Asseburg (castle)
| Asseburg | ||
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 Ruins of the Asseburg |
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| Creation time : | between 1218 and 1223 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Wittmar | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 8 '21.7 " N , 10 ° 38' 6.8" E | |
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The Asseburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle on a narrow ridge of the Asse ridge not far from Wolfenbüttel . The castle was built between 1218 and 1223 under Gunzelin von Wolfenbüttel as a Ganerbeburg . In terms of dimensions, it was the largest hilltop castle in northern Germany and was considered impregnable. The Asseburg has been in ruins since 1492, as it was abandoned and set on fire by its own castle crew in the course of a feud .
Building description
The ruins of the Asseburg are located in the area of the municipality of Wittmar on the southern ridge of the Asse, the slopes of which drop steeply around 100 meters in this area. With a floor area of 7,200 square meters, the approximately 180 meters long and 50 meters wide Asseburg was one of the largest medieval castles in northern Germany. Five courtyards, one behind the other, secured by gates and transverse walls, made them a section castle . The entrance on the northwest side was secured by a kennel . The castle had three towers and a cistern . The outer apron was secured on the narrow side by mighty walls and deep trenches. There was an outer bailey below the main castle . In its time, the most modern section castle was considered impregnable.
history
Castle building
The construction of the Asseburg initially caused difficulties for the builder Gunzelin von Wolfenbüttel. As a representative of the Staufer faction, he put them in hostile Guelph territory. It was also built on the Gandersheim monastery grounds . The abbess Mechthild von Wohldenberg complained about the violation of property rights in 1220 with Pope Honorius III. He commissioned local bishops to take action against the building and even demanded that the castle be demolished. However, the builder Gunzelin, as a powerful personality of the empire, defied this saying and completed the complex.
Builders
The hill fort, which is easy to defend, was initially a castle heirs to several owners. The builders were Gunzelin von Wolfenbüttel (1187–1254), his son Burchard, Haold von Biewende and other no longer known people from the Hildesheim and Halberstadt areas. Gunzelin was out of service team of Guelph ascended to the imperial ministerials. Under the Guelph Emperor Otto IV, he held the court office of the custodian . In 1206 he took part in the unsuccessful siege against Lichtenberg Castle near Salzgitter. After the emperor's death in 1218, he submitted to the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich II. With the construction of the castle, Gunzelin established himself as a ruler in the region.
Sieges
1254
In 1254, the Asseburg was besieged by Albrecht the Great for three years in vain by the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Gunzelin's eldest son Burchard (Busso), who called himself " von der Asseburg ", defended it tenaciously. The Braunschweiger rhyming chronicle , which was written at the end of the 13th century, reports on the siege of 1254 in lines 8011–8013:
| Her leyz ouch buven groze werch, | He also had great works built, | ||
| zve hus dhavor, dhen Rokesberch | two houses in front of it, the Rockesberg | ||
| and dhen Lurenberch vil starc | and the Lurenberg, very strong |
According to this, Albrecht I, as besiegers, had a hill built on the Rockesberg and the Lurenberg in order to conquer the castle with their help. Since no support was evident, the castle was handed over to Westphalia in negotiations with Duke Albrecht in the winter of 1258 for 400 gold marks and for free withdrawal . Until 1330 it remained in the ducal possession as one of the strongest state castles . Financial difficulties in the duchy meant that the castle became the property of the city of Braunschweig as a lien. The background was to secure long-distance trade routes in the city. Below the castle at the foot of the Asse ran an important trade and military route between the Rhine and the Elbe. The course of the trade route led among other things via Braunschweig , Wolfenbüttel and Halberstadt to Leipzig , and corresponds to today's B 79 .
1492
In 1492 the Brunswick Duke Heinrich the Elder demanded all sovereign rights and possessions, including Asseburg, from the city of Brunswick after an inheritance was divided. Since the city council refused, the duke and his army marched out. The Asseburg was seen as difficult to defend because of the lack of water and the distance to Braunschweig. Therefore, the Brunswick castle crew withdrew and started a fire on August 12, 1492. The fortress, which was never conquered, is said to have burned for three days.
ruin
The Asseburg has been in ruins since its fire in 1492, the masonry of which has deteriorated due to the weather. The residents of the surrounding villages also got stone material from the weir system for their houses. Today there are still individual remains of the wall and the lower areas of towers.
In 1733 an event brought the castle ruins into the public eye for a short time: On June 14th, a wedding party went on an afternoon excursion to the Assewald to have a picnic at the castle ruins. It was about the marriage of Princess Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern from Salzdahlum Castle to Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia (later known as "Old Fritz").
Archaeological research
The “Assegesellschaft” carried out a limited archaeological excavation on the castle grounds in 1892, the results of which are not documented. The association is keen to research the importance of this extensive fortification. She also carries out all security and renovation work.
In 2001, the castle specialists of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation Hans-Wilhelm Heine and a representative of the district archeology of the Wolfenbüttel district began searching for the previously forgotten entrenchments . There were no remains of the earlier ski jump on the Lurenberg, as it was built over by a lookout tower. The ski jump on the Rockesberg is a rectangular facility with sides of 120 × 40 meters, which has two section trenches. In 2006 a prospection with metal detectors was carried out in the area of the ski jump . This led to the discovery of knives, horseshoes, parts of equestrian equipment and a large number of crossbow bolts . These objects are attributed to the siege between 1255 and 1258. Due to their location, the crossbow bolts are attributed to the castle crew who fired them in the direction of the Rockesberg ski jump in the event of failures . The investigations in 2006 led to the discovery of a platform between the Rockesberg ski jump and the Asseburg, which was worked into the ground. It is believed that it was a site preparation for the erection of a blide with which the castle should be shot at.
literature
- Hans Adolf Schultz : Castles and palaces of the Braunschweiger country The Asseburg . Waisenhaus-Verlag, Braunschweig 1980, ISBN 3-87884-012-8 .
- On the way to the ducal residence Wolfenbüttel in the Middle Ages . In: Ulrich Schwarz (Ed.): Sources and research on the history of Braunschweig . tape 40 . Appelhans, Braunschweig 2003, ISBN 3-930292-86-6 .
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-219-4 .
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The ruins of the Asseburg , pp. 116–117, in: If stones could talk , Volume III, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1995, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 .
- Martin Oppermann: The Rockesberg. Her leyz ouch buven groze werch. in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , Vol. 17. Oldenburg 2014, pp. 80–83
Web links
- Entry by Gudrun Pischke zu Asseburg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Description of the location and pictures on the Braunschweig-Ostfalen region website
- Description at burgenwelt.de
- Description from the Asse local authority and tourist office
- Historical reconstruction drawing
- Description at Braunschweigische Landschaft