Altenburg (Hanau)

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Altenburg (Hanau-Mittelbuchen)
"Altenburg" ramparts near Hanau-Mittelbuchen, view along the eastern ramparts.

"Altenburg" ramparts near Hanau-Mittelbuchen, view along the eastern ramparts.

Alternative name (s): Alteburg, Kenzheim Castle
Creation time : before the 11th century
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Ramps in the area recognizable, ground monument
Geographical location 50 ° 9 '51.7 "  N , 8 ° 54' 13.1"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 9 '51.7 "  N , 8 ° 54' 13.1"  E
Height: 108  m above sea level NN
Altenburg (Hesse)
Altenburg
Site plan of the facility.
View into the northwest corner. In the foreground the small hill of the stone building, in the background the castle wall.
View from the inside of the gate. The incision in the wall is clearly visible.
View in the eastern ditch to the north, on the left the outer wall.
Detailed plan of the plant.

The Altenburg (also Alteburg , Buchenburg or old castle ) is a medieval hill fort of unknown class classification west of the Kinzigheimer Hof between Hanau and Bruchköbel in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse .

location

About 600 meters southwest of the state domain Kinzigheimer Hof (in the Bruchköbel district) are the remains of one of the earliest medieval castles in the Hanau region in the forest belonging to Hanau-Mittelbuchen ( Große Wald district ). The facility is located in a lowland southwest of a tributary of the Krebsbach , on the opposite side it is protected by a swamp area that runs through the forest in a depression from northwest to southeast.

history

No written sources are known about the castle itself. Due to the fact that the area belongs to the Büchertal office , a connection with the Lords of Buchen , predecessors of the Lords and Counts of Hanau , was assumed. This is why the facility was sometimes called Buchenburg earlier . Due to the geographical conditions, it seems more likely to be assigned to the castle of those of Buchen , a few kilometers to the west .

The connection to the Lords of Kensheim , a noble family that is mentioned many times around the Lords and Counts of Hanau and died out in the 16th century, seems more conclusive . The place Kinsheim or Kenesheim was first mentioned as a village in 1235 and last in 1392 and seems to have become deserted in the late Middle Ages . The estate remained. Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg acquired it in 1612 and it remained in their possession until the Hanau counts died out in 1736. Then it came as an inheritance to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . With the interruption of the Prussian period from 1866 until the end of the Second World War , the farm was owned by the Hessian state.

Due to the activities of the Hanau History Association , the first excavations took place on the object as early as 1856. More followed in 1874 and 1901/1905, the latter under Georg Wolff . In 1993, the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse recorded the site topographically.

investment

The Altenburg has an almost trapezoidal floor plan and its long sides are oriented almost north-south. The dimensions are 120 meters on the long sides and between 60 and 100 meters in the more or less east-west running flanks. This corresponds to an interior space of 0.53 hectares. A gate was located in the center of the north of the complex and can still be identified by the incision in the wall and the flanking elevations of the wall, on which there may have been wooden towers or a gate.

Fixed house

There are no traces of internal development. However, a stone building with a floor plan of 19 × 11 meters could be seen in the northwest corner within a slight elevation of about 25 centimeters. It had no basement and had foundations 1.80 meters thick. Wolff thought he recognized a Roman building. In more recent research, it is interpreted more as a permanent house , a form of construction that is documented in early aristocratic residences of the 9th and 10th centuries AD and was also common in the following two centuries. There are no finds from the foundation area.

To the east of the building up to the vicinity of the entrance, gravel was found that can be interpreted as courtyard paving. According to Wolff, it could also be detected in an adjacent section under the wall, which proves that the building in front of the wall existed in its last state of construction.

Rampart

The most prominent part of the complex that is still visible is the wall that surrounds it. The greatest preserved height is 1.50 meters on the outside, while the interior is only a maximum of 0.70 meters below the wall crown. This was necessary because of the damp, swampy terrain. Access was only possible via the somewhat drier north side, where the entrance was also verified. The wall reaches its greatest height at its northwestern corner near the stone building. Wolff recognized a double row of post holes there , in fact it was probably part of a wooden tower due to the almost square arrangement.

Outer wall

Another wall in front of the actual wall on the southern western flank is striking. It was initially viewed as the second outer wall. It is noticeable that it is flattened in the middle of the west side and appears irregular, as is the ditch at this point. It was concluded from this that the outer wall intended for defense was not completed and that the castle complex was abandoned during construction.

Another outer wall is faintly recognizable in the terrain on the south and east sides. However, this served to hold water against the lower terrain.

Trenches

In front of the wall, the system runs around a 10–15 meter wide ditch . It reached its greatest width on the north side. It can still be seen particularly well in the west and northeast of the complex. At some distance there is a swampy branch of the Krebsbach. This, together with the miscalculation of the outer wall, led to the erroneous assumption of a double ditch. In fact, this largely follows the natural height profile, while the Altenburg, for obvious reasons, occupies an area about one meter higher.

Residential podiums

About 400 meters west of the facility, Wolff found five roughly round hills, which were created with diameters between 10 and 20 meters in the swamp area there. Some of them can still be found, one was built over when a modern forest path was built. Ditches run around the hills, the excavated boggy soil was piled up inside to form a hill. Various recesses for posts show that there were wooden buildings on them. In these pits and the surrounding trenches, only very few finds were found, as was the case with the Altenburg. Wolff thought he recognized Roman terra sigillata and La Tène- period ceramics in it. He describes the hills as "residential podiums" and adds "These inhospitable dwellings also seem to have served the poor people temporarily as places of refuge in pre-Roman and perhaps late-Roman times" .

Dating

From today's perspective, Wolff's results must be questioned. Particularly for the pre-Roman ceramics mentioned, the clear dating is surprising, because the risk of confusion with later migrant ceramics is particularly high in the case of simple utility ceramics and there are hardly any comparable typologies.

The analysis of the finds did not make the dispute about the dating any easier; Roman pieces (terra sigillata and bricks) and - again by Wolff - ceramics from the Latène period were also found in the paving of the Altenburg. In contrast, there are Franconian ceramics from the moat and Merovingian grave finds from the area of ​​the Kinzigheimer Hof. In the case of La Tène ceramics, it seems likely that this is a misinterpretation. Roman finds could also have come here by chance from one of the two nearby Villae rusticae . A review of the facts will hardly be possible, because the finds described by Ferdinand Kutsch in the museum's catalog were, like almost all prewar finds in the old district of Hanau, burned in the Second World War. For an interpretation as a fort, the location near an earlier section of the Limes would speak for itself, which, as Wolff already suspected, became known through new discoveries of two small Roman fort in Hanau-Mittelbuchen. But the construction (Sohlgraben, stone house in the northwest corner) seems to contradict this.

Wolff also referred to the discovery of a Roman aqueduct between the Altenburg and the Kinzigheimer Hof. New discoveries of this line during the construction of the A 66 motorway in 1980/81 were subjected to thermoluminescence dating , which made it possible to date it to the 16th or 17th century. The pipes probably carried water from the hill near Mittelbuchen in the direction of Hanau's old town.

The finds also prove the discussed chronological classification of the complex: fortifications from the La Tène period, Roman fort, refugee castle from the Migration Period or (early) medieval aristocratic residence. Today's research tends with great caution to the early to high medieval origins. The assumption of a continuity from prehistory to the Middle Ages, as was assumed in older literature, can not be substantiated by the few and mostly insufficiently stratified finds. More precise information could only be provided by new excavations, which, however, are not to be expected for the time being.

Monument protection

The castle grounds and the monuments in the area are cultural monuments according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . All research, be it excavations, prospecting, digging, targeted collections of finds and changes to the inventory are subject to approval. Accidental finds are to be reported to the monument authorities.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Worbs 1988 (see literature) p. 357 u. 360
  2. ^ For example, a Wigand von Kinsheim 1237 as Burgmann zu Hanau, Zimmermann 1919 (see literature), p. 80.
  3. ↑ Information from Zimmermann, p. 910.
  4. ↑ The description of the system essentially follows the information from Herrmann 1994 (see literature).
  5. ↑ a b c Wolff 1913, page 68
  6. ↑ a b Herrmann 1994, page 5.
  7. ↑ For the type, function and dating of such buildings see Dieter Barz: The “Feste Haus” - an early type of building of the Adelsburg. In: Castles and Palaces . Vol. 34, No. 1, 1993, pages 10-24.
  8. ↑ a b Herrmann 1994, p. 7.
  9. ↑ Wolff 1913, p. 69.
  10. ↑ Jüngling 1988, p. 235, with further literature.
  11. ↑ Kutsch 1925, p. 9f.
  12. ↑ M. Reuter, The Roman small fort of Hanau-Mittelbuchen and the course of the eastern Wetterau Limes under Domitian. In: E. Schallmayer (Ed.), Limes Imperii Romani . Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Saalburg-Schriften 6, 2004 (Bad Homburg vdH 2004), pp. 97–106. Likewise Internet source ( memento from November 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
  13. ↑ Dietrich 1985.
  14. ↑ Herrmann 1994 p. 1

literature

  • Reinhard Dietrich: The water pipes at the Kinzigheimer Hof and at Marköbel. Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 29, 1985, pp. 289-298.
  • Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann : The Altenburg near the Kinzigheimer Hof. Leaflet to the medieval ramparts near Hanau-Mittelbuchen, Main-Kinzig-Kreis . Archaeological monuments in Hessen 114, Wiesbaden 1994. ISBN 3-89822-115-6
  • 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. 392.
  • Peter Jüngling : During the migration period in the Hanau area . Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 29, 1985, p. 213ff.
  • Ferdinand Kutsch: Hanau. 1st part , Frankfurt a. M., 1923; Part 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1926 (catalogs of west and south German antiquity collections 5).
  • Christian Ottersbach : The castles of the lords and counts of Hanau (1166–1642). Studies on castle politics and castle architecture of a noble house. Ed .: Magistrate of the Brothers Grimm City of Hanau and Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 eV , Hanau 2018, ISBN 978-3-935395-29-8 (=  Hanauer Geschichtsblätter vol. 51 ), p. 329.
  • Georg Wolff : Excavations on the "castle" at the Kinzigheimer Hofe. Report of the RGK 2, 1905 (1906), pp. 80-82.
  • Georg Wolff: The southern Wetterau in prehistoric and early historical times with an archaeological find map . Frankfurt a. M. 1913, pp. 66-71.
  • Bert Worbs: Buchen - Dorfelden - Windecken . Early castles in the county of Hanau. Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 30, 1988, pp. 347-404.
  • Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country . Hanau 1919. 3rd edition, ND 1978. ISBN 3-87627-243-2

Web links

Commons : Altenburg (Hanau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files