A hill castle is a castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German Höhenburg used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (Niederungsburgen).

Hill castles may be further subdivided depending on their situation into the following:

• Hilltop castle
  Hilltop castle
  A hilltop castle is a type of hill castle that was built on the summit of a hill or mountain. The chief advantage of such a strategically selected site was its inaccessibility. The steep flanks of the hill made assaults on the castle difficult or, depending on the terrain, even impossible...
  
   (Gipfelburg), that stands on the summit of a hill with steep drops on all sides. A special type is the rock castle
  Rock castle
  A rock castle is a type of medieval castle which directly incorporates natural rock formations into its defences to such an extent that the rock formations define the structure of the castle...
  
   or Felsenburg.
• Ridge castle
  Ridge castle
  A ridge castle is a term derived from the German word Kammburg for a medieval fortification built on a ridge or the crest of mountain or hill chain.Ridge castles were not a common type of fortification...
  
   (Kammburg), that is built on the crest of a ridge
  Ridge
  A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
  
  .
• Hillside castle
  Hillside castle
  A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century....
  
   (Hangburg), that is built on the side of a hill and thus is dominated by rising ground on one side.
• Spur castle
  Spur castle
  A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that uses its location as a defensive feature. The name refers to the location on a spur projecting from a hill...
  
   (Spornburg), that is built on a hill spur surrounded by steep terrain on three sides and thus only needs to be defended on the one remaining side.

When in the 10th and 11th centuries castles lost their pure fortress character and were increasingly built as residence castles for the nobility, the hill castle was the preferred choice owing to its better defensive capability. Almost 66 per cent of all medieval castles (Burgen) known today are of the hill castle type.

To begin with authority for the construction of a hill castle was reserved for the dynastic aristocracy. From the 12th century, however, the higher imperial ministeriales

Ministerialis

Ministerialis ; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses...

 also built representative hill castles. This pattern was followed in the 13th century by the lesser nobility.

Today hill castles primarily serve as tourist attractions, mainly because they often have good views − albeit in some cases for the cost of an entrance fee. They also often have restaurants or kiosks. In some cases, where they are preserved, the interior of the castle may be visited.

Examples of hill castles are Kriebstein Castle

Kriebstein Castle

Kriebstein Castle is a castle in Kriebstein near the town of Waldheim in the German state of Saxony.- Location :The castle rises above steep crags over the River Zschopau...

 (spur castle), the Marksburg

Marksburg

The Marksburg is a fortress above the town of Braubach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the only medieval castle of the Middle Rhine that has never been destroyed. It is one of the principal sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Rhine Gorge...

 (hilltop castle), Ehrenfels Castle (hillside castle) and Schachenstein Castle (rock castle).

See also

• Lowland castle
  Lowland castle
  The term lowland castle or plains castle describes a type of castle based that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur...
  
  
• Rocca
  Rocca (architecture)
  Rocca is an Italian term meaning a high, fortifiable stronghold, usually located in smaller towns, beneath or on which the village or town clustered, within which its inhabitants might take refuge at times of trouble; under its owners' patronage the settlement might hope to find prosperity in...
  
  , an Italian term for fortified houses or small castles built on higher ground above a town as refuge or protection.

Literature

• Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1, p. 156.
• Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Burgen und Wohntürme des deutschen Mittelalters. Vol. 1. Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-0104-5, pp. 21-23.