Encountering the Restless Spirit of a Traitor at the Botenlauben Castle Ruins
When the wind whistles around the Botenlauben castle ruins, you can sometimes hear it: rhythmic knocking. At least, that's what a Bad Kissingen legend claims. The knocking is said to be caused by the restless spirit of a nefarious cook who betrayed the castle and its inhabitants during the Peasants' War of 1525.
The defiant castle, so the legend goes, withstood all attacks by the peasant mobs, but not the betrayal. After a secret signal, a knock on a kitchen board, the castle cook opened a door. The castle was stormed, plundered, and set on fire. Instead of receiving his reward, the cook was murdered.
The castle ruins high above Bad Kissingen in the Reiterswiesen district are the city's oldest landmark. From here, visitors enjoy a magnificent view of the city, the Rhön mountain range, and the Saale Valley.
The castle is thought to have been built around 1180. It reached its heyday in 1220, when the crusader and minstrel Otto von Botenlauben and his wife Beatrix von Courtenay settled there.
The two round keeps in the northwest and southeast of the complex are still striking today. Both can be climbed. Although not much of the original castle remains, one gets a good impression of how powerful this fortress must have once been.