Nordenberg Castle

The Reichsküchenmeister of Nordenberg, important imperial ministerials, resided at Nordenberg Castle. The first member of the family, Lupold von Nordenberg, appeared in 1156. The oldest pottery found on the castle grounds also dates from this period. Konrad von Nordenberg participated in the uprising of Henry VII against his father Frederick II in 1234/35. After its suppression, Nordenberg initially passed to Count Gottfried von Hohenlohe, who, however, renounced it in 1240 in favor of Reichsküchenmeister Lupold I, who came from a family of Rothenburg imperial ministerials. Emperor Louis the Bavarian, with whom the Nordenbergs had fallen out, instructed the citizens of Rothenburg in 1345 to pay the purchase sum of 200 Haller, as he had bought the castle. However, it seems this did not happen. Due to over-indebtedness, the Lords of Nordenberg of the Lupold line were forced in 1383 to sell their ancestral castle, along with the surrounding villages, to the citizens and councilors of the imperial city of Rothenburg for 7000 guilders. The latter sold the castle in 1386 as a life annuity to Heinrich Schenk von Leutershausen. However, after he renounced his rights to the castle in 1390, the city of Rothenburg administered the castle itself through officials. In 1407, during the conflict over Rothenburg's territorial policy, the castle was captured by the Nuremberg burgraves Frederick and John and the Bishop of Würzburg after a three-week siege. Nordenberg then passed to Burgrave Frederick. In 1408, King Ruprecht of the Palatinate ordered the return of the castles, but at the same time commanded their dismantling. This was carried out by the city of Rothenburg. The keep was blown up by filling it with powder and tamping it down, so that its ruins are now scattered over the main castle area.