Alte Bürg (Pappenheim)

Old citizens
Burgstall Alte Bürg - View of the ridge with the Alten Bürg in the middle distance, in front Ort and Burg Pappenheim
Creation time :	7th or 8th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Castle stable, wall and moat remains
Place:	Pappenheim
Geographical location	48 ° 55 '38.9 "  N , 10 ° 57' 28.5"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 55 '38.9 "  N , 10 ° 57' 28.5"  E

The Alte Bürg is an abandoned early medieval spur castle on a mountain spur west of the town of Pappenheim in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district in Bavaria .

The castle is a heavily reinforced section fortification from the 7th or 8th century, protected by a double outer section wall with a ditch in front, the height of which from the moat is still 1.7 meters today, and an inner section wall with a ditch, what testifies to several phases of attachment. Finds from the early Bronze and Hallstatt periods as well as two fragments of Carolingian - Ottonian ceramics also come from the Alten Bürg . Today the castle site is a ground monument .

The Alte Bürg was presumably a predecessor of the later Pappenheim Castle , which was located on the lower rock .

description

The section fortification lies on a mountain spur protruding to the east, which drops steeply to the north, east and south into the surrounding valleys. The complex is protected by three moats that stretch across the 50 to 60 meter wide mountain plateau, and some of which also extend down the slope.

The outer section wall is at a distance of about 320 meters from the top of the mountain spur, in the north it extends to the edge of the plateau and leads a few meters down the steep slope. The wall stretches in a straight line from the northern mountain slope to the south, then bends after 80 meters in a south-southeast direction and continues in this direction for another 40 meters. On this side, too, the moat runs down the steep slope for a few meters. The original entrance is assumed to be at this end of the wall. This moat consists of two closely spaced walls, which are accompanied by a moat . The inner of these two walls is about 7 meters wide at its base and 2.5 meters high from the ditch, the outer one is still about 4 meters wide and 0.5 meters high, and from the ditch 1.3 meters high.

About 150 meters after the outer wall, the mountain plateau crosses a ditch partially carved out of the rock with a poorly preserved wall on its inside. The trench is four meters wide and a maximum of one meter deep. This trench also extends from north to south and then turns to the south-southeast.

Another 20 to 30 meters after this ditch, about 150 meters before the end of the spur, an inner, stone wall, which is partially in front of a ditch with an outer wall, crosses the plateau. This wall stretches 60 meters from the north-northwest to the south-southeast, and then turns to the east, where it accompanies the plateau edge for another 60 meters. The ditch with the outer wall is on the west side, against the adjoining mountain plateau. This wall is 8 meters wide at its base and 2.5 meters high from the bottom of the trench. Access to this inner area of ​​the complex is assumed to be in the north, as the wall here bends slightly inward.

literature

• Ingrid Burger-Segl, Walter E. Keller: Archaeological Hikes, Volume 3: Middle Altmühltal and Franconian Lake District . Verlag Walter E. Keller, Treuchtlingen 1993, ISBN 3-924828-58-X , pp. 28-30.
• Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Pappenheim: Wall installation . In: Konrad Spindler (edit.): Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany. Volume 15: Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen district - monuments and sites . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0504-3 , pp. 123-125.

Web links

• Alte Bürg on the site wandern-und-geschichte.de (with topographical overview map)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Source description: Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Pappenheim: Wallanlage . In: Konrad Spindler (edit.): Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany. Volume 15: Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen district - monuments and sites. P. 123ff.