Södel Castle

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Södel Castle
Front view from Burgstrasse (east view)

Front view from Burgstrasse (east view)

Alternative name (s): Södel Castle
Creation time : 16th Century
Castle type : Höhenburg, location
Conservation status: dilapidated, badly in need of renovation
Standing position : High nobility (widow seat)
Construction: Ground floor quarry stone, half-timbered upper floors
Place: Wölfersheim - Södel
Geographical location 50 ° 23 '44.2 "  N , 8 ° 48' 11.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 23 '44.2 "  N , 8 ° 48' 11.4"  E
Height: 169  m above sea level NHN
Södel Castle (Hesse)
Södel Castle

The castle Södel even lock Södel called, is the ruins of a hilltop castle on 169  m above sea level. NHN in the district of Södel (Burgstrasse 5) in the municipality of Wölfersheim in the Wetterau district in Hesse . The castle was expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries in the character of a castle . The building, which has been lengthened twice, looks picturesque due to its enlargement and its location on the hill, but is now threatened by severe deterioration in its existence.

history

The place and previous castle came from the Falkensteiner inheritance to the Counts of Solms-Lich in 1418 . All protective trenches have disappeared today. Södel Castle ( Schloss Södel) was rebuilt in the second half of the 16th century as the widow's seat of the princes of Solms-Lich, as indicated by the year 1579 on an offset portal. Count Ernst zu Solms-Lich had the manor house enlarged from 1607 to 1611 and the half-timbered upper floor added. A mint was housed in the castle from 1610/11 to 1622 .

It was owned by Solms until it was mediatized in 1806. After that, the " building typologically and historically significant building " was used as family living space in the 19th century. It is currently unused and with no construction maintenance. Nobody has taken care of the building since the renovation attempts in the 1970s. Responsible for the gradual decline is the owner, who is known to the municipality, but with whom it has not been possible to contact in the past.

  • Views 2014

  • Södel Castle: general view, in disrepair, in great need of renovation, in danger of collapsing, entry prohibited

  • Södel Castle: Detail of the half-timbered upper floor

  • Södel Castle: rear view, cordoned off

description

The building is an elongated three-storey rectangular building with a half-timbered upper floor and a round stair tower , the representative and entrance side of which faces the Södel district. The relief of a standing lion on the west side can be dated to the first construction period and the portals to 1607 and 1611. The northern section of the building can be dated to the early 17th century.

The house is made up of three parts, the separation of which can be clearly seen by construction joints and various half-timbered floors. The middle part forms the core of the manor house and is the oldest. It was initially extended to the south and built with the stair tower, later an extension to the north followed. The structure is two-story solid north of the stair tower. Above is a half-timbered floor. The part south of the stair tower is massive on the courtyard side only on the ground floor and has two half-timbered floors, the last of which is provided with carved woodwork in the window area. The top floor of the stair tower is made of half-timbered polygonal rotunda and has an only partially plastered quarry stone masonry in the lower area. The former baroque hood is no longer on the tower.

The southern structure shows a pointed arched portal with beveled walls on the courtyard side . The half-timbered floors are three compartments high, struts and head clamps are each decorated with headbands. The parapet is decorated on the first floor with St. Andrew's crosses and panels with flat ornamental relief or profiled footbands on the second floor, which were placed in the second half of the 17th century. The four-story stair tower is round. Its window walls follow the left-hand spiral staircase , the entrance portal is rectangular in contrast to the other entrances.

Further north of the stair tower, the castle has a newer segmented arched gate and a pointed arched portal with beveled walls on the ground floor . This was probably the original access to the manor house . The half-timbering of the upper floor corresponds roughly to the southern component.

The northernmost component has a larger round arched passage on the courtyard side on the ground floor and a pointed arched portal next to it. Both are with bead and throat profiled and gestäbt, the profile at the bottom combines portal and gate. The portal lintel shows the year 1579. It is probably a portal that has been highlighted elsewhere. The gate on the back is round-arched, with diamond cuboid walls, the inner edge and the side walls are bars with a round bar and throat. Above the passage there is an inscription stone between two windows with the text: "Here was the coat of arms of Count Ernst zu Solms-Lich and his wife Countess Anna von Gansbach", above a spoil , inscribed "Dern", "Johann", "1611", the right part of the stone is weathered.

All windows are distributed irregularly. On the back of the northern component on the first floor there is a protruding console to the right above the gate , in the middle component between two windows was the relief stone with a lion protruding at an angle.

In the passage built today there is a round-arched portal on the north side, marked with the year 1607, and has a garment with a carnation profile and inner bevel.

Todays use

The castle is now locked, uninhabited and almost completely overgrown in the lower area. The roof is leaking and many windows have been smashed, the entire property is in serious decline and in danger of collapsing.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Hessen, Volume 2. Dt. Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 748.
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse: 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 341

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Castle description based on: Renaissance castles in Hesse
  2. ↑ Wetterauer Zeitung of April 24, 2008
  3. ↑ for comparison: picture castle with stair tower
  4. ^ According to Dehio, Hessen, 1982, p. 816