Hohenecken Castle

Hohenecken Castle is the ruin of a spur castle from the Hohenstaufen era on the Schlossberg hill above the Kaiserslautern ward of Hohenecken in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located at an elevation of.HistoryThe exact date of the foundation of the castle is unknown. Whilst older sources often plump for a construction date immediately following the building of the Barbarossaburg in Kaiserslautern in 1156, more recent sources tend to lean towards a date about 50 years later. The pentagonal bergfried and the massive shield wall in particular point to a construction date of around 1200.In the first half of the 13th century the castle was enfeoffed to a Kaiserslautern family of ministeriales, the descendants of Reinhard of Lautern, the knight. In 1214, they were awarded the right of patronage of Ramstein by the king, Frederick II, who would later become emperor. From then on the castle's owners called themselves von Hohenecken. A barony belonged to the castle, which covered several villages: the valley settlement of Hohenecken at the foot of the castle hill (Burgberg) as well as Erfenbach, Espensteig, Siegelbach and Stockweiler, today Stockborn. All have since become part of the city of Kaiserslautern. Castle and barony were an imperial fief for centuries.