Small Castle Chronicle

The dynasties of Grunbach (Grumbach) were first mentioned in documents in the 11th century. The dynasty had its ancestral seat in Burggrumbach (a district of Unterpleichfeld), where a castle was built in the course of the 11th/12th century. Its coat of arms, a wavy diagonal green bar in a yellow field, was derived from the Grumbach stream flowing below the castle hill (the lords of the green stream).

Mit Albert II. starb diese Familie 1243 im Mannesstamm aus. Seine Tochter war mit einem Grafen von Rieneck verheiratet, so dass sämtliche Güter an Rieneck fielen. 1328 verkaufte Graf Ludwig von Rieneck seine 2/3 Anteile an der Burg zu Burggrumbach und seine Liegenschaften in Burggrumbach, Rimpar, Kürnach und Bergtheim an einen Ritter Eberhard aus dem Geschlecht derer von Wolfskeel, der sich wie auch später seine Nachkommen nach seinem Besitztum „von Grumbach“ nannte.

This family, originating from the Wetterau region, belonged to the service nobility and had a Moor in a golden field as their coat of arms, carrying three red roses in his right hand. No documents have been preserved about the construction of a castle in Rimpar. Due to the fact that the defensive wall is equipped with embrasures for firearms (hook rifles), the castle cannot have been built before the last third of the 14th century.

In 1371, Horant von Grumbach, a Grumbach resident in Rimpar, is mentioned for the first time. The castle is mentioned for the first time in a division agreement between Heinz and Eberhard von Grumbach in 1469. Two names from the Rimpar line are worth mentioning, Prince-Bishop Johann III (1455 -1466) and Wilhelm von Grumbach. Prince-Bishop Johann III left behind an important exhibit, the Franconian ducal sword. This was carried in front of the prince-bishops on ceremonial occasions as a sign of their secular power (today in the treasury of the Munich Residence).

Wilhelm von Grumbach, geboren 1503 im Rimparer Schloss, war im Dienst vieler Fürsten. Unter zwei Würzburger Fürstbischöfen Hofmarschall, Stadthalter der markgräflichen Herrschaft „ob dem Gebürg“ auf der Plassenburg bei Kulmbach, Oberst der Krone von Frankreich, u. a. m. Als der Markgraf von Ansbach durch den Kaiser geächtet wurde, hat der damalige Fürstbischof Melchior v. Zobel, W. v.Grumbach als Landfriedensbrecher eingestuft, obwohl hierfür keine Veranlassung vorlag und konfiszierte seine sämtlichen Güter (W. v. Grumbach beziffert die jährlichen Einnahmeverluste auf 17.000 Gulden, ca. drei Millionen Euro).

Wilhelm von Grumbach versuchte sein Recht beim Kaiserlichen Reichskammergericht zu erlangen, jedoch ohne Erfolg. 1558 wurde Fürstbischof Melchior Zobel auf dem Weg von der Stadt zur Veste Marienberg von einem Haufen Bewaffneter überfallen und der Fürstbischof von einem Knecht des W. v. Grumbach erschossen. Eine Ermordung war sicher nicht geplant eher eine Entführung des Bischofs, um wieder in den Besitz seiner Güter zu kommen. Aber außer seinem Geständnis während einer vierstündigen Folter im Jahr 1567 ist bis heute kein Beweis für die Entführung vorhanden.

Another attempt to regain his goods was the raid and capture of the city of Würzburg with a force of 1,300 men. The treaty enforced by the cathedral chapter on the return of the goods was punished by the emperor as a breach of the peace with the imperial ban. Grumbach fled to his friend and patron, Duke John Frederick the Middle, in Gotha. As the duke did not heed extradition demands, an imperial execution army marched on Gotha in 1567. After the city was captured, Wilhelm von Grumbach was cruelly tortured and executed and the Duke was imprisoned for life in Vienna-Neustadt.

Wilhelm's son, Konrad von Grumbach, had to pay 50,000 guilders to the Würzburg monastery in 1569 in order to regain possession of his father's estates. Due to large expenditures, e.g. the purchase of the village of Schwanfeld, he became so indebted that he had to sell the castle with the village of Rimpar and gradually all the properties to the Würzburg monastery in 1593 with a debt burden of around 250,000 guilders.

The Rimpar line of the von Grumbach family died out with his son Wilhelm in 1603. In 1593, the castle became the country residence of the Würzburg prince-bishops, some of whom stayed at Rimpar Castle very frequently, sometimes with a court of up to 140 people. Due to the construction of the Werneck country residence, Rimpar Castle became uninteresting from 1744.

Langsam setzte der Verfall der Gebäude ein. Zwischen 1780 –1793 wurde der Westflügel eingelegt. Durch den Einmarsch der Franzosen im Jahr 1796 wurden weitere Abrissmaßnahmen verhindert. Um 1800 wird das Schloss saniert, die welschen Hauben der Türme abgerissen und durch stumpfe Kegelhauben ersetzt. Es entsteht das heutige Architekturbild, nach Süden und Osten nahezu vollständig erhalten und nach Westen und Norden Ruine.

In 1806, the royal Bavarian forestry office of Rimpar was established with its headquarters in the east wing of the castle. The forestry office was to remain here until its dissolution in 1971.

On July 21, 1980, the market town of Rimpar under 1st Mayor Anton Kütt bought the castle from the Free State of Bavaria. In the same year, the Grumbach Castle Friends' Association was founded. The expansion and restoration of the castle into the new town hall of the market town was completed in 1984, so that the municipal administration was able to move in that year. The inauguration took place on May 18, 1985.

On June 25, 2000, the castle museum with its two sections, the archaeological museum and the bakery museum, built by the Friends of Grumbach Castle and the market town of Rimpar, is inaugurated.

Since 2003, the Knights' Hall and the Greiffenclausaal have also been available for private events in conjunction with the castle restaurant.

signed. Edwin Hamberger

Further information is available at:
Friends of Grumbach Castle