Rauheneck Castle (Ebern)

Rauheneck Castle Burg Rauheneck
Ebern-Vorbach
The palas of Rauheneck Castle
Rauheneck Castle Burg Rauheneck
Coordinates	50°06′31″N 10°43′55″E / 50.1087000°N 10.732000°E / 50.1087000; 10.732000Coordinates: 50°06′31″N 10°43′55″E / 50.1087000°N 10.732000°E / 50.1087000; 10.732000
Type	hill castle, summit location
Code	DE-BY
Height	428 m above sea level (NN)
Site information
Condition	ruins
Site history
Built	around 1180
Garrison information
Occupants	free nobility

Rauheneck Castle (German: Burg Rauheneck) (usual spelling today Raueneck = "forested corner" or "hill spur") is a ruined administrative castle of the Bishopric of Würzburg in the Haßberge in the county of Haßberge, Lower Franconia, Bavaria (Germany). The site, which was badly in need of repair, was closed until 2006 due to the danger of collapse but has been accessible again since the start of, as yet unfinished, emergency repair work.

The ruins of the hill castle lie on a western hill spur of the Haubeberg (428 m above NN), which is situated north of the village of Vorbach, in the west of the former county borough of Ebern. It is surrounded by mixed forest stands of the Haßberge Nature Park.

According to legend, Rauheneck Castle had been built around 1180 the Brambergs after the destruction of their nearby castle had forced them to leave. Thereafter the family named itself after their new castle. In 1231, the free knight, Louis of Ruheneke, placed himself, half the castle and other sundry estates under the lordship of the Bishopric of Würzburg. This was almost certainly not by choice. The family of Rau(h)eneck appears to have died out a short while later (around 1250).

The Lords of Rauheneck mentioned in the written records were designated as "nobiles" (free knights) and it is probable that they are genealogically connected to the free knights of Bramberg. Frederick of Rauheneck occasionally bore the nickname "of Bramberc". He became involved in an inheritance dispute between House of Andechs-Merania and the Bishopric of Bamberg (around 1248).

To protect their barony, the Rauhenecks allied themselves with numerous lesser noble families in the surrounding area and enfeoffed their own estates to vassals. In 1841/42, Georg Ludwig Lehnes, in his History of Baunach Valley, counted the lords of Lichtenstein, Kößeln, Gemeinfeld, Brünn, Hofheim, Ostheim, Scherschlitz, Kotzenwinden (Kurzewind), Redwitz, Breitenbach, Westheim, Mehried, Holfeld, Neubrunn, Schoder and Kliebern amongst the retinue of the Rauhenecks. The names of some of these vassals (Dienstleute) evince that, in the High Middle Ages, a local noble family was resident in virtually every village. However, all these families died out again or returned to the ranks of the commoners fallen or the peasantry.