Benno pulpit
The Bennokanzel is a mountain spur on the northeast bank of the Elbe in the Proschwitz district opposite the Albrechtsburg in Meißen , which is primarily known as a lookout point. It carries the remains of a recently recognized castle of the 11th / 12th centuries. Century.
description
The Bennokanzel is an offshoot of the Bocksberg, a mighty granite stick with a height of 170.3 m. The west-facing spur is bounded in the north by the sharply cut Kerbtal of the Knorrgrund and drops steeply to the Elbe in the south. This is the result of a quarry operation on the south side from the first half of the 20th century and the construction of the Elbe Valley Road running along the Elbe in 1937.
The spur bears the remains of former fortifications. Shortly before it merges into the broad plateau in the east, a natural ridge was used to separate the spur with a wide ditch carved into the rock. This was once much deeper, but has now been partially filled in in favor of a path with an earth dam supported by dry stone walls. Immediately to the west of the trench is a rock that may have been raised with a wall. Behind it extends the elongated inner surface that is protected in this way, which was originally much larger and of which only a narrow strip in the north has now been preserved.
The field name probably refers to Bishop Benno von Meißen , who worked in the late 11th and early 12th centuries , but without any direct historical connection to his person. There are no written certificates for this facility.
Research history and dating
In 1984 the surveyor Thomas Gerlach discovered the site findings. In the following decades a number of ceramic fragments were recovered from the preserved inner surface and the northern slope during repeated site visits. Among the slightly more than 60 finds that are now available are, in addition to some prehistoric, probably Bronze Age pieces and atypical prehistoric wall fragments, only eight finds that allow a more precise chronological classification and were first presented in 2008. The finds, which belong to the ceramics of the Leipzig group , or at least resemble them, bear the ornamentation characteristic of late Slavic ceramics with multi-layered, steeply to the left tilting wavy lines and comb stitches and sharply cut, parallel belt grooves. Most of the finds from the Bennokanzel belong to the 11th century, although the facility is likely to be used until the first decades of the 12th century. It is also possible to set up the fortifications in the late 10th century.
Historical meaning
The Bennokanzel, together with another "ski jump" that has disappeared today, about one kilometer downstream and the vineyard near Zadel, is one of the early and high medieval fortifications on the eastern bank of the Elbe, which were built after the final conquest and incorporation of the Slavic areas between the Saale and the Elbe in East Franconia Empire were created from the 10th century and fulfilled the task of securing and managing the areas within the framework of the Burgward organization . They show that in the 10th and 11th centuries the Elbe by no means formed a border that was only crossed as an exception, as, for example, the Saxon regional historian Karlheinz Blaschke assumed, but that both banks of the Elbe were seized by imperial violence. At the same time as the castles on the Bennokanzel and in Zadel, which were definitely occupied for the 11th century, there were hamlet-like settlements. Other high medieval castles east of the Elbe are known with the castle wall in Löbsal , which is almost certainly the Liubusua castle , which has long been sought elsewhere , the Leckwitzer Schanze and the "sacrificial hill" in Stauda . A castle is also suspected on the "Fürstenberg" called Kirchberg von Zscheila .
literature
- Thomas Gerlach and Yves Hoffmann: The Bennokanzel. An early historical fortification opposite Meißen Castle . In: Work and research reports on Saxon soil monument preservation, Volume 50, 2008, pp. 333–337.
Remarks
- ↑ " the Elbe formed the eastern border of the German territory ... and only Zadel near Meißen stood as a bridgehead over on the eastern bank "; ders., History of Saxony in the Middle Ages, Berlin 1990, p. 60
Web links
See also
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 28.3 " N , 13 ° 28 ′ 5.4" E