Burgstall Enzheim

Burgstall Enzheim
Terrain (Nidder Island) on which the castle stood
Creation time :	not known
Castle type :	Niederungsburg
Conservation status:	departed
Standing position :	gentry
Place:	Altenstadt - Enzheim
Geographical location	50 ° 17 '59.9 "  N , 8 ° 59' 14"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 17 '59.9 "  N , 8 ° 59' 14"  E
Height:	124  m above sea level NN

The Burgstall Enzheim is a lost moated castle in today's Altenstadt district of Enzheim in the Wetterau district in Hesse .

location

The village of Enzheim, today located near the A 45 and mentioned as early as the 8th century, was above Lindheim and below Glauberg and Glauburg Castle . The former moated castle was at the north-western end of the village on a Nidder island, which passed to the west and was used as a moat . The tributary was dammed to the south-east, with the water of which a mill was operated.

and display information about the image

Northern part of the Nidder Island and a view of the presumed location of the former Enzheim moated castle

history

The transition from the mill to the Nidderinsel of the moated castle with mill stone.

View of the water castle's Nidderinsel; the buildings belong to the former mill

It is not known when and who built the castle and what rulers the castle was subject to. Only a document from 1414, when the Lords of Buchenau sold goods "in front of the Slosz Ensheim" to the Archdiocese of Mainz, refers to the castle. In the regest it is noted that Wigand von Buchenau, his wife Grede and Grede von Buchenau sell a piece of land in front of Enzheim Castle to Archbishop Johann von Mainz for 49 guilders. The brothers Eberhard, Wigand, Erasmus and Appel von Buchenau agree to the purchase. Henne Riedesel is a witness .

Existing trenches around the facility have now almost silted up, so that even the location can no longer be precisely localized. Archaeological investigations have probably not yet taken place.

Several reasons for the presence of the castle can be considered:

• Since the Lorsch and Fulda monasteries also had property in Enzheim in the early Middle Ages , it is possible that the complex was a security fortress for clerical property
• The moated castle could have served as a western safeguard for the medieval castle and town of Glauburg on the Glauberg
• The castle served as an outpost for the strong Lindheim Castle nearby
• It was only an early medieval refuge or hill fort (only walls and ditches found)

The medieval mill (parts of which can be found in the entrance portal and in the building itself) and the small, old, well-fortified-looking medieval church just 30 m further to the south, however, indicate a castle-like fortification of the island.

Todays use

There are no more remains of the castle complex, trenches can only be guessed at on the island. Only the name of the hallway "Auf der Burg" is reminiscent of the medieval complex. The island's grounds are privately owned.

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. 352.
• Siegfried RCT Enders: Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany , Department: Architectural Monuments in Hesse. Wetteraukreis I. Ed. By the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Vieweg, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-528-06231-2 , pp. 50–55 (with map)

Web links

Commons : Burgstall Enzheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Enzheim Castle, Wetteraukreis. Historical local lexicon for Hesse (as of January 23, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 2, 2014 . 
• Burgenwelt.de - Enzheim

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Documents of the Grafschaft Isenburg (X 4) in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt (HStAD): Certificate No. 1213 of March 18, 1414. Regesten after Simon III, p. 242 No. 223a
2. ↑ All variants are described in Knappe (p. 352).