The mountain castle above the village Frankenstein is 300 m above sea level. NHN on the northeastern mountain spur of the Schlossberg (423 m) right above the Hochspeyerbach, a left tributary of the Speyerbach. Here still parallel to the Hochspeyerbach runs the federal highway 37 (Kaiserslautern-Bad Dürkheim). Under the mountain spur leads the well over 200 m long Schlossberg tunnel of the Saarbrücken-Mannheim railway line, whose 1849 completed red sandstone east portal is listed as a historic monument because of its graded crenellated gable.
The name Frankenstein is first mentioned in a document in 1146 with the Edelfrei Helenger von Frankenstein. [2] Historians assume, however, that the founding of the castle took place earlier, as individual writings of the construction of a tower around 1100 report.
Owner of this keep was the monastery Limburg, which had to ensure the securing of the roads to Speyer, Dürkheim and Worms. In 1205, the monastery commissioned the counts of Leiningen, who had already been entrusted with the protection of the monastery, to carry out this task. They had the facility extended at the beginning of the 13th century, with the narrow rocky terrain meant that the castle had to be built step-shaped. In this period - from 1204 to 1231 - the knights Marquard, Frederick and Helenger are called by Frankenstein as administrative and Burgmannen of the counts of Leiningen. [2]
Around 1390 Castle Frankenstein was a Ganerbenburg when the monastery pledged half of the castle to the Lords of Einselthum. Parts of this Pfandschaft took over 1414 (other sources report of 1404) and 1416 the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken and Leiningen-Hardenburg. The three parties agreed by lottery decision, as the components of the castle as a single ownership to be divided exactly and what buildings should remain in common ownership.