Westward the rock rises by
three shelves to the summit. The entrance to the Castle, it is surmised,
was originally on the east side, at the foot of the lower plateau and
through a tower which no longer exists.
Opposite this hypothetical gate-way stood the Five-cornered tower. The
lower part dates, we have seen, from no earlier than the eleventh
century. It is referred to as Alt-Nuernberg (old Nuremberg) in the Middle
Ages. The title of "Five-cornered" is really somewhat a misnomer, for an
examination of the interior of the lower portion of the tower reveals
the fact that it is quadrangular. The pentagonal appearance of the
exterior is due to the fragment of a smaller tower which once leaned
against it, and probably formed the apex of a wing running out from the
old castle of the Burggrafs. The Burggraefliche Burg stood below,
according to Mummenhof, southwest and west of this point. It was burned
down in 1420, and the ruined remains of it are supposed to be traceable
in the eminence, now overgrown by turf and trees, through which a sort
of ravine, closed in on either side by built-up walls, has just brought
us from the town to the Vestner Thor.
The Burggraf's Castle would appear to have been so situated as to
protect the approach to the Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg).
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