Reichenstein Castle (Baden)

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Reichenstein Castle
Reichenstein Castle

Reichenstein Castle

Creation time : around 1200
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Place: Neckargemünd
Geographical location 49 ° 23 '24 "  N , 8 ° 48' 2"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 23 '24 "  N , 8 ° 48' 2"  E
Reichenstein Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Reichenstein Castle

Reichenstein Castle in Neckargemünd was probably an imperial castle built at the beginning of the 13th century . Together with other imperial castles in the lower Neckar area, it served to protect the imperial territory from the Wittelsbach territory around Heidelberg. The castle is only mentioned in a document from 1292 to 1355. It was owned by the Electors of the Palatinate from 1329 and then quickly lost its importance compared to the nearby Dilsberg mountain fortress . The castle fell into ruin by the 15th century at the latest and was almost completely demolished. The castle stable underwent numerous changes in the 19th and 20th centuries, so that only very few of the remains of the wall that exist there today can actually be referred to as remains of the castle.

location

The ruins of the Höhenburg Reichenstein are located south above the old town of Neckargemünd in a small, park-like forest in the Gewannen Sommerwiese and Mühlrain on the Hollmuth mountain east of the Elsenz . This is an extremely favorable strategic location (which can hardly be guessed today due to the nearby modern buildings), as the Neckar Valley, Elsenz Valley and Wiesenbach Valley with the old trunk road from Heidelberg to Mosbach are controlled from this position could.

investment

Stone extraction in the early modern period, the subsequent long-term agricultural use of the area and construction and restoration measures in the 19th and 20th centuries, most recently the terracing of the site in the 1930s and the demolition of part of the castle plateau to build a water reservoir in 1989, ensured one sustainable change in the castle grounds. Many parts of the masonry visible today were only erected in the 19th century as retaining walls for the gardens located there or were freely reconstructed without any scientific basis. Only in the south of the complex has the original masonry been preserved, which is interpreted as a shield wall towards the ridge, analogous to other castles in the Neckar Valley. In that section of the wall, three different layers from different epochs can be seen, with the top layer also being modern.

The few remaining components allow almost no conclusion about the former appearance of the system. Due to the topographical conditions on the slope of the Hollmuth, one concludes that Reichenstein Castle was an elongated, almost rectangular fortified castle, which was protected to the south by a ditch and a shield wall against the ridge. Access to the castle was presumably through a gate in the western longitudinal wall, although the gate located there today was only built in 1934 from found pieces of wall. Nothing can be seen of the interior of the castle.

history

The castle was probably built in the early 13th century. The older literature still considers a previous building to be possible. The more recent literature, however, assumes that Reichenstein Castle could not have been built before the extinction of the Counts of Lauffen , who had a seat on the nearby Dilsberg mountain fortress , in the period 1216–1219.

As with the nearby Reichsburg Stolzeneck, the Reichenstein Castle was essentially equipped with only a small amount of forest, so that it should not be regarded as the seat of a manorial estate , but rather as part of a security system for the Reich against the Wittelsbach territory around Heidelberg . The fact that Reichenstein Castle was built as an imperial castle is generally recognized due to its name.

The early history of the castle can only be speculated on the basis of a few documented connections. The lords of Mauer, known as Nessel, could be the original owners. Although there is no documentary evidence of having sat in a castle in Neckargemünd, Diether Nessel zu Neckargemünd lost all of his possessions, imperial and other fiefs to King Rudolf I because of crimes committed, who gave them to Count Palatine Ludwig II in 1286 , later the Nesselschen estates in Neckargemünd were owned by the Landschad von Steinach as a Palatine fief . In the chronicle of Hans Ulrich I. Landschad von Steinach around 1605, a Landschaden Burgkh near Neckargemünd is mentioned, whereby it could be the Reichenstein, in the vicinity of which the Landschad also owned a manorial farm. When Reichenstein Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1292, King Rudolf's son, Albrecht I , promised the rights to Reichenstein Castle to Ludwig II of the Palatinate in the event of his election as Rudolf's successor, which Ludwig II had owned from time immemorial as a fief of the empire . Ludwig II could not obtain these rights, however, because in May 1292 Adolf von Nassau was elected as German king instead of Albrecht .

Adolf von Nassau pledged Reichenstein Castle together with other possessions in Neckargemünd and Eberbach in 1297 to Eberhard I. von Katzenelnbogen . The Counts of Katzenelnbogen sought a closed territory between Kraichgau , Odenwald and Middle Rhine , for which Reichenstein Castle was strategically located. King Adolf's successor, Albrecht, who was running as a candidate in 1292, did not, however, confirm the possession of the Katzenelnbogen family near Neckargemünd and Eberbach. Instead, the lords of Weinsberg, who were related by marriage to the Katzenelnbogen family, were owned by the Reichspfänder on the lower Neckar from the early 14th century . When the Weinsberg property was divided after the death of Conrad IV von Weinsberg in 1325, Castle Reichenstein and Neckargemünd came to Engelhard VI. from Weinsberg.

In 1329, Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian finally allowed Count Palatine Rudolf II and Ruprecht I to redeem the pledges in Neckargemünd. In the following year, 1330, the Count Palatinate was enfeoffed with numerous other imperial estates in the lower Neckar area and were able to create a new territorial focus of their power there. Although the court of the Meckesheimer Zent was moved to a place below the Reichenstein Castle in 1346, the castle quickly lost its importance compared to the nearby Dilsberg mountain fortress, which was also owned by the Electoral Palatinate from 1338 and where the Electoral Palatinate winery was based. Reichenstein Castle appears in documents in 1353 and for the last time in 1355. The castle was then quickly abandoned and fell into disrepair.

The cellar on the Dilsberg leased the garden land around Reichenstein Castle to citizens of Neckargemünd. In the oldest Dilsberg interest book from 1494 only income from the garden land is mentioned. The castle itself was not in use, and based on bone finds, parts of the facility could still be used to keep animals. As elsewhere, stones and other building materials from the castle were probably removed over time and used to build other buildings. In the records of Hans Ulrich I. Landschad von Steinach around 1605, a Burckstall is referred to as Neckergemünden, while the Landschaden Burckh is referred to. If it is about Reichenstein Castle, there was only a castle stable at that time. On an engraving by Merian from the first half of the 17th century, a box-like structure can still be seen on the right edge of the picture above the Neckargemünd city fortifications, in which some researchers believe they recognize the ruins of Reichenstein Castle. In 1712 the Neckargemünder Stadtschultheiß Edmund Munster reported on old walls on a mountain that had fallen into ruin by several hundred years, had been a castle and called Reichenstein . The place is overgrown with grass. In his description of the Electoral Palatinate in the late 18th century, Johann Goswin Widder wrote of the ruins that were still visible . In 1822 Albert Ludwig Grimm wrote that the ruins of the Reichenstein had almost disappeared down to the last trace .

The Hollmuth formed its own district until the 16th century. The city of Neckargemünd showed early interest in acquiring the mountain with the forest and castle area, but was initially only able to bring a small part into their possession, while in 1803 the forest on the ridge came to the municipality of Bammental . The city of Neckargemünd succeeded in acquiring further small parts of Hollmuth in the early 20th century, the largest part with the castle area remained in the possession of the Schönau and some citizens and only came into municipal possession in 1984.

In the 19th century, the area of ​​the Reichenstein ruins was a popular vantage point, but then overgrown until the early 20th century. In particular, the neglected Borchard garden by the ruins was used by young people as a meeting place. The city reacted to this in 1926 by no longer leasing the garden and instead designing the Burg-Reichenstein-Garten beneath the ruins as a park-like public green space. In 1932 a shelter and sales hut was built there based on plans by the architect Ludwig Neuer . According to plans by the architect Hans Kayser , the Burg-Reichenstein-Garten was extended to parts of the castle area in 1934, with the terraced areas still existing there being created. Various excavations and restoration measures followed in the entire ruin by 1937, even in parts that were still privately owned at that time as a garden. Unfortunately, neither excavation reports were written nor the restoration measures documented, so that the measures of the 1930s to this day raise more questions than produce results. Only a few finds from 1934, which were sent to the Early History Institute at the University of Heidelberg , could later be scientifically evaluated and dated to the 13th and 14th centuries, while the parts of the wall found on the site were haphazardly during the terracing of the complex and even later were newly walled up.

After the Second World War, the castle area with the Burg-Reichenstein-Garten again overgrown . The green area was not repaired until 1967. It subsequently enjoyed great popularity as a festival site, but from 1975 onwards damage and disturbance of the peace led to a gradual ban on all celebrations at that location. In 1978 the system was repaired again. After the city of Neckargemünd had acquired the Burgstall in 1984, further repair work was carried out on the historical and newer masonry there. The city also had plans for further excavations or the establishment of a history garden on the castle area, but ultimately rejected them. From 1987 to 1989 part of the mountain plateau with the north-western wall of the castle was blown off to build a water reservoir. During the construction work, numerous finds came to light, which, like the objects excavated in the 1930s, can be dated to the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1995 the Reichenstein working group of the Neckargemünd cultural association was founded, the aim of which is to look after the monument and document the castle.

Today, Reichenstein Castle is freely accessible as a public green space and is used for sporadic summer concerts.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 9.
  2. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 32.
  3. ^ Oechelhäuser: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Amtsbezirks Heidelberg, p. 580.
  4. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 32.
  5. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 31.
  6. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 32.
  7. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 33.
  8. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 32, 53.
  9. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 33, 37, 64/65.
  10. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 37.
  11. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 37.
  12. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 38/39.
  13. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 39.
  14. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 42.
  15. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 47.
  16. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 47.
  17. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 51.
  18. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 51.
  19. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 53.
  20. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 53.
  21. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 53.
  22. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 53.
  23. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 53.
  24. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 54.
  25. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 54.
  26. ^ Johann Goswin Widder: Description of the Electoral Palatinate I, p. 359.
  27. ↑ Grimm: Vorzeit und Gegenwart, p. 254.
  28. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 56.
  29. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 56.
  30. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 56, 60.
  31. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 56.
  32. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 56.
  33. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 56/57.
  34. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 57.
  35. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 57/58.
  36. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 58.
  37. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 9-14.
  38. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 58.
  39. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 58.
  40. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 58/59.
  41. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 60.
  42. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 60.
  43. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 60.
  44. ↑ Lenz 1997, pp. 11, 14, 60.
  45. ↑ Lenz 1997, p. 60.

literature

  • Manfred Benner: Reichenstein Castle and the medieval Neckargemünd . In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany. Vol. 36: Heidelberg, Mannheim and the Rhine-Neckar area . Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1407-7 , p. 202 ff.
  • Rüdiger Lenz: History of the Reichenstein Castle near Neckargemünd. A contribution about the development of imperial property and the territory of the Electoral Palatinate on the lower Neckar . Wiltschko, Neckargemünd-Dilsberg 1997, ISBN 3-931033-29-5 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Reichenstein  - collection of images