Old Castle (Nieder-Beerbach)

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Old castle
probable position of the castle stable in the spur position

probable position of the castle stable in the spur position

Creation time : 10th to 11th centuries
Castle type : Höhenburg, Spornburg
Conservation status: Burgstall
Standing position : unknown
Place: Mühltal - Nieder-Beerbach
Geographical location 49 ° 47 '28.3 "  N , 8 ° 40' 19.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 47 '28.3 "  N , 8 ° 40' 19.8"  E
Height: 266  m above sea level NHN
Old Castle (Hesse)
Old castle

The Old Castle is an early medieval completely Outbound Spur castle in Mühltaler district of Nieder-Beerbach in Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse .

Geographical location

The old castle stood around 250 m west-northwest of the village church of Nieder-Beerbach on the Altenburgkopf mountain spur ( 266  m above sea  level ), which is on the east side of the Schlossberg of Frankenstein Castle .

description

View from Burgstall Alte Burg to today's Nieder-Beerbach, on the right the church

The castle, of which no remains were found, probably extended to the present church. It is assumed that the darkbach desert, mentioned in 1662, was connected to the castle. The emergence is placed in the middle of the 11th century. The space and location allow the conclusion that the location could not accommodate more than one residential tower . Since only remains of the foundations were found, a wooden castle can be assumed.

If the castle, like the other two castles in the Beerbachtal, the Old Castle and the Schlösschen Ober-Beerbach , can be seen as the fortresses of Frankenstein Castle , the abandonment and decline can be set in the 13th century, since the middle of the 13th century the new main castle had been built on the mountain top. According to Rainer Kunze, the path around the spur was the former moat , which was mentioned in the 19th century.

More recently, historians have assumed that the castles in the Beerbach Valley below the Frankenstein can be regarded as predecessor castles and possibly the first ancestral seat of the presumed Count von Beerbach. However , it is not certain whether the comes de Berebach can be assigned here as Carolingian main counts.

The connections to the lords of Weiterstadt and, as a result of the marriage of Elisabeth von Weiterstadt with Conradus dictus Reis de Brueberc, a respected succession to the lords of Breuberg are not guaranteed.

Documentary evidence of the owner of the castle, the exact time and appearance could not be documented exactly up to the present.

Interesting

The spring outlet above the old castle

The old field mark "old castle" is called " Die áld Bejje " in Nieder-Beerbach vernacular (although the dialect " Bejje " is not known outside Nieder-Beerbach).

The former building is said to have been connected not only to Frankenstein Castle via underground passages, but also to the Nieder-Beerbach Church and the former Martin's Chapel in Bessungen . In these corridors there is said to be a great treasure trove of gold , silver and wine . This meant that treasure hunters tried several times on the mountain spur. For example, at Whitsun in 1763, when a large group, allegedly with the permission of Ludwig VIII of Hessen-Darmstadt , went on a treasure hunt and ransacked the area. The search was only stopped when a man was killed in the collapse of a tunnel. Similar attempts of 1770/71 and 1787 were equally unsuccessful. Only fragments of the wall to the church and a water source located there were found.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 2nd Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 1995, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 . P. 527 f.
  • Rainer Kunze: Beerbach, Breuberg, Frankenstein: Exemplary in the northern Odenwald , In: History sheets for the Bergstrasse district, Vol. 38 (2005), pp. 25–51
  • Thomas Steinmetz: Early low castles in southern Hesse and adjacent areas. Ober-Kainsbach 1989,
  • Peter and Marion Sattler: Burgen und Schlösser im Odenwald , Verlag Edition Diesbach, Weinheim 2004, p. 59

Web links

Commons : Alte Burg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Eduard Scriba : History of the former castle and rule Frankenstein and their masters , 1853
  2. ↑ www.muehltal-odenwald.de - The treasure tombs of the old castle