Alt-Ems

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Alt-Ems castle ruins
The ruins of the Palas von Alt-Ems

The ruins of the Palas von Alt-Ems

Alternative name (s): Alt Embs
Creation time : around 1100 to 1200
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Place: Hohenems
Geographical location 47 ° 21 '48.7 "  N , 9 ° 41' 45.5"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 21 '48.7 "  N , 9 ° 41' 45.5"  E
Height: 797  m above sea level A.
Alt-Ems (Vorarlberg)
Alt-Ems

Alt-Ems is the ruin of a hilltop castle near Hohenems in Vorarlberg ( Austria ).

location

This castle complex was located 740 meters above sea level, about 300 meters above the Vorarlberg Rhine Valley on the vertically rising rocky ridge above the market , the so-called Schlossberg .

In the last stage of expansion at the beginning of the 17th century, the system reached from the rock head "Miss" in the north of the castle over the wide castle saddle (castle meadow) and the stronghold to the outer works on the "Gätzle" and "Güggenstein" in the southwestern rock slope.

The name Alt-Ems (or Alt-Embs ) is derived from "Alta-Embs" (Latin "altus" = high) and means something like "Hohe Ems". The name of the city of Hohenems is derived from this today .

history

The originally Guelph and from 1179/1191 Staufer castle was owned by the Ems ministries and since the end of the 12th century the Alt-Ems castle has been one of the most powerful and largest castle complexes in all of southern Germany. The Staufer fortress served, among other things, as a repository for prominent prisoners such as Wilhelm III from 1195 . (Sicily) or in 1206 Archbishop Bruno of Cologne . In 1407 the castle complex was destroyed in the Appenzell War.

Under Count Jakob Hannibal I von Hohenems (1530–1587) extensive alterations and extensions took place around 1500, and with Count Kaspar von Hohenems (1573–1640) the expansion into an extensive Renaissance fortress based on plans by Martino Longhi took place from 1566 . After the Count of Hohenems died out , the castle went to Austria in 1765 and was auctioned off for demolition in 1792.

In the years from 1938 to 1940 and 1965/66 the castle ruins were heavily restored, and from 2006 to 2007 the ruins were redeveloped. Today the ruins are mostly privately owned by the Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems family .

investment

General plan of the Hohenems castle ruins by Otto Piper

The extraordinarily narrow, elongated Alt-Ems castle complex, with seven gates, a drawbridge and 47 rooms, was once one of the largest castle complexes in southern Germany. The castle originally had a length of 800 meters and a width of up to 85 meters. Access was via the tongue-shaped barbican in the northeast with a solidly walled-in circular body (built in the first half of the 16th century). The outworks have been preserved only in a few residues.

The foundations of the east wall represent the only remnants of the original castle complex from the 12th century - the remaining walls are all from the late Middle Ages and have been changed several times. With the exception of the late medieval curtain wall, which is partly reinforced with jagged edges , the building components of the stronghold adjoining the south-west are only preserved at the foundation level. The former four-storey palace has a parallelogram-like warped quadrangular floor plan.

In the eastern and western longitudinal fronts of the curtain wall there is a semicircular, scarred (erected and smoothed) roundel from the middle of the 16th century with wide rectangular artillery slots. In the continuation of the rock ridge to the southwest there are staggered outer bailey, bulwark and walled gardens. On the slope in the southeast under the stronghold a cannon bastion (before 1618) and slope fortifications below. The legendary Konradsbrunnen is still visible in the inner courtyard .

Art installations

Trivia

There is a free grass area below the castle (castle property). The “Zur Burg Altems” inn stood here until 1903, and it burned down. The foundation walls are still partially visible.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Online presence of ORF Vorarlberg Report and photos on the renovation work on August 24, 2007
  2. ↑ Legend: The Konradsbrunnen in Hohenems