Mildenburg Castle

The Mildenburg is a hilltop castle built around 1200 above the district town of Miltenberg in the Lower Franconian district of Miltenberg in Bavaria.

The name Mildenburg, originally Mildenberg or Miltenberg, consists of the Middle High German words milte in the sense of kind or generous and bërc for mountain or castle. They were intended to characterize the qualities of the castle and its lords. The castle name was transferred to the town of Miltenberg.

Partially a Latin name component was used: Piemontanus (kind mountain)The castle was built around 1200 by the Archbishop of Mainz as the eastern border security of his sphere of influence on the northern spur of the Greinberg. The 27-meter-high keep, built of ashlar blocks, is the oldest part of the castle complex. It is located at the most vulnerable point, the rising slope to the south. The current residential building with a high roof and stepped gable was founded by Archbishop Konrad von Weinsberg from 1390 to 1396. The castle, already conquered in the Peasants' War in 1525, was destroyed and re-captured in 1552 during the Second Margrave War.

The castle was expanded several times and partially rebuilt after its destruction in the Margrave War by Archbishop Daniel Brendel von Homburg (1555–1582).

The castle served as the seat of the archiepiscopal burgraves until the 18th century.

In 1803, the castle fell to the Prince of Leiningen. From 1807 to 1979, it was in private ownership. Owners included Friedrich Gustav Habel and Wilhelm Conrady; in 1908, it came into the possession of the von Normann-Loshausen family through purchase. The design of the castle courtyard in the style of 19th-century castle romanticism and extensive renovation and modernization measures of the interiors followed. From 1943–1979, the castle was owned by the Normann-Loshausen heirs, the Bock von Wülfingen family, then the city of Miltenberg acquired the building complex.

In July 2011, the castle was reopened and now houses a museum of icons and modern art from the art collections of the Diocese of Würzburg.