Birg (Hohenschäftlarn)

The extensive section fortification Birg (also Bürg , Burg ) is located about 1500 meters northeast of the parish church of Hohenschäftlarn above the Upper Bavarian Isar valley in the area of ​​the municipality of Baierbrunn in the district of Munich . The archaeological site is called in its final stage of early medieval Hungary Schutzenburg interpreted.

history

Information board at the parking lot below the Birg

The double central wall system. Looking west

Looking back to the east

View over the Hungarian rider approach obstacles to the low rampart

The large plateau east of Hohenschäftlarn already served as a settlement during the Bronze Age . The site has not yet been archaeologically investigated to a large extent . Some of the grave mounds that have been preserved are dated to the Hallstatt period.

The place name Schäftlarn (Sceftilari) indicates early medieval armaments production in this area. The ending - lar could also refer to an old thing or meeting place. It is possible that spear shafts and perhaps arrow shafts were made here. To the west of the Birg there is evidence of a settlement in which slag finds could indicate this craft. A smelting site further west was used even into the early modern period. In this context, the thesis of a Franconian deployment area west of the Isar should be mentioned. The early medieval settlement is still palpable through an alleged row grave cemetery, which, however, was improperly opened in the 19th century. However, this necropolis is currently not listed by the State Office for Monument Preservation.

Some remnants of the wall in the southwest of the main wall system, which can only be seen by the trained eye, and also the flattened slope ditch point to a fortification from the Carolingian era. Whether this castle complex was protected by a wood-earth wall or even a dry stone wall could only be clarified by a professional archaeological investigation.

Probably during the Hungarian storms of the first half of the 10th century, a large section fortification was built above the older fortifications in the north of the monument area. The complex has all the typical features of a supposedly larger Hungarian fortress. Riders approach obstacles are presented to a two-tier wall system. The mounted Magyar archers were supposed to be forced to dismount.

Under the western edge of the castle area, a slope trench - flattened towards the berm - runs to the eastern narrowness of the terrain spur above the Isar. Such trenches are typical of fortifications from the Carolingian and Ottonian times.

The relatively low south wall in front of the riders approaching obstacles, however, indicates that the area of ​​the early medieval ramparts was fortified in prehistoric times. The Hungarian walls of the 10th century were usually created through the expansion of much older settlement areas or fortifications.

Particularly in connection with the Bavarian state exhibition Bavaria-Hungary a thousand years (2002), some specialist authors questioned the systematic building of castles from the Hungarian period. However, this appears to be politically motivated.

The large Ottonian ramparts may have been built in connection with King Henry I's castle building regulations . In addition, countless smaller fortifications were built to complement the large state castles . What is particularly striking here is the accumulation of such objects in the immediate vicinity of the episcopal city of Augsburg , at the gates of which the Hungarians were defeated in 955 ( battle on the Lechfeld ).

The presumed Hungarian Wall near Hohenschäftlarn is particularly reminiscent of the Pfarrerschanze near Todtenweis and the Schanze Wagesenberg near Pöttmes . In the case of these ground monuments, however, there are no pronounced obstacles to approaching riders in front of the double main wall systems. Here, the main castle is preceded by outer castles . It is precisely these obstacles to the approach of riders that are typical of the large Hungarian fortifications in the area of ​​the Augsburg bishopric . They can only be observed here and in the adjacent areas.

As a presumably larger Hungarian defense castle with upstream obstacles to approach, the "Birg" is to be classified in a group with the Haldenburg near Schwabmünchen , the Buschelberg near Fischach and the Weiherberg near Nördlingen . At the Birg von Kleinhöhenkirchen ( Weyarn , Miesbach district ) two systems of such obstacles have survived. Only the Eselsberg near Thierhaupten and the section fortification near Straßberg ( Bobingen ) are considered to be smaller weir systems with reduced defense facilities of this type .

The function as a Hungarian Wall is also likely due to the apparently unfinished state of the Birg . After the battle on the Lechfeld, the Hungarian walls, which were no longer needed, were mostly not expanded. At the Birg , the eastern part of the main wall is significantly lower than on the plateau. However, the area in the east is protected by a natural depression, which made a cavalry attack difficult. Even the lack of an eastern slope ditch on the steep slope to the Isar does not necessarily indicate that construction work was stopped prematurely. The slope here is much steeper than in the west.

No traces of construction can be found on the almost flat castle plateau. This finding also is characteristic of the Ottoman Hungary protecting castles, mainly as a meeting and gathering places and troops Fliehburgen were used. An interior development certainly consisted of simple timber or clay half-timbered buildings, which could only be proven archaeologically.

The Birg served mainly as a refuge for the nearby Schäftlarn monastery and the rural population in the surrounding area. The careful planning and skilful use of the topographical conditions, however, indicate the use of an experienced master builder who might have been in the service of the diocese of Augsburg. The great refugee castle is probably to be equated with an oppidum apud sceftilarii mentioned in contemporary documents .

description

The ground monument is located east of Hohenschäftlarn on the Isar high bank. The rampart only takes up the northern spur of the total area. Burgplatz is protected in the north and west by a deep, ravine-like valley cut. About five to six meters below the edge of the slope, a ditch can be seen here, although it is largely flattened. The castle plateau rises about 90 meters above the Isar valley.

Over the confluence of the ravine with the plateau, an approximately 350-meter-long, double wall system starts. The earthworks are accompanied by four to five meter deep trenches and run to the southeast over the plateau. In the eastern third, the double wall bends slightly to the north and follows the natural slope of the terrain.

The outer wall is four to five meters high from the bottom of the trench, the main wall eight to ten meters high. Towards the interior, the main wall raises the plateau on the plateau by around four meters. The continuation of the inner wall to the east is only up to two meters high.

About 50 meters in front of the double wall, one can see a wall, only one and a half to a maximum of two and a half meters high, without an upstream or flattened ditch, which arches towards the slope edge in the east. This is likely to be a prehistoric line of fortifications. Directly on the inside of the western rampart is the first of a total of four rows of short, up to one and a half meters high earth bars with excavation pits in between, which were probably reinforced by sharpened wooden stakes or thorn hedges and are interpreted as obstacles to the approach of riders.

The main gate of both the Carolingian and the Ottonian castle was certainly on the south-western edge of the slope. A Carolingian rampart accompanies the access path for about 40 meters. The Ottonian main wall system partially overlies this edge wall, so it must be younger. In front of the alleged goal, no rider approach obstacles are recognizable.

The mostly very well-preserved ramparts of the Birg probably only supported palisades , the older ramparts perhaps only a thorn hedge as an additional obstacle to approach. In the run-up, tree fences or further thorn hedges are conceivable.

In fact, the facility was never attacked by the Magyars. It is possible that it was from here that some of the defeated Magyar warriors were finally killed after the Battle of Lechfeld. Actually, the castle is already too far away from the Lechfeld, a direct connection with the course of the battle should not have existed here.

With around 85,000 square meters of usable space, the Birg is one of the largest alleged Hungarian fortifications in the wider area surrounding the Lechfeld. Just a few kilometers to the north, on the eastern high bank of the Isar, there is another early medieval castle complex with a distinctive early medieval wall-ditch system.

The freely accessible ground monument is listed by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments as a settlement from the Bronze Age, burial mound from the Hallstatt period and a fortified section of the Ottonian period under monument number D-1-8034-0088.

Misinterpretations

The Birg is - like many similar grounds monuments - some today, especially esoteric subject to misinterpretation. Many visitors particularly interpret the impressive main wall system as the remains of a large Celtic castle or a cult site. A Celtic use or at least ascent of the terrain spur is quite likely (individual finds, a late Celtic rod belt hook), but the double wall system, the slope ditch and the riders approaching obstacles clearly date from the early Middle Ages.

Web links

Commons : Birg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Anja Brandstäter: Bad knight, wise woman . Article in the Starnberg local edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, online version from January 9, 2017.

literature

• Jochen Haberstroh : "Birg" - ring wall and section fortification . In: Klaus Leidorf, Peter Ettel: Castles in Bavaria - 7000 years of castle history in the air . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1364-X , pp. 114-115.
• Georg Paula, Timm Weski: District of Munich - ensembles, architectural monuments, archaeological monuments ( Monuments in Bavaria , Volume I.17). Munich 1997, ISBN 3-87490-576-4 .
• Hans H. Schmidt (Working Group for Local History Research in the Würm Region): “Sunken castles” in the five-lake region between Ammersee and Isar - historical and archaeological reconstructions . Gauting 2002.
• Wilhelm Schneider: The southwest German Hungarian walls and their builders . (Work on Alemannic Early History, Book XVI). Tubingen 1989.
• Michael Weithmann: Knights and Castles in Upper Bavaria - Forays into the medieval country between the Alps, Danube, Lech and Salzach . Dachau 1999, ISBN 3-89251-276-0 , ( refuges and refuges in Hungary of the 10th century , pp. 40–46)
• Michael Weithmann: Castles in Munich. Medieval castles and walls, gates and towers in and around Munich . Stiebner, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8307-1036-4 , pp. 28-29 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Relief representation at BayernAtlas. Retrieved May 26, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation: Entry ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 45 ″  N , 11 ° 28 ′ 19 ″  E