Burggrafs
were also entrusted with the keeping of a tower which commanded the
entrance to the Castle rock on the country side, perhaps near the site
of the present Vestner Thor. The guard door may have been attached to
the tower, the lower portion of which remains to this day, and is called
the Bailiff's Dwelling (Burgamtmannswohnung). The exact relationship of
the Burggraf to the town on the one hand, and to the Empire on the
other, is somewhat obscure. Originally, it would appear, he was merely
an Imperial officer, administering Imperial estates, and looking after
Imperial interests. In later days he came to possess great power, but
this was due not to his position as castellan or castle governor as
such, but to the vast private property his position had enabled him to
amass and to keep.

As the scope and ambitions of the Burggrafs increased, and as the
smallness of their castle at Nuremberg, and the constant friction with
the townspeople, who were able to annoy them in many ways, became more
irksome, they gave up living at Nuremberg, and finally were content to
sell their rights and possessions there to the town. Beside the guard
door of the Burggrafs, which together with their castle passed by
purchase into the hands of the town (1427), there were various other
similar guard towers, such as the one which formerly occupied the
present site of the Luginsland, or the Hasenburg at the so-called
Himmels Thor, or a third which once stood near the Deep Well on the
second plateau of the Castle rock. But we do not know how many of these
there were, or where they stood, much less at what date they were built.
All we do know is that they, as well as the Burggrafs' possessions, were
purchased in succession by the town, into whose hands by degrees came
the whole property of the Castle rock. Above the ruins of the "little
fort" of the Burggrafs rises the first plateau of the Castle rock. It is
surrounded by a wall, strengthened on the south side by a square tower
against which leans the Walpurgiskapelle.

The path to the Kaiserburg leads under the wall of the plateau, and is
entirely commanded by it and by the quadrangular tower, the lower part
of which alone remains and is known by the name of Burgamtmannswohnung.
The path goes straight to this tower, and at the foot of it is the
entrance to the first plateau. Then along the edge of this plateau the
way winds southward, entirely commanded again by the wall of the second
plate