Konrad, Count Michael von Hardeck, sold the castle and lordship to Margrave Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1448. The Hohenlohe castles in Weikersheim, Neuenstein or Langenburg were expanded into residences, but after the extinction of the Brauneck line, the once so powerful complex was no longer maintained and became the seat of foreign and often insignificant families. In 1525, the complex was stormed, plundered and burned down during the Peasants' War. Although some parts were rebuilt later, the castle had lost its character as a fortress.