Old Castle (Kleinwallstadt)

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Old castle
Today's south-western staircase to the Old Castle with a hint of the former curtain wall and information board (August 2012)

Today's south-western staircase to the Old Castle with a hint of the former curtain wall and information board (August 2012)

Alternative name (s): Waleburc, Wallberg, Waleberg, Waleburg
Creation time : Middle 13th century (first documented mention in 1230)
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Disappeared, neck ditch, wall remains and buildings excavated and restored, information board
Standing position : Niederadel, probably later Archdiocese of Mainz
Construction: Small ashlar masonry, Opus Spicatum masonry, light sandstone, half-timbered buildings
Place: Kleinwallstadt , "Waldflur Am Alten Schloss"
Geographical location 49 ° 52 '29 "  N , 9 ° 11' 20.2"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 52 '29 "  N , 9 ° 11' 20.2"  E
Height: 195  m above sea level NN
Old Castle (Bavaria)
Old castle

The Old Castle (according to old records actually Wallenberg, whales mountain or Waleburc ), formerly incorrectly as Burgwald mountain interpreted, is an Outbound high medieval castle . The since 2006 excavated, former hilltop castle is located in the eastern part of the district of the market town of Kleinwallstadt in the district of Miltenberg in Lower Franconia in Bavaria .

Geographical location

Panoramic view of the castle plateau from the north (August 2012)
The excavated and partially reconstructed enclosure wall of the castle was up to ten meters high and one to two meters wide on the spur side. It was bricked up on both sides and filled with stone. Above was a brick roof with battlements . The foundation walls of one of the two permanent houses , bricked below and half-timbered above, are indicated.
View from the east (from the outer bailey) to the castle plateau (spur)
The castle hill with steep flanks from the north
Modern (stairs) and old spiral (medieval) ascent to the castle. On the right in the picture the incision of the castle moat as a southern closure

The castle site of the Spornburg is about two kilometers east of Kleinwallstadt and about 2.3 kilometers south of Dornau in the Kleinwallstädter community forest in the Lämmert district ("Waldflur Am Alten Schloss", field number 9805). It is located in the direction of Hausen on a spur of the red sandstone of the low mountain range Spessart , whose surrounding streams drain to the nearby Main . The surrounding heights form the rise of the Spessart in the western area of ​​the Mainviereck. The mountain spur of around 290  m above sea level. NN high mountain Kirchhöhe reaches absolute heights of 197  m above sea level in the upper castle . NN . It is about 30 to 40 meters above the level of the sharply cut natural moats Saugegraben (northern moat) and Schlossgraben (southern moat). Both go west of the castle site into the valley of the Kohlplatzgraben that flows south to the Main ; the bush ditch that flows in from the northeast gives the stream its name.

The mountain spur, which tapered to the southwest, was well secured by the sharply cut small valleys in the north, west and south. The north-eastern side of the mountain was secured by a neck ditch and a fortified outer bailey to the mountain. The Burgstall is located around 1800 meters east of the Catholic parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Kleinwallstadt and around 20 kilometers north of the parish church of Miltenberg . Coming from Kleinwallstadt, the Way of the Cross passes on the opposite western slope side of the castle site , which leads as a medieval pilgrimage to the chapel north of the Plattenberg.

history

Since there were only a few and scattered documents on the history of the castle site, which only recently led to today's findings at the end of the 20th century, there were still various assumptions about the time of construction and about the builder until a few years ago the castle itself. Today a clear distinction is made between the castle names Waldenberg and Waleberg ( Waleburc ), which were previously thought to be identical . The various, partly contradicting, partly complementary investigations and results by S. Grathoff from 2005, W. Hartmann from 1997 and 2000 and T. Steinmetz from 1998 are now obsolete or have to be supplemented or rewritten.

The Burgwald mountain can today on the mountain monastery in Hoesbach - Rottenberg be localized. This was within "throwing distance" of the presumed state honor on the Graefenberg and was the castle and counter-castle between Kurmainz and the Rieneck house .

The alleged connections to the Focke von Wallstatt family, which were brought up around 1932 by the local writer and beneficiary Kilian , are now considered to be refuted.

Waleberg Castle, first documented for 1230 and acquired by Kurmainz , after which Konrad von Waleberg named himself from 1225 , can be equated with today's old name Old Castle . The name Waleberg coincides with the earlier spelling Walestat for (small) Wallstadt. The field name Wallburger Äcker is also passed down near the castle . In addition, there are further confirmations for the equation of the Old Castle - Waleberg Castle .

The facility was once built on a mountain spur, well secured between two deep natural trenches (north side and east-south side). The spur side to the west drops steeply into a narrow, water-bearing valley running in a north-south direction. On the mountain side, a ditch dug in front of the outer bailey offered protection from enemies to the east. The exposed location made it possible to control important trade and traffic routes in the Main valley and in the Hochspessart at the same time.

According to the archaeological findings of 2010, the castle was only built shortly before the middle of the 13th century . The ring wall up to ten meters high towards the west and the protective structures of the outer bailey in the east were completed. The castle was only partially expanded within the wall. The findings and finds of the excavations showed that the entire complex was systematically destroyed again in the second third of the 13th century before it was completed. Systematic because the excavations have shown that the inner half-timbered buildings were deliberately set on fire and that the defensive walls were deliberately put down by digging under them. The disputes should be seen in the conflict between the possessions of the Kurmainz around Aschaffenburg and the possessions of the Hohenstaufen along the Main valley on the one hand and the subsequent disputes in Mainz in conflict with the attempt to territorial expansion of the possessions of the Lords of Rieneck from the Spessart towards the Main on the other .

On the oldest Spessart map, the Pfinzing map from 1594, the castle is no longer shown, but is already shown as a castle stables overgrown by the forest.

Exposed remains of the wall existed until the end of the 18th century. Some of the stones were used to build houses in Kleinwallstadt. At the beginning of the 20th century, no more exposed remains were visible. They were only rudimentarily exposed again through multiple robbery and unauthorized excavations . After unauthorized excavations by citizens interested in history between 1990 and 1992, intensive archaeologically secured excavations were carried out by the Spessart project between 2006 and 2010.

Today the castle stables are registered as a floor monument D-6-6121-0043 high to late medieval castle stables "Old Castle" by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation .

Excavation results 2006–2010

In 2006 and 2007, as well as further times in 2009 and 2010, sections of the high medieval aristocratic seat were archaeologically researched.

The work was a joint project of the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Kleinwallstadt eV of Markt Kleinwallstadt and the Archaeological Spessart Project . A not inconsiderable amount of funding was raised by the Lower Franconian District Cultural Foundation .

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Burgstall was the scene of several unauthorized excavations and digs. In the case of the old Kleinwallstadt Castle , a new excavation was urgently needed in order to take a closer look at the activities carried out by enthusiastic local researchers at the castle from 1990 to 1992. In the meantime, the knowledge gained from the excavated and restored castle stable on the history of the building and everyday life in the castle can be compared with the excavation results of other castles in the Spessart region .

The aim of the excavations approved and supported by the State Monuments Office was to record as precisely as possible the history of the complex , which had already been processed by the historians, also from the archaeological side. This enabled the knowledge that was previously only supported by a few documents to be underpinned and enriched by finds relating to everyday history. With the help of these excavation results, it is possible to take measures for the sustainable protection of this regionally and nationally important soil monument . After the wall renovation has been completed, further scientific processing of the finds is planned for the following years.

From an archaeological point of view, the ascertained findings allow the following view:

  • The old castle was not a castle that grew out of the early Middle Ages and developed from a lower nobility castle such as the Ketzelburg style in Haibach . A previous system cannot be proven.
  • The homogeneous finds and the uniformity of the findings, especially the curtain wall, show that the castle was built in one go. The erection was very effective and should have happened very quickly.
  • A comparatively high capital was required to build the castle, as building materials (bricks, mortar and bricks) had to be transported over long distances. Construction work (by skilled workers such as hauliers , stonemasons , bricklayers , quarry operators ) could not be carried out solely within the framework of the feudal obligation of the local subjects. For such a high investment, the archbishop of Mainz , the Counts of Rieneck or both followers are most likely to come into question as builders .
  • The castle was only in operation for a short time. The external expansion was almost complete (high perimeter wall with a tile-roofed walkway and an access situation in the form of the corridor-like ramp that spirals ran two-thirds of the castle, as well as a bulwark with moat , was the spur side next to the fortified bailey additional fusing) so the interior of the castle is only partially completed (construction of a half-timbered house instead of a residential tower that was probably originally planned , only partial paving of the inner courtyard, no stone buildings, just a second half-timbered building on weak foundations).
  • Ceramic finds, cup tiles, other finds such as a spur, aquamanile , buckles , nails, belt trimmings, spindle whorls , combs and brass applications date the time of construction, use and destruction of the castle relatively precisely to the second third of the 13th century. There are no finds that can be dated before or after.
  • The massive destruction of the castle that was found shows parallels to the castle on the Graefenberg near Hösbach - Rottenberg . Kleinwallstädter Burg was systematically and extremely carefully removed from the map . The destruction was so profound that it was almost impossible to restart the plant. The foundation of the curtain wall was completely collapsed at critical points. This was not an arbitrary destruction, but an engineering achievement with a well thought-out concept. The demolition of the castle took place in two phases: In the first phase, the wooden superstructures were destroyed. There was no demolition, but everything that could be used (remnants of tiled stoves , valuable window glass and other furniture are evidence of the high quality of the buildings at the time) was irretrievably destroyed by fire . In the second phase, the outer walls were laid down so completely that literally no stone remained on the other. It can be assumed that immediate or long-term repopulation of the area should be prevented. The archaeological findings also allow the conclusion that the destruction did not take place in the course of a siege , otherwise the chronological sequence of systematic burning and laying down of the walls could not have been proven.

The razing of the castle and other systematically destroyed castles in the region are visible consequences of the defeat of the Rieneckers against the diocese of Mainz on the western edge of the Spessart. Further research is currently required in order to be able to definitively determine the history of the castle and, above all, that of its owners.

architecture

View of the Burgstall area from today's entrance area
Restored foundation wall of one of the castle buildings, which was leaned against the castle wall towards the northeast

As the castle was only over the short period of less than a century, the basic structure (was enclosing wall , Festival House) built already completed, a further expansion ( towers , stone Palas , functional building) but was omitted and could not be detected in the two excavation campaigns become. The building was made of white sandstone , as found in Hausen to the east . The excavations also showed that the outer bailey was inhabited .

The Waleburc was divided into a core castle located on the southwestern tip of the spur and a bailey to the east in front of it. The roughly square castle site is protected on its west, north and south sides by the steep slope of the terrain into small valleys, on the east side of the Spornkuppe the fore area rises to the summit of the mountain Kirchhöhe .

The outer bailey is on a saddle between the core bailey on the Spornkuppe and the rising terrain in the east. This castle area was about 90 meters long and 50 meters wide. The east side of the outer bailey, the former access side to the castle, is secured by a neck ditch running from north to south , which is ten meters wide and 3.5 meters deep. Today a forest path runs through this ditch. On its inside, a wall one meter high and three meters wide was built up. Further traces of the former development of the outer bailey were no longer visible above ground until the excavations in the 2000s.

The core castle, which was roughly circular in its ground plan , had a diameter of 46 meters and was surrounded by a polygonal circular wall. It was on a crest about three feet above the saddle. On the east side of the main castle there is a two-meter-high and three-meter-wide wall above the one-meter-high embankment - the remnants of the crumbling curtain wall. On the north and south sides, the main castle is accompanied by a terrace about five meters lower and six meters wide; this is missing on the west side.

In the area of ​​the main castle there are still remains of the curtain wall and a square building on the east side. The double-shell masonry consists of small cuboids with a filling masonry made of Opus spicatum (herringbone masonry ).

Todays use

Hardly built - already destroyed. Title of the information board with information on the history of the castle and excavation results

After the excavations from 2006 to 2010, parts of the defensive wall and remains of the foundations inside the castle were restored and partially rebuilt. A large information board on the findings and interpretations was set up. The area and its surroundings are accessible and give a clear idea of ​​the castle building and the conflicts in the region in the Middle Ages . The multi-panel forest educational path, which is laid out like a tour around the castle, is suitable for this .

literature

  • Harald Rosmanitz: Castle research in the Spessart: the "Old Castle" in Kleinwallstadt . In: Contributions to archeology in Lower Franconia. (= Mainfränkische Studien. Volume 77). Büchenbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-933474-54-4 , pp. 243-286.
  • Harald Rosmanitz, Christine Reichert: The "Old Castle" near Kleinwallstadt am Untermain. In: Georg Ulrich Großmann (Ed.): The castle at the time of the Renaissance. Research on castles and palaces. (= Research on castles and palaces. Volume 13). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-422-07023-3 , pp. 213-225 (see www.baufachinformation.de )
  • Wolfgang Hartmann: The "Old Castle" near Kleinwallstadt, On the identity and history of a medieval castle stable. In: Spessart. June 2010, pp. 6-11.

Literature without considering recent excavations

  • Thomas Steinmetz: Castles in the Odenwald . Verlag Ellen Schmid, Brensbach 1998, ISBN 3-931529-02-9 , pp. 49-50.
  • Björn-Uwe Abels : The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia . (= Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory, series B, volume 6). Verlag Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz 1979, ISBN 3-7847-5306-X , p. 136.

Web links

Commons : Old Castle  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation: Monuments in Bavaria: Volume VI: Lower Franconia , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-486-52397-X , p. 226
  2. ^ Location of the Burgstall in the Bavaria Atlas
  3. ^ After Thomas Steinmetz: Castles in the Odenwald. P. 49 f: Waldenberg Castle was built shortly after 1183 by Archbishop Konrad I von Wittelsbach . When Konrad returned from exile that year and began his second term as archbishop, he complained that, among other things, there was a castle built by Vice-Dominus Konrad over Aschaffenburg. It was about the castle Kugelberg in the Aschaff Valley east of Aschaffenburg, opposite Goldbach, which was also lost . Waldenberg Castle was to serve as a counter-castle to this and to the Klingenburg upstream of the Main . The castles Waldenberg and Kugelberg were destroyed as early as the 13th century, when the Archbishops of the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Counts of Rieneck came to a conflict about dominance in the western Spessart , from which Bishop Werner von Eppstein emerged victorious. These assumptions are no longer considered correct today, as archaeological findings indicate that construction did not begin until the middle of the 13th century.
  4. ↑ For literature see:
    • Stefan Grathoff: Archbishop's castles of Mainz. Acquisition, function of lordship using the example of the Archbishops of Mainz in the High and Late Middle Ages. (Historical geography 58). Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08240-9 .
    • Wolfgang Hartmann: On the history of the Spessart castles Waldenberg and Kugelberg and their masters . In: Aschaffenburger Jahrbuch 19, 1997, p. 9 ff.
    • Thomas Steinmetz: Castles in the Odenwald. Brensbach 1998, ISBN 3-931529-02-9 .
    • Wolfgang Hartmann: Waldenberg, sunken castle near Kleinwallstadt. Here an archbishop from the House of Wittelsbach stood up to Emperor Barbarossa. In: Spessart. October 2000, p. 9 ff.
    The various older theories and structures of thought will not be discussed here.
  5. ↑ Interestingly, the Counts of Rieneck are derived from a Gerhard, Burgrave of Mainz, at the end of the 11th century. One of Gerhard's daughters married Count Arnold von Loon . The Counts of Loon-Rieneck formed a branch of the descendants from this connection. The name Graf von Rieneck is attested for the first time for Ludwig I von Loon in a document dated to 1157. The name "Rieneck" comes from the Palatinate Rheineck on the Rhine and was probably intended to illustrate the efforts of the Counts of Loon-Rieneck to claim this Palatinate for themselves. There is evidence of a distant relationship between the Loon and Rheineck families. However, this is not yet a sufficient basis for ownership or name change. Research today suspects that there must have been closer ties in the form of marriages between the two houses, but these cannot be archived. See also: T. Ruf: The Counts of Rieneck. Genealogy and territorial formation I / II. Genealogy 1085 to 1559 and eras of territorial formation. Mainfränkische Studien 32/1, Würzburg, 1984 (therein: I. S. 14 and II. S. 29, 31 ff.)
  6. ↑ These wrong conclusions are unfortunately still used today, see for example at maintouren.de ; the historical background can be read on spessartprojekt.de ( memento from October 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) .
  7. ↑ List of monuments for Kleinwallstadt (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 133 kB)
  8. ↑ http://www.spessartprojekt.de/ spessartprojekt.de
  9. ↑ Björn-Uwe Abels: The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia. 1979, p. 136.
  10. ↑ Educational forest trail - Kleinwallstadt market. In: kleinwallstadt.de. February 8, 2019, accessed January 21, 2019 .