Hohenjustingen Castle

The first documentary mention of a noble family from Justingen dates back to 1090. Anselm von Justingen and Heinrich von Neuffen were commissioned in 1211 to bring the young Staufer Frederick II from Sicily to Germany, as he had been elected king by the German princes after they had renounced the Welf king Otto IV of Brunswick. Anselm, who rose to marshal under Emperor Frederick, sided with Henry in the conflict between the emperor and his son, King Henry (VII), as did the lords of Neuffen. Frederick II then besieged the castles of the son's partisans in 1235. After the emperor had won, Justingen Castle was destroyed in 1236 by the Bishop of Constance. Henry's supporters were outlawed and he himself was imprisoned until his death in 1242. In 2012, a Stauferstele was erected in front of St. Oswald Church in Justingen in memory of Anselm von Justingen. After the noble family of Justingen died out in 1343, the rebuilt castle came by inheritance to the noble free lords of Stöffeln near Gönningen, in 1494 by sale to the lords of Stotzingen, who in 1497 immediately resold the lordship and Justingen Castle to Hans Kaspar von Bubenhofen. Hans Marx von Bubenhofen, son of Hans Kaspar, sold the castle and lordship in 1530 to Ludwig ("Lutz") von Freyberg zu Öpfingen, who left them to his son Georg Ludwig von Freyberg the Elder. Michael Ludwig von Freyberg (* around 1525; † Justingen before December 20, 1582), one of the two sons of Georg Ludwig the Elder, to whom the lordship of Justingen had fallen by lot in the division of inheritance with his brother Ferdinand (* around 1525, † Öpfingen after April 19, 1583), married Felicitas Landschad von Steinach (near Neckarsteinach in the Odenwald) before 1574. In 1567, the couple built the Renaissance castle of Justingen in place of the medieval castle.