Herrenstein Castle (Alsace)

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Herrenstein Castle
Herrenstein Castle, ruins of the former castle chapel (2014)

Herrenstein Castle, ruins of the former castle chapel (2014)

Creation time : circa 1198
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Geographical location 48 ° 49 '28.9 "  N , 7 ° 23' 41.6"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 49 '28.9 "  N , 7 ° 23' 41.6"  E
Herrenstein Castle (Bas-Rhin department)
Herrenstein Castle

Herrenstein Castle ( French: Château de Herrenstein ) is the ruin of a spur castle in the Alsatian Bas-Rhin department in the municipality of Neuweiler , around twelve kilometers north of Zabern . Built by the Counts of Dagsburg at the turn of the 12th to the 13th century, it was supposed to secure their bailiwick over the Neuweiler Abbey . As a fiefdom of the diocese of Metz , it was later jointly owned by the lords of Lichtenberg and other Alsatian noble families , before it was occupied by Strasbourg troops at the end of the 14th century and then bought by the city. After it was confiscated during the French Revolution , it was bought by General Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke in 1809 . Parts of the complex were still in use until 1925, and since then it has been deteriorating increasingly.

According to the castle researchers Thomas Biller and Bernhard Metz , it is "one of the most demanding Alsatian castles from around and after 1200."

history

Beginnings

The construction of Herrenstein Castle probably began between 1194 and 1201. The builder was Count Albert II von Dagsburg, who had the facility built to secure the Bailiwick over the Neuweiler Benedictine Abbey at the foot of the castle. His family had owned the bailiwick rights over the Neuweiler monastery since 1070. The castle was first mentioned in writing in Albert's will, which was made between 1201 and 1204. In it he stipulated that his nephew, Duke Heinrich I of Brabant , should inherit all his property - with the exception of the "castrum Hernesteyn" - if Albert should not leave any children behind on his death. But since Albert's daughter Gertrud was born in 1206, this testamentary regulation never came into effect. The heiress died at the age of 21 and was childless despite three marriages. As a result, the Bishop of Metz , Johann von Apremont , Burg and Vogtei moved in as a settled fiefdom in 1225.

Expansion and reinforcement

John's successor, Jakob von Lothringen , had the castle complex reinforced and a cistern built in the castle courtyard . He appointed the Lords of Lichtenberg as the new bailiffs of Neuweiler Abbey. In a conflict with their liege lord they quickly occupied the city of Neuweiler, but had to give it back in 1261. What they initially did not succeed in military means, took place legally in 1307: At the beginning of the 14th century, the Metz diocese was in a crisis that forced it to pledge. The town of Neuweiler was first relocated as remote ownership. The bishop initially reserved Herrenstein, but in 1341 the castle also appears as pledged to the Lichtenbergers. Shortly afterwards, however, the diocese must have repurchased the complex, because in 1367 it pledged half of it to the Münich von Wildberg family for 2000  guilders . She ceded this to Sigmund von Lichtenberg in 1372, but at that time still owned other shares in the castle. In 1380 Herrenstein was again completely owned by the Bishop of Metz. He used the facility again as a deposit: he transferred 75 percent to Heinrich von Zweibrücken-Bitsch , and another eighth to the von Lichtenberg family. Heinrich in turn pledged his stake to various parties, so that in the second quarter of the 14th century there were complicated ownership conditions on Herrenstein. Shares were held by the Wilsberg, Landschaden, Kaemmerer, Windenberg, Lichtenberg, the Duke of Lorraine and the Counts of Zweibrücken-Bitsch families .

Strasbourg time

Watercolor design drawing by Daniel Specklin from 1577 to strengthen the castle

In 1396 there were only three owners who shared the castle complex. That year, Strasbourg's troops took the castle in a surprise night attack because the city was in conflict with the Counts of Zweibrücken-Bitsch. The castle owners tried in vain to regain control of the complex. In the meantime, Strasbourg bought the plant piece by piece. At first five eighths belonged to her, but by 1480 the city managed to get the rest of the castle into their possession. She had Herrenstein administered by a Vogt and secured with a small crew. The master builder Hans Frawler was commissioned to adapt the system to wartime requirements, but his suggestions were not implemented. Then the city hired the master builder Daniel Specklin for this task. His plans to reinforce and redesign Herrenstein Castle have been preserved, but they were only partially implemented. The existing buildings were repaired and the neck ditch on the west side of the complex was reinforced by a wall. In addition, Strasbourg had a castle chapel consecrated to St. Michael added to the hall and ancillary buildings built in the eastern part of the castle area. The chapel was later given an additional storey , and the castle gate became a bastion in the last quarter of the 16th century . 1529/1530 also carried out a partial demolition of the keep on the amount of curtain wall and its equipment with a gun platform.

From modern times to today

Depiction of the castle ruins from 1870

The castle complex, which apparently had never been attacked, survived the Thirty Years War unscathed. Due to financial hardship, the city of Strasbourg sold Herrenstein in 1651 for 35,000  thalers to the Livonian- Swedish General Reinhold von Rosen , who had previously worked in France . At the time of the sale, the facility was in dire straits. In 1763 or between 1688 and 1697, it was razed by French troops . The French blew up the gate tower and its bastion in front of it.

After 1774 the heiress Sophie von Rosen brought the castle by marriage to the ducal von Broglie family , who remained the owners until the French Revolution. In 1778 the facility was mentioned as a partial ruin, in which there were still dwellings for the gamekeeper and the forester. In 1789 the castle was confiscated and auctioned off as a national property. In 1809, General Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke acquired the facility. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Mr. Freyler owned the ruin. The forester's house and a farm existed until around 1925. A hostel housed in the former castle chapel had already ceased operations at the beginning of the First World War . Since then, the remains of the facility have continued to fall into disrepair, and no backup has been made. Herrenstein Castle is still privately owned today.

description

location

The Höhenburg is located about 700 meters west of the center of Neuweiler as the crow flies on a 402 meter high mountain called Glashalde. The exact location is an elongated mountain spur tapering to the east . This is 110 meters long and 38 meters wide in the west, while in the east it is only six meters wide, but there it has 10 to 15 meters high, steeply sloping rock walls. Several hiking trails lead from Neuweiler through the Bois du Herrenstein ( German  Herrensteiner Wald ) up to the castle ruins. 3.5 kilometers to the southwest is the Daubenschlagfelsen with the ruins of Warthenberg Castle , which was abandoned in the 13th century in favor of Herrenstein Castle.

architecture

Floor plan of Herrenstein Castle from 1905

The remains of the over 100 meter long castle complex are overgrown. Its ground plan traces the shape of the elongated rock spur in east-west direction on which it lies. Its walls are made of the sandstone found on site . The Romanesque parts are executed in humpback and smooth ashlars, while the buildings from the 14th to 17th centuries consist of quarry stone that was previously plastered . The western side of the castle is secured by a wide neck ditch with a three to four meter high kennel wall in front . This was equipped with two low half-shells and a small round tower on the southwest corner. Inside the trench, in its south-western area, there is a horse pond and a well that can no longer be seen above ground .

The oldest structure includes the keep, at least part of the curtain wall and the remains of three residential buildings in the western part of the complex. Seen from the courtyard, the surrounding wall was seldom higher than two to three meters. On the west side facing the neck ditch, it has been expanded to form a 3.10 meter thick shield wall . On the outside it consists of humpback blocks that are still present up to a height of 15 layers. On the inside only the lower part consists of humpback cuboids, above of smooth cuboids. In the east, the curtain wall is much thinner than in the west; its southern part there is only one meter thick.

Overgrown remains of the castle

The pentagonal keep juts out of the middle of the shield wall and protrudes far into the neck ditch. Today only a stump made of six layers of humpback cuboids remains. From its top to the back wall it was eleven meters deep. The defense tower was one of two towers in the castle. The second took up the castle gate on the southeast flank, but was blown up in the 18th century. The remains of the former hall building from the Romanesque period also belong to the western part. It had a floor plan of 26 × 7 meters and had a bevelled arched door and light slots. Along with Ortisei , Girbaden and Groß-Geroldseck, Herrenstein is one of the few Romanesque complexes in Alsace that had a hall.

On the north side are the ruins of the former forester's house from the 18th century. It used the remains of the farm building built before 1577. At the time, this replaced a previous Romanesque building, which may have been the bailiff's house. The eastern tip of the castle area used to be occupied by a polygonal building called "Klein-Herrenstein". It had round arched biforias and was initially perhaps the home of the lords of the castle. Other buildings from Herrenstein that were guaranteed in writing were the castle chapel, stables, the Pfisterei , a wine press and a bathing room.

literature

  • Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Volume 2). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06635-9 , pp. 246-256.
  • Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace. Based on old templates (= castles, palaces, mansions. Volume 24). Weidlich, Frankfurt a. M. 1962 pp. 58-59.
  • Dagobert Fischer: Notice historique sur lʼancien bailliage de Herrenstein. In: Revue dʼAlsace. Vol. 2, July – September 1873, pp. 399–415 ( digitized version ) - partly out of date.
  • Dagobert Fischer: Notice historique sur lʼancien bailliage de Herrenstein. In: Revue dʼAlsace. Vol. 2, October – December 1873, pp. 532–575 ( digitized version ) - partly out of date.
  • Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales dʼAlsace. Dictionnaire d'histoire et d'architecture. La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 2013, ISBN 978-2-7165-0828-5 , pp. 145–146.
  • Roland Recht (Ed.): Le Guide des châteaux de France. Bas-Rhin. Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-024-7 , pp. 96-97.
  • Jean-Michael Rudrauf: Le Herrenstein. Chronique de la mort lente dʼun château à lʼaide de représentations inédites des XIXe et XXe siècles. In: Pays dʼAlsace. Volume 167, 1994, pp. 25-30.
  • Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Étude architecturale et historique d'un château mésestimé. In: Études médiévales, archeologie et histoire. Volume 2. Société dʼhistoire et dʼarchéologie de Saverne et environs, Saverne 1984, pp. 5-41.
  • Charles-Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts dʼAlsace. Alsatia, Strasbourg 1991, ISBN 2-7032-0193-1 , pp. 137-140.
  • Felix Wolff: Speckleʼs design drawing for the defense works at Herrenstein Castle in Alsace. In: The Burgwart. Bulletin of the Deutsche Burgenvereinigung eV for the protection of historical fortifications, castles and residential buildings. No. 11, 1910, pp. 22-27 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Herrenstein Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) 2007, p. 252.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Entry of the castle ruins in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ^ Charles-Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts dʼAlsace. 19914, p. 138.
  4. ↑ Many publications, including more recent ones, give earlier mentions. However, these result from inaccurate or incorrect reading of old documents and their uncritical adoption. Cf. Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 254, notes 1 to 3.
  5. ↑ a b c d Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 247.
  6. ↑ Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales d'Alsace. 2013, p. 145.
  7. ^ A b Charles-Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts dʼAlsace. 19914, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Information from Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 248. In other publications, however, the information can be found that the castle was badly damaged in the Thirty Years War. For example in Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales dʼAlsace. 2013, p. 146.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 248.
  10. ^ A b Felix Wolff: Speckleʼs design drawing for the defense works at Herrenstein Castle in Alsace. 1910, p. 23.
  11. ^ A b Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 253.
  12. ^ Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace. Based on old templates 1962, p. 58.
  13. ^ Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace. Based on old templates 1962, p. 59.
  14. ^ Felix Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon. Directory of castles and chateaus in Alsace. Unchanged reprint of the 1908 edition. Weidlich, Frankfurt a. M. 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1008-2 , p. 115.
  15. ↑ Information according to geoportail.gouv.fr
  16. ↑ a b c d Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 249.
  17. ^ Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) 2007, p. 250.