Burg Eltz is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. The Rübenach and Rodendorf families' homes in the castle are open to the public, while the Kempenich branch of the family uses the other third of the castle. The Palace of Bürresheim, the Castle of Eltz and the Castle of Lissingen are the only castles on the left bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate, which have never been destroyed.
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| The Eltz Castle Germany |
The castle is a so-called Ganerbenburg, or castle belonging to a community of joint heirs. This is a castle divided into several parts, which belong to different families or different branches of a family; this usually occurs when multiple owners of one or more territories jointly build a castle to house themselves. Only a very rich medieval European lord could afford to build a castle on his land; many of them only owned one village, or even only a part of a village. This was an insufficient base to afford a castle. Such lords lived in a knight's house, which was a simple house, scarcely bigger than those of his tenants. In some parts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, inheritance law required that the estate be divided between all successors.
The successors, each of whose individual inheritance was too small to build a castle of his own, could build a castle together, where each owned one separate part for housing and all of them together shared the defensive fortification. In the case of Burg Eltz the family comprised three branches and the existing castle was enhanced with three separate complexes of buildings. The main part of the castle consists of the family portions. At up to eight stories, these eight towers reach heights of between 30 and 40 meters. They are fortified with strong exterior walls; to the yard they present a partial framework. About 100 members of the owners' families lived in the over 100 rooms of the castle.
Platteltz, a Romanesque keep, is the oldest part of the castle. In 1472 the Rübenach house, built in the Late Gothic style, was completed. Remarkable are the Rübenach Lower Hall, a living room, and the Rübenach bedchamber with its opulently decorated walls. Between 1490 and 1540 the Rodendorf house was constructed, also in Late Gothic style. It contains the vaulted "banner-room".
The Kempenich houses were finished about 1530. Every room of this part of the castle could be heated; in contrast, other castles might only have one or two heated rooms. At one stage, an engraving of Burg Eltz was placed onto one of the banknotes of German currency.
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