Life Sketch
Richenza Von Löwenstein was likely born around the mid-1100s. The Löwenstein family was originally from the Baden region that, today, is part of Southwest Germany. It appears that the Löwensteins were a junior branch of the Counts of Calw, a family often in the service of the Dukes of Zahringen.
The family’s reach extended into Switzerland during the 1100s and 1200s. A branch of the Löwenstein family also owned the Baldenstein Castle in Graubunden, Switzerland, in the 1200s. Richenza may have been the only daughter in her particular line of the family and she was the heiress of two castles near Lake Lucerne, a Castle Löwenstein and the Castle Zumbrunnen.
Richenza married Werner, the Baron of Attinghausen, and the castles passed into his control, along with the Attinghausen Castle. They had two sons, Werner II and Walter. In 1209, Werner gave the Castle Zumbrunnen to his and Richenza’s second son Walter. Their eldest son Werner II inherited the Attinghausen Castle and the barony. Walter began to call himself Walter Zumbrunnen, becoming the first Zumbrunnen in history.
The Attinghausen family ended Richenza’s line of the Löwenstein family in central Switzerland. A small handful of Zumbrunnen men used the name Zumbrunnen Von Löwenstein over the years, but the vast majority simply used Zumbrunnen.
Vital Information
Name: Richenza Von Löwenstein
Sex: Female
Birth:
Residence: Attinghausen Castle
Offices: Lady of Attinghausen
Death: Unknown
Family Members
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Spouse: Werner, Baron of Attinghausen
Children: Werner Von Attinghausen, Walter Zumbrunnen
Sources
[…] that were made between these three communities on the shores of Lake Lucerne.) With his wife Richenza von Löwenstein, heiress of the Castle Zumbrunnen (He calls it the “Château de Zumbrunnen.”), he left […]
[…] Conradus Zum Brunnen de Lewenstein. (This seems to be the oldest example of a ZumBrunnen also using Von Löwenstein as their name.) May 18 – Heinrich Zum Brunnen (Because Heinrich Zumbrunnen was a war hero, […]
[…] known as Zumbrunnen, first of the name. Lord of the Zumbrunnen Castle, son of Werner I and Richenza von Löwenstein. He inherited the castle by virtue of the division of the property of his father, ordered in 1209. […]