Hardeck castle ruins

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Hardeck castle ruins
Castle wall (left) and ruins of a leaning building

Castle wall (left) and ruins of a leaning building

Creation time : 900 to 1000
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Castle stable, remains of walls, moat
Standing position : Nobles
Construction: Basalt, sandstone
Place: Büdingen - Lorbach
Geographical location 50 ° 16 '26 "  N , 9 ° 4' 14"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 16 '26 "  N , 9 ° 4' 14"  E
Height: 296  m above sea level NN
Hardeck castle ruins (Hesse)
Hardeck castle ruins

The Hardeck castle ruin is an abandoned hilltop castle southwest of Büdingen in the Wetterau district in Upper Hesse .

location

The castle ruins are located at 296  m above sea level. NN in the northern part of a larger forest on the northern of the two mountain cones at the intersection of the Büdinger districts in west-east direction between Calbach and Lorbach and in north-south direction between Orleshausen and Diebach am Haag on Lorbacher district .

history

Remains of the castle wall with the remains of houses and a view of the interior of the castle as a panoramic view from the northwest

The castle was probably built in the 10th to 11th centuries, the builders are not known. In 1289 the castle was mentioned in writing as "... tria in campo versus Hardeckin".

From May 11, 1362, the imperial court judge Burghard von Hardeck is known from a judgment , who decided in a dispute in favor of the Hanauer . In the 14th century there were further references to the name Hardeck. Heinrich von Ysenburg with his wife Adelheid von Hanau-Münzenberg made a promise to pay Ulrich von Hanau in 1367 for a debt of 1,450 guilders . "Haus Hardeck" was used as a security deposit .

Mentioned in 1405 as the seat of a bailiff, the castle was given up as an official seat when the last bailiff, Eckart Riedesel, moved to Büdingen in 1464. Since 1471 the castle was no longer inhabited and exposed to decay. A problem at Hardeck Castle was always the water supply, water had to be drawn from a spring below the mountain and transported about two kilometers to the castle. Some buildings may were on the Hardeck longer in use since the 1738 to 1748 at the nearby Herrnhaag resident Moravian Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf "in" the Hardeck his Testament is said to have written.

After the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), according to various sources, the castle was razed in 1794 or 1796 by the Austrians (presumably on the orders of the later Austrian KuK Major General Franz Anton Freiherr von Elsnitz ), who are said to have used the material for road construction.

description

Panorama of the castle plateau, looking east

The surrounding ramparts of the castle have a slightly oval circumference of over 300 meters. The depth of the well-preserved moat is remarkable, which is partly seven to nine meters to the north. The wall has been preserved from the surrounding castle wall, in some places stone remains of the wall can still be found on the surface. Only in the eastern area were there finds that indicate a tower in the castle wall area. The existing ruins correspond to several houses that were leaned against the northern part of the castle wall. The small remains of ruins, however, hardly allow any indication of the castle's earlier size and appearance. The remains of an area raised to the inside of the castle suggest the former palace there . In the southern area, approx. 20 meters east of today's path to the castle, remains of the foundations of a round tower, presumably the keep , can be found in the area of ​​the castle wall. Pottery shards and glazed ceramic remains were found there.

The medieval Antsanvia road , which is called Reffenstraße on this section, runs within sight. The hard basalt rock from which the hill is made may have given its name to the Hardeck mountain cone.

Hardeck Castle originally had visual contact with the Ronneburg and Glauburg castles and later also with the Büdingen castle . The castles had the task of securing the roads from the Main Plain to the Vogelsberg . Due to the trees, the complex is no longer recognizable as a whole. Pictures that show the remains of the castle in earlier years without trees can be seen in LAGIS .

  • Different view of the castle wall and the remains of houses with blocks of different sizes

  • Example of the remains of the castle wall of the Hardeck castle ruins

  • The remains of the castle wall from the inside

  • The neck ditch

  • Neck ditch, right approx. 9 m to the top of the wall

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 354.
  • Walter Niess: Langenselbold - Selbold. A cultural nucleus in the Kinzig valley and the Wetterau; the socio-economic development of a landscape from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period , Greiserdruck, Rastatt 2002, 247 pages

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Hardeck  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Squire
  2. ↑ a b Peter W. Sattler: in supplement to the Giessener Anzeiger: Heimat im Bild - Hardeck Castle near Büdingen , August 1966
  3. ↑ Michael Zieg: The Selbolder: History of a Friedberger Burgmann family in the years 1200-1578 , Verlag Dr. Kovač, 2007, p. 86
  4. ↑ Squire