This is the tower of the Auerbach Castle near Bensheim, seen through the lattice works of bare winter trees.
It was originally built in the 8th century and fell into ruin once before but was rebuilt under the reign of Count Diether IV of the Katzenelnbogen in the 13th century. Katzenelnbogen literally means “cat’s ellbow”. Go figure.
I took my inspiration today from the ruined abbey as seen by Sue on her odd post.
pictures imperfect blog 
What a bizarre name!
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It is – and a fairly large family, too. It is not a 100% clear how the name came about but one it is fairly certain that the first part devolped out of “Chatti”, the Latin name for a German tribe (later called “Hessen”). I like the idea of a cat and its ellbow better, though.
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I am with you, cat’s elbow much better. Sometimes historians do take the fun out of our past!!
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Interesting! Thanks for the link, glad to have inspired you
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🤗
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