An imperial castle or Reichsburg was a castle built by order of the German or Holy Roman Emperor, whose management was entrusted to Reichsministeriales

Ministerialis

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

or Burgmann

Burgmann

A Burgmann was a member of the low aristocracy in the Middle Ages who guarded and defended castles. They were hired by a lord of the castle to take on the burghut, the guarding and defense of a castle....

en. It is not possible to identify a clear distinction with the fortified imperial palaces or Pfalzen, because many imperial castles were used by German kings for temporary stays. A large number of imperial castles were built in regions such as Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

, Franconia

Franconia

Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...

, the Palatinate and the Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

, where there were a high density of imperial estates (Reichsgüter) during the Hohenstaufen era.

List of imperial castles (Reichsburgen)

• Berenstein Castle
• Berwartstein Castle
  Berwartstein Castle
  Berwartstein Castle is a castle in the Wasgau, the southern part of the Palatinate Forest in the state Rhineland-Palatinate in southwestern Germany. It belongs to the category of rock castles that were part of the Palatinate defences during the Middle Ages...
  
  
• Boyneburg
• Cochem Castle
• Friedberg Castle
• Guttenberg Castle
• Gümmenen Castle
• Harliburg
• Hayn Castle
• Hohkönigsburg
• Kalsmunt Castle
• Kirkel Castle
• Kyffhausen Castle
• Landeck Castle
• Reichsburg Landskron
• Landskron Castle (Oppenheim)
• Lindelbrunn Castle
• Meistersel Castle
  Meistersel Castle
  Meistersel Castle is a castle ruin near Ramberg on the outskirts of the Palatinate Forest in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located 492m above the Modenbach valley. Meistersel castle is one of the oldest castles in the palatinate.- External links :*...
  
  
• Münzenberg Castle
  Münzenberg castle
  Münzenberg is a ruined castle close to the town of the same name in Germany, dating from the 12th century. It is one of the best preserved castles from the High Middle Ages in Germany.-Architecture:...
  
  
• Nuremberg Castle
  Nuremberg Castle
  Nuremberg Castle is a historical building on a sandstone rock in the north of the historical city of Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. It comprises three sections: the imperial castle , some buildings of the Burgraves of Nuremberg , and the municipal buildings of the Imperial City at the eastern site...
  
  
• Ramburg
• Trifels Castle
  Trifels Castle
  Trifels Castle is a medieval castle at an elevation of near the small town of Annweiler, in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. It is located high above the Queich valley within the Palatinate Forest on one peak of a red sandstone mountain split into three...
  
  
• Wegelnburg
• Weissenau Castle
• Wildburg near Sargenroth
• Wildenberg Castle

Sources

• Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (Hrsg.): Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1, p. 208.