Lichtenau Fortress dates back to a medieval moated castle. In 1406 Nuremberg bought the town and Lichtenau Castle from Friedrich II von Heideck. Due to the location of Lichtenau as a tactical outpost of the imperial city of Nuremberg within the territory of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach, there has often been tension and destruction during military conflicts throughout history.
In the First Margrave War in 1449, Albrecht Achilles moved into Lichtenau, devastated the country and conquered the castle, which was not returned until 1453. In the course of the Second Margrave War, Albrecht Alcibiades completely destroyed it in 1553, although it surrendered without a fight. The imperial city of Nuremberg then had a completely new complex built (by Wolf Jacob Stromer[1], probably based on older plans by master builder Antonio Fazzuni) for a total of 194,000 guilders. Due to the great destruction, the construction dragged on until 1630. Barely a year later, the fortress was besieged by the imperial troops and Georg Scheurl handed the fortress over to the imperial general Tilly, again without resistance, who did not damage it, however. The last major attack on the fortress took place in 1688, when the troops of the French "Sun King" Louis XIV attacked. The French called on the caretaker Johann Friedrich Haller von Hallerstein to surrender. However, he broke the tradition of surrendering without a fight and resisted, whereupon the French gave up the storming.
In 1806 Lichtenau, like Nuremberg and all of Franconia, fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria, after which the fortress was used as a prison. During this time, Ludwig von Redwitz (1779–1848), among others, served as director of the penitentiary on Lichtenau, and his son Oskar von Redwitz, later known as a poet, was born here in 1823.
The Lichtenau Fortress is a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture, even if from a military point of view it no longer corresponded to the current developments in fortress construction at the time of its completion and due to its location in the valley it was not easy to defend against siege artillery.
After thorough renovation, the fortress is now used by the Free State of Bavaria as a branch of the Nuremberg State Archives. The inner courtyard and the wall platforms are accessible for viewing during the day. Once a year in July, the local history association organizes the castle festival. During this festival, which also attracts young people from the wider region, the castle is open to the public for two days.
Source: Wikipedia