House of Langenstein

Langenstein is an extinct noble family that came from Langenstein Castle in Melchnau in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. Only two generations of the family are known. In 1194 the family helped found the Cisterian St. Urban's Abbey. The family became extinct in the early 13th century, though much of their land was inherited by the Grünenbergs.

The House of Langenstein had their family seat on the Grünenberg Castle hill above the village of Melchnau. Archeological digs on the site have found evidence of a 10th or 11th century wooden castle, below later stone castles. This wooden castle was the first High Medieval fortification on the hill. The name of the family likely came from the long stony crest of the hill and may have originally been langer Stein or long stone in English.

The family owned land in the Rot (a tributary of the Murg river) and Langete river valleys. The family may have settled in the valley to begin colonizing the empty forest between the County of Burgundy in the west and the Alamannia territories in the east.

The first time the Langenstein family appears, is in an unconfirmed record from 1148, when they supposedly founded an Augustinian Canons Regular.

The first recorded generation of the Langenstein family consisted of five siblings; Ulrich the knight, the two clergymen Lütold and Werner I. and two sisters Willebirk (Willbirgis) and Adelheid. Ulrich was mentioned in 1191 as the owner of a church in Rot, now in the hamlet of Chlyrot in Untersteckholz. His brothers were both clergymen at that church, Werner I was the head of the canons and Lütold was the priest. Ulrich's wife was Mechtild, the widow of Baron Werner II of Signau, who died in 1178.

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