Old Castle (Neckarbischofsheim)

The old castle in Neckarbischofsheim

The old castle (also called the stone house ) in Neckarbischofsheim in the Rhein-Neckar district in Baden-Württemberg goes back to the town's medieval castle. The castle and later the palace were the seat of the Lords of Helmstatt . The building is owned by the municipality, which has a wedding room and a local museum there .

history

The castle goes back to a castle mentioned in 1274 and is the oldest surviving building in Neckarbischofsheim. Originally the castle and place were probably an imperial fiefdom , but appear in documents from the late 13th century as the Worms fiefdom of the Lords of Helmstatt . The oldest castle complex may have consisted of a residential tower surrounded by a circular wall. The curtain wall, on the other hand, was probably surrounded by water from the Rosenbach stream and marshy meadows. Later the castle was connected to farm buildings by a bridge, which was also walled in and surrounded by moats. Weiprecht I came from Helmstatt in 1378in the sole ownership of the castle and the place. His brother Raban III. or he expanded the castle and built the new stone house in place of the outer bailey , which was demolished in 1829 in favor of the new castle .

The castle got its present shape after Johann von Helmstatt acquired possession in Neckarbischofsheim, including extensive shares in the castle, when the Helmstatter inheritance was divided up in 1543. Together with his father-in-law, the Palatinate court master Philipp von Helmstatt , he acquired Alexander von Helmstatt's share of the castle in 1545 and another mansion in the area with the inner castle (so-called Alexanderburg ).

Wedding room in the knight's hall

The expansion of the core building of the castle began in 1546 and involved the addition of a side wing, a stair tower and the expansion of the knight's hall with an ornate bay window. The expansion of the castle into a residence was accompanied by a simultaneous expansion of the neighboring town church of St. Salvator . The representative buildings expressed the abundance of power and possessions that Philipp and Johann von Helmstatt held. The coat of arms of Philip von Helmstatt or the alliance coat of arms with his wife Margarethe von Neipperg can often be found on and in the castle. The alliance coat of arms on the stair tower with the motto Philipps Lust does a lot is particularly decorative .

The castle was initially a fourth floor higher, but it burned down in 1859. The transverse wing and the farm buildings were demolished, so that today the castle only consists of the free-standing core building. The piece of wall protruding behind the stair tower is probably the oldest component and probably goes back to the high medieval residential tower. Dendrochronological investigations on various types of wood in the building have resulted in a date to around 1368, so that essential parts of the renovation from the 14th century have been preserved inside.

View over the castle pond

The von Helmstatt family died out in the male line in 1952. The city of Neckarbischofsheim acquired the castle in 1975 and then extensively renovated it. In 1977 historical wall paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries were uncovered in the knight's hall . A depiction of the crucifixion from around 1480 suggests that the knight's hall was also used as a castle chapel for a time. The knight's hall is now used as a wedding room, and there is a local history museum in the remaining rooms of the building.

In the place of the former outer bailey is the New Castle , built in the 19th century, which is now a hotel. In the palace park there is also a magnificent Renaissance gate from 1590, which is attributed to the sculptors Adam Wagner or Jakob Müller from Heilbronn.

literature

• Villa Biscovesheim Neckarbischofsheim 988-1988 , ed. from the Association for Home Care, Neckarbischofsheim 1988

Web links

Commons : Altes Schloss, Neckarbischofsheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 33.3 "  N , 8 ° 57 ′ 33.5"  E