Landstuhl

Landstuhl is a municipality of over 9,000 people in southwestern Germany. It is part of the district of Kaiserslautern, in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and is home to the Sickinger Schloss, a small castle. It is situated on the north-western edge of the Palatinate forest, approx. 10 km west of Kaiserslautern.The earliest traces of human settlement in Landstuhl date from about 500 BCE; the “Heidenfels” (i.e. "heathen rock") from the Celtic period was a holy site even until Roman times, and a Roman settlement dates from the 1st Century CE.The place is said to have been called, late in the first millennium, Nannenstuhl, with the sense "seat of Nanthari" (who was also called "Nanno"); perhaps once memory of Nathari was centuries dead, the reference to him mutated into "Land", with "Land­stuhl" construable as "seat territory".In the 15th Century, the noble family of Sickingen assumed responsibility for Landstuhl and the surrounding area. The most famous member of this family was Franz von Sickingen. Franz von Sickingen built his castle in Landstuhl – Burg Nanstein (the most visible landmark in Landstuhl and the surrounding area) - into a dominating fortress that was supplemented by Burg Landstuhl. From this base he moved to expand his domains by conquering other parts of southwestern Germany.