Old Castle (Lauffen am Neckar)

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Old castle
Location of the old castle within the current development of Lauffen am Neckar

Location of the old castle within the current development of Lauffen am Neckar

Creation time : possibly 8th-9th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Burgstall, built over
Place: Lauffen am Neckar
Geographical location 49 ° 4 '34.1 "  N , 9 ° 9' 14"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 4 '34.1 "  N , 9 ° 9' 14"  E
Height: 176  m above sea level NN
Old Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Old castle
Overbuilt neck ditch, today forms the Grabengasse

The old castle , now called Kirchhof , is an abandoned spur castle in Lauffen am Neckar , a town in the Heilbronn district in Baden-Württemberg . The Franconian - Ottonian castle was on a mountain spur of the Lauffen Neckar breakthrough. In Franconian times the castle was a royal court , as such the scene of the Regiswindis legend , and it was probably the seat of the Counts of Lauffen before the construction of the Count's Castle on the Neckar Island . Over the centuries, the castle was incorporated into the development of the village of Lauffen . Its expansion can still be seen today from the building lines.

location

The Lauffener Neckarschlinge is the youngest loop of the Neckar that fell dry. The breakthrough occurred around 400 to 100 BC. At the point of the breakthrough, the Neckar separated the former Umlaufberg and created a 40 meter wide, now 14 meter elevated mountain tongue, the location of which was predestined for a castle. The 176  m above sea level Spornburg located NN enclosed an area of ​​around 1.2  hectares . On its eastern edge, towards the Neckar, was the Martinskirche, the predecessor of today's Regiswindiskirche . The village of Lauffen, located to the left of the Neckar, developed out of the castle.

history

The origins of the old castle in Lauffen are unknown, but it can be assumed that it was built in the middle of the 8th century or that an existing fortification was expanded during this time. Martinskirche, the predecessor of today's Regiswindiskirche, can also be dated to the middle of the 8th century. For the 9th century, Lauffen is documented as the location of a Frankish royal court, which is assumed to be within the castle complex, in documents from Ludwig the Pious from 822 and Ludwig the German from 845. Like the farms in Wimpfen and Heilbronn , the Lauffener Königshof was located on the strategically important route from the Middle Rhine along the Neckar to Alemannia , Ulm and Lake Constance .

According to the Regiswindis legend, a nobleman named Ernst - often equated with Count Ernst from the Nordgau - was enfeoffed with the castle by Ludwig the Pious in May 832, and his daughter Regiswindis is said to have been murdered here around the year 839.

Around the year 1000 the old castle was the center of Lauffen. The ownership structure at that time is unclear, but it is assumed that the ancestors of the Counts of Lauffen at least owned shares and were based here. In 1003, a document issued by Heinrich II for the Würzburg bishop Heinrich I explicitly mentions the castle as such in connection with a presumably failed establishment of a nunnery within the castle. Later, the Counts of Lauffen moved to the artificially created island in the middle of the Neckar Gorge - probably due to cramped conditions. After 1227, when the castle and the town to the right of the Neckar fell to the Staufers after the Counts of Lauffen died out , the diocese of Würzburg gained influence within the castle area. In the same year the construction of the Regiswindiskirche began as the new Lauffener parish church.

description

The old castle was not a castle in the sense of an aristocratic residence of the later Middle Ages. Instead, the fortified area was divided among various owners, including the church and various noble families. The fortification included the neck ditch , which secured the mountain spur to the west to the former Umlaufberg, as well as walls and a kennel north and south. Due to the elevated position above the Neckar, there were no other fortifications to the east apart from the retaining wall. The complex probably also had towers and gates, but no information has been passed on about them. It is assumed that the south-west corner in the area of ​​today's house at Grabenstrasse 6 was particularly well fortified and that there was once a gate at the entrance to Kirchbergstrasse. The bridge between the churchyard and the diaconate that is located here today is possibly a remnant of the battlements of a former gate.

Retaining wall below the Regiswindis Church

Further development

In the Middle Ages, the castle developed into a fortified town center within its walls. In 1537 there were already further entrances with the squadrons on the west and north sides in addition to the gates, but these could be defended. At the turn of the 18th century at the latest, the fortification should have been abandoned. A special feature is the neck ditch, which was vaulted around 1700 and is still preserved today, through which the Graben- and Berggasse run in a tunnel.

The houses on the north side are now on the former castle wall, as well as on the south side, where there are now gardens on the site of the Zwinger. Towards the Neckar, at the Regiswindiskirche, there is still a mighty retaining wall that characterizes the cityscape of Lauffen. In addition to the Regiswindis Church and Chapel and the churchyard, around 20 houses are located within the old castle grounds . No remains of the original structure have been preserved.

literature

  • Otfried Kies: The Merovingerburg in the village - the nucleus of Lauffen . In: Heimatbuch on the occasion of the city festival in 1984 . City of Lauffen a. N., Lauffen a. N. 1984, p. 103-118 .
  • Nicolai Knauer: The Grafenburg Lauffen am Neckar . In: Zabergäuvereins magazine . No. 3/4 , 2007, ZDB -ID 128133-1 , p. 1–24 (also special copy, N. Knauer, Heilbronn).
  • Hansmartin Schwarzmaier : The Reginswindis tradition of Lauffen. Royal politics and aristocratic rule on the central Neckar . In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine . tape 131 , 1983, pp. 163-198 .
  • Alois Schneider: The "Kirchhof" in Lauffen am Neckar Fortifications in a central location of the early and high Middle Ages. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. 44th year 2015, issue 4, pp. 226-231. ( denkmalpflege-bw.de PDF; 10.5 MB).