Lengsfeld Castle
| Lengsfeld Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Lengsfeld Castle (2009) |
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| Creation time : | after 1125 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Remnants of the wall and main building have been preserved | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Stadtlengsfeld | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 46 '55.5 " N , 10 ° 7' 41.4" E | |
| Height: | 270 m above sea level NN | |
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The castle Lengsfeld was in the Middle Ages built fortifications in Feldatal , on the outskirts of Stadtlengsfeld in Wartburgkreis in Thuringia .
location
The structural remains of the mighty moated castle are located in the west of the historical location of Stadtlengsfeld and later also became part of the city fortifications . The original facility was in a protected location in the middle of the Felda floodplain.
history
Foundation of the castle around 1125
In order to protect their numerous possessions in the Feldatal, the construction of Lengsfeld Castle was initiated by the Hersfeld Monastery around 1125 ; it was also another castle complex of the Frankenstein dynasty , who acted as guardians of the monastery in the Rhön and Werra Valley. The lords of Lengsfeld are to be named as Burgmannen von Lengsfeld , they belonged as ministerials to the service nobility of the Frankensteiner.
Takeover by Fulda Monastery around 1300
The Fulda monastery used the rapid decline of the Frankensteiners in the 13th century to expand its territory to the Feldatal. As early as 1265, the ancestral castle Frankenstein was besieged by Abbot Bertous von Fulda and partially destroyed, in 1295 King Adolf von Nassau succeeded, too , whereby the castle was probably again badly damaged. As a result, Ludwig von Frankenstein exchanged Lengsfeld castle and settlement with Abbot Heinrich and received the Neuhof moated castle near Fulda in return. At the same time, Ludwig von Frankenstein , now the heir to the Fulda family, remained involved in Lengsfeld Castle. As early as 1308, the properties in the Feldatal were pledged for ten years (Frankenstein Agreement with Abbot Heinrich von Fulda), 1317–1318 Ludwig von Frankenstein sold the villages of Haynau and Waldsassen in the castle district of Lengsfeld, as well as Untersuhl and Ottershausen, and income from the Dermbach court .
Expansion to Ganerbe Castle
In the 14th century the Fulda abbots expanded Lengsfeld Castle considerably. On the site of the original castle complex, four castle districts were created, protected by a common surrounding wall and the moat , which were always given to different families of Burgmanns. The Fulda abbots converted the castle complex into a Ganerbeburg . In addition, at the instigation of the Fulda abbots, other knights moved to the town of Lengsfeld, which was privileged as a market settlement in 1359, and built fortified castle seats there. The purpose of this policy was probably to give this important castle to as many shareholders as possible in order to bind them to themselves and to prevent the domination of a family. The following are mentioned as Ganerbe in Lengsfeld:
- Apel von Reckrodt and his heirs
- Dizel Schade von Leipolds
- Paul von Herbilstadt (from 1339)
- Ditzel von Pferdsdorf (from 1339);
as castle men and pledge holders are mentioned:
- of Bibra (1335)
- from Rannenberg (1335)
- from Blaufuss (1351)
- of Walrabe (1352)
- from Buttlar (1357)
- from Borsa (1361)
- by Taft (1444)
From the large number of parties involved, as expected, none of these families could initially gain an advantage, disputes over the sale and exchange of shares were frequent. In addition, in the 15th century, Fulda’s rivals, the Counts of Henneberg and the Thuringian Landgraves , were given their own rights to the castle through clever pacts with individual families, although Fulda tried to fend them off with a hard hand, which ultimately led to the defection of most of the heirs of Fulda, the majority of which approached the Counts of Henneberg.
The Boineburgers acquire Lengsfeld Castle
The court marshal of the prince abbot of Fulda, Phillip von Herda , had bought a first castle estate in Lengsfeld in 1444 and had quickly become the largest landowner in Lengsfeld through further acquisitions.He used family relationships with the abbot and was thus able to implement his acquisition plans unhindered. Through his granddaughter, most of the Lengsfeld possessions came to the Landgrave Hessian court judge Ludwig I von Boyneburg zu Gerstungen through marriage , who was one of the most influential men in the Hessian Landgraviate and worked several times as a diplomat on the imperial mandate. In the same way, he is followed by his son, Georg von Boineburg, who, as a thank you for his services, obtained the city rights for Lengsfeld from Emperor Charles V in 1548.
Peasants' War
The knight Rudolph von Boyneburgk at Gerstungen Castle was at the same time the lien owner of the adjacent Frauensee office with the Krayenburg . During the Peasants' War , rebellious farmers and craftsmen formed the Werrahaufen , which moved through the Feldatal in 1525 to the towns of Salzungen, Vacha and Kaltennordheim. The commanders and crews of the castles usually handed them over without a fight, as noted in Lengsfeld Castle.
The Boineburg inheritance
From 1600 onwards, extensive renovations and renovations began again, which change individual main buildings of the castle. The individual areas of the castle and the farms and castles in the surrounding area in Weilar, Gehaus, and other places were distributed to the family branches with each inheritance, these in turn formed an inheritance within Lengsfeld Castle. During the Thirty Years War , Lengsfeld Castle was also taken several times, the two southern dwellings and farm buildings burned down completely, and the castle courtyards in the city were looted. Already with the introduction of the Reformation , the Fulda abbots tried to save their possessions in the Feldatal and drive out the Boineburgers, thanks to the support of the Counts of Henneberg and the Landgraves of Hesse, as well as diplomatic channels, the Boineburgers managed to defend themselves against all maneuvers by the Fulda people. In the 19th century the rule of the Fulda prince abbots also ended and the Boineburgers, who had meanwhile become imperial barons, remained in their possession.
Conversion to a castle
At the beginning of the 19th century, the town and the castle complex began to be softened, the moats were filled in and a park was created, and the castle was converted into a residential palace. Most of the Stadtlengsfeld burned down in a major fire in 1878, which in turn affected the farms and parts of the castle bordering the town.
Expropriation and conversion in the GDR
After the Second World War , the Boineburgers in Thuringia were expropriated as large landowners and their castles and estates were converted into state property. Lengsfeld Castle was set up as a sanatorium and was used in this function until the fall of the Wall.
Current situation and usage
The palace complex is a designated architectural and ground monument in Stadtlengsfeld and is privately owned. The buildings were gradually renovated in the 1990s. Today there is a clinic for psychotherapeutic and psychosomatic rehabilitation of Dr. Becker group of companies .
Structural system
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At the beginning a tower hill castle (Motte) with a moat can be assumed, which the Lords of Lengsfeld built and lived in on behalf of the Frankensteiners. Under the Fulda abbots, the castle complex was expanded considerably by building a fort-like complex with four separate castle districts. Each castle district was protected by an associated defense tower and had multi-storey residential buildings. The detailed description written by the owner at the time provides information about the structural condition of this castle in the middle of the 19th century:
“This castle is located at the western end of the town, forming a large, irregular square, the four sides of which (each 150-160 feet long) formerly enclosed four different castles, which at their endpoints are two large, three-story round towers to the west and to the northeast were flanked by a four-sided tower. The entrance gate to the east, formerly defended by a trapdoor and a roundabout, was built over with the castle chapel, whose delicate gable crowned with pinnacles separated the castle seats on the right and left, as an oil painting made after the Thirty Years' War shows. In front of it was the extensive outer bailey or the outer works with wide economic spaces. At that time that four-cornered high tower, a remnant of the oldest castle, and part of the side walls to the east and south, lay in ruins - although the underground vault served as a criminal prison. The south-western round tower, the center of a special castle seat, has been almost completely demolished, and the chapel and the roundabout at the gate are no longer there. The moat, which surrounded the castle sixty feet wide and was protected on the east side by a walled wall, has been filled in and transformed into a graceful, extensive garden. The two formerly separate, now connected castle seats on the east side belonged to the oldest building, but are now called the new castle. "
literature
- Album of the residences, castles and manors of Thuringia, especially of the Saxon Lands of the Ernestine line. In pictorial representation. In connection with several accompanied by text u. published by Prof. Dr. J .. Gersdorf, archivist in Altenburg, school director. Dr. A .. M .. Schulze in Gotha, Hofr. L .. Bechstein in Meiningen, Prof. Dr. W .. Rein in Eisenach, Dr. Ms. Hoffmann in Hildburghausen. I issue. Leipzig, expedition. (Werl.) Qu.Fol.
- Ludwig Hertel: Schloss Feldeck In: Lehfeldt, Paul / Voss, Georg (ed.): Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia, Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, Booklet XXXV District Court District Salzungen, Jena 1909, pp. 45–47.
- Thomas Bienert: Stadtlengsfeld, Burg Lengsfeld In: Medieval castles in Thuringia, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-631-1 , p. 335.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Patze , Peter Aufgebauer (Ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 9: Thuringia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 313). 2nd, improved and supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-520-31302-2 , pp. 76-77, 83-84.
- ↑ Dietlas . In: Paul Lehfeldt / Georg Voss (eds.): Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia, Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, Salzungen district court . Booklet XXXV. Jena 1909, p. 44-47 .
- ↑ Freiherr von Boineburg: Schloss Lengsfeld In: Album of the residences, castles and manors of Thuringia, in particular of the Saxon lands of the Ernestine line. In pictorial representation. In connection with several accompanied by text u. published by Prof. Dr. J .. Gersdorf, archivist in Altenburg, school director. Dr. A .. M .. Schulze in Gotha, Hofr. L .. Bechstein in Meiningen, Prof. Dr. W .. Rein in Eisenach, Dr. Ms. Hoffmann in Hildburghausen. I issue. Leipzig, expedition. (Werl.) Qu.Fol.
