Old Castle (Bad Berka)
| Old castle | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creation time : | 1280 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Standing position : | gentry | |
| Place: | Bad Berka | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 54 '39.6 " N , 11 ° 17' 8.5" E | |
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The old castle is an abandoned hilltop castle on the Ilm in the town of Bad Berka in the Weimarer Land district in Thuringia .
The castle is located north of the old town on the Bergsporn Schlossberg in a loop of the river Ilm.
history
The castle was built around 1280 by Count Hermann von Mansfeld - Osterfeld and replaced the "Edelhof" moated castle (occupied as the seat of the Berka counts in 1248) of the Counts of Berka in the city center , which had been destroyed a few years earlier . In 1272 the family of the Counts of Berka died out. In 1422 the lords of Witzleben bought the hilltop castle and the rule of Bad Berka and took their seat here. In 1604 and 1608 the three hereditary brothers von Witzleben sold their property in Berka with the castle to the dukes of Saxe-Weimar ; During this time, the complex began to fall into disrepair, and in 1633 it was already described as "desolate". Stones from the former hilltop castle were used in the construction of the armory in Bad Berka in the 1730s, as well as in the construction of a mill in Hetschburg. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the area was made accessible to spa guests as a hiking area. In 1993 these paths were restored. In the area of the core castle, a few remains of the wall (including a longer piece of outer wall with a covered (internal) toilet shaft ), a well and the huge moat around core castle and the slightly lower outer bailey area have been preserved. The size of the castle area and the huge moats still bear witness to the importance of this former castle as a lordly count castle.
The following text in double brackets presumably describes the findings of the former Edelhof moated castle in Bad Berka: ((In 1905 the foundation walls of the castle tower were found with a wall thickness of six meters. Above ground nothing has survived.))
New addendum to the history of the "Edelhof" moated castle: Documented as the seat of the Berka counts in 1248. After the successful siege of the Edelhof moated castle in 1277 by Landgrave Albrecht, the moated castle was abandoned and the new hilltop castle, now known as the "Old Castle" (Bad Berka), was built to replace it. The county Berka was from 1272 no longer the sole possession of the Counts of Berka. In 1275 the rule was then wholly owned by Count Hermann von Mansfeld - Osterfeld .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archaeological hiking trail: The Middle Ilm Valley. Thuringian State Office for Archaeological Monument Preservation, Weimar 1997.
- ^ Ludwig Häfner: Bad Berka and its historical castle hill. Published on bad-berka.de (PDF) , accessed on August 15, 2017.
- ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces. Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , p. 65.
- ↑ Archaeological hiking trail: The Middle Ilm Valley. Thuringian State Office for Archaeological Monument Preservation, Weimar 1997.
- ↑ Archaeological hiking trail: The Middle Ilm Valley. Thuringian State Office for State Office for Archaeological Monument Preservation, Weimar 1997.
- ↑ County of Berka . in the German language Wikipedia