Hohenkottenheim Castle

The castle ruin Hohenkottenheim is the ruin of a hilltop castle on the 416.6-meter-high "Hohenkottenheim" of the "Hohenlandsberg" near the district Kottenheim of the municipality Markt Nordheim in the district Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim in Bavaria.

The castle was first mentioned in 1356 with its foundation originating from Niederkottenheim, the valley seat of the family. From the 14th century onwards, the castle was the ancestral seat of the Counts of Seinsheim. Melchior von Seinsheim zu Hohenkottenheim received the privilege of blood ban (high justice) in the village of Nordheim in 1510.

On May 14, 1525, during the Peasants' War, the castle was destroyed, rebuilt in the same year by Georg Ludwig, the Elder, and burned down a second time on June 19, 1553, during the Margrave War by landsknechts of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades, under Captain Stöckel. In 1590, reconstruction into a palace began, but it then fell victim to a large fire.

Of the former castle with greenish-light masonry from the local quarries, only remnants of walls and a cellar vault remain. The present-day district Wüstphül was the former manor farm of the castle.

Presumably, an old Germanic settlement already existed on the "Hohenkottenheim" in the 2nd century, as indicated by coin finds, possibly a refuge castle of the Frankish settlers.