Burg Lantershofen

Burg Lantershofen stands in Lantershofen, Germany; the site occupies masonry left by the Romans, on which later fortifications were raised.

The place appears in written records on 1 July 1019, when Emperor Heinrich II gave the estate recorded as “Lantherishoffe” with its lands and dependents to the monastery at Michelsberg in Bamberg. That early name shows the settlement’s medieval identity in documentary sources.

A fortified complex was later established on the Roman masonry. A medieval stronghold known locally as “auf der Schauer” was captured and destroyed in 1372 by Archbishop of Cologne Friedrich III von Saarwerden. Four years afterward a new castle, called “am Blankart,” was built and came into the hands of Gerhard von Blankarts. The village owed dues and tithes to the Counts of Blankart; the area beside the church recorded as “im Frumech,” the manorial or lord’s square, preserves evidence of that feudal obligation.

During the Thirty Years’ War the estate suffered military damage in 1632 when Swedish forces partially destroyed the castle; the fortification was rebuilt after that action. In 1672 marauders carried out a final destruction of the castle that year. A new house was erected in 1708, reportedly under the last male Blankart. The Blankart male line ended in 1712 when Johann Otto Friedrich Blankart von Ahrweiler fell at the Battle of Denain. His heirs included his sisters Maria Anna, who married Freiherr Johann Heinrich Vlatten zu Drove, and Marie Sophie, who married Freiherr Ferdinand Ernst von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels, together with descendants of a third sister, Maria Ottilia, wife of Johann Franz Capellini von Wickenburg genannt Stechinelli (1677–1752).

In 1714 the living heiresses divided the family property without mutual agreement; Johann Franz Capellini von Wickenburg litigated on behalf of his children and inheritance disputes persisted until 1790, when a judgment affirmed equal rights for the descendants of all three sisters. The house built in 1708 is later cited under the name “Freiherr von Stickeneil,” a designation identified with Johann Franz Capellini von Wickenburg genannt Stechinelli; ownership in this period is also associated with the Vlatten zu Drove and von Dalwigk families, and possession remained contested through the eighteenth century. By 1820 members of the Austrian Wickenburg family, descendants of Johann Franz Capellini, are recorded as owners. In 1915 the estate was bought by Friedrich Langen of Cologne. His heirs sold Burg Lantershofen in 1939 to the Apostolate for Priests and Religious Vocations. Under director Pfarrer August Dörner the partly decayed building was renovated and placed in use as the priest seminary Studienhaus St. Lambert.