Brömserburg

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Brömserburg
Brömserburg from the west

Brömserburg from the west

Alternative name (s): Niederburg
Creation time : 1186–1190 (second construction phase)
Castle type : Niederungsburg, location
Conservation status: Preserved essential parts
Standing position : Nobles, counts
Place: Rudesheim am Rhein
Geographical location 49 ° 58 '39.4 "  N , 7 ° 55' 3.7"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 58 '39.4 "  N , 7 ° 55' 3.7"  E
Height: 86  m above sea level NHN
Brömserburg (Hesse)
Brömserburg
Brömserburg from the north, top left tower stump of the keep

The Brömserburg (also called Niederburg ) is located in Rüdesheim am Rhein in the Rheingau-Taunus district in Hesse near the banks of the Rhine . In its origins, it is probably one of the first permanent castles in the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley .

Building history

Older literature (from the 19th century to the 1980s) assumed the Brömserburg to be on the foundations of a Roman fort. However, no ancient building structure could be verified and, in particular, it could not be proven that it was, as previously assumed, a watchtower or bridgehead facing the Bingium on the left bank of the Rhine ( Bingen am Rhein ) opposite. Since this fort was not built until the 4th century, the thesis is inconclusive, as the Romans had already withdrawn from the right bank of the Rhine at this point after the fall of the Limes .

Two construction phases are occupied. Research does not agree on the dating of the first phase (the theses range from an early medieval royal saloon before 980 to a complex from the mid-12th century). The examination of an alder stake from the foundation of the southeast tower, which is considered the oldest part of the castle, revealed that the beginning of the tower construction cannot be dated before 1044 and not after 1216.

The end of the 12th century (1186–1190) is delimited as the logical construction time of the second complex.

Already in the first construction phase, the shape of the castle essentially corresponded to its current dimensions. It was secured by a curtain wall with a moat ; At that time, according to historical engravings, the Rhine flowed directly along the southern front - in contrast to today, as there is a road and a wide bank zone between the castle and the water. However, the curtain wall was thinner than today (1.6–1.7 m) and lower. In the southeast corner that was blown out today there was a residential tower ( donjon ). The still existing tower diagonally opposite also comes from this first phase and served to defend the gate ( gate tower ) and as a keep . At that time its height reached up to the upper edge of the current defense platform .

In the second construction phase, the outer wall was reinforced, walled over and raised. Buildings were added to the donjon up to the same upper edge, which are completely vaulted in up to four storeys (unique construction on the Rhine); so a four-wing system was created. At the same time, in the middle of the castle courtyard, which was raised, a new, massive keep was built, which is bricked up with the adjacent components of the second phase without joints. This originally had a wall thickness of more than 4 m in the lower section and was estimated to be approx. 35 m high. Due to the entrance situation of the new large keep (the high entrance is on the top, still existing floor) it becomes clear that this must have been much higher than it is today; it clearly protruded over the adjacent building elements and thus gave the castle a much less "clunky" impression than the current structure.

history

Brömserburg on a steel engraving after Tombleson

In the 13th century, the Brömser family from the Wisper Valley was handed down as lords of the castle, and the castle was in the unfeigned property of the Archbishops of Mainz .

In 1640 the south-east corner of the Rhine was blown up during the Thirty Years' War by the French troops of Duke Henri II. D'Orléans ; the upper part of the keep and the donjon were also destroyed. A mine tunnel was driven into the keep; but it did not explode, so it is still visible today.

The repeated claim that the family of the Brömser von Rüdesheim lived in the castle from 1548 until the line died out in 1668 is false. What is more correct is that the Brömser family with Melchior from after the main line of the von Rüdesheim family died out Rüdesheim in 1538 gradually came into the possession of their Rüdesheim fiefs, which also included the Niederburg. The Brömser never lived there, but always in their property called 'Brömserhof' at Oberstrasse 29 in Rüdesheim. After the Brömser family died out, the Archbishop of Mainz gave the fiefdom in 1678 to Emmerich von Metternich , an heir of the Brömser von Rüdesheim family. Since the castle remained uninhabited, it fell into ruin in the 18th century and was initially called “Brömser's dog stable”, later “Metternich's dog stable”.

After 1811 the new owners - the Counts of Ingelheim - converted it into a romanticized country estate. In the south wing, these "ingredients" were removed again during a renovation in the 1950s.

The castle was inhabited until 1937; In 1941 she bought the city of Rüdesheim. Since 1950 it has housed the “Rheingau Wine Museum” with exhibits on wine culture from antiquity to the present. In 1961 the destroyed southeast corner was reconstructed and the keep was raised again in 1969 to a height of 27 m.

Castle complex

View of the castle from Niederwalddenkmal from

Today's massive, cuboid-shaped building consists of four three-story, flat-roofed wings with 4 to 5 m thick masonry and small arched window openings around a narrow rectangular inner courtyard. The medieval trenches are filled in. The north-western defense tower from the first phase before 1200 is still there.

In the south-eastern inner corner of the complex rises the square keep , rebuilt on the undamaged stump , on which there is now an accessible viewing terrace.

The interiors are barrel and groin vaulted. Due to the extensions and changes in the 19th century, the original division is no longer traceable.

The facility is surrounded by a small park that is integrated into the museum.

Rheingau Wine Museum (closed)

Barrel-vaulted entrance area to the museum with knight armor
The Brömserburg, today Rheingau Wine Museum
Castle garden with a winemaker sculpture

The operator is the company of the Wendel family from Rüdesheim, who also maintain Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet , a collection of historical musical instruments.

The barrel-vaulted entrance area is flanked by two medieval armor , which underlines the original function of the castle; The theme of the museum, however, is viticulture from the Middle Ages to modern times , which is just as old in the Rheingau . Using documentation and tools, grape varieties and cultivation methods, the work of the winemaker, the cooper and the cellar master are explained. It also explains the history of the wine barrel and the wine bottle in their variable designs up to the EU standard bottle since 1977. Another collection concerns corks and labels. A special room is dedicated to the oldest Rüdesheim wine and sparkling wine wholesaler, Dilthey, Sahl & Co. (1815–1969), which primarily supplied the Russian tsars until 1917.

The counterpart to the documentation of viticulture and the wine trade is a ceramic and glass collection of jugs and drinking vessels for wine, which is representative from a cultural and historical point of view .

The oldest exhibits concern prehistoric and early historical ceramic vases and sculptures from Egypt and the Near East, the Minoan period and the Villanova culture . Ancient wine was more acidic than the drink cultivated today and was mixed with water or mead .

In addition to ceramic vessels, there is a small range of simple glass for everyday use from the Roman Empire .

Incidentally, the collection provides a clear cross-section through all epochs of European glass history:

The museum has declared a Nuremberg coconut cup (around 1600) with finely elaborated baroque gold decoration and an ivory cup (around 1800) with putti reliefs to be among the most valuable exhibits in art history .

On the tour of the exhibition rooms, the various wings within the massive masonry around a small inner courtyard are made accessible through several stairways. You climb the keep with a viewing platform to the south over the Rhine to Bingen am Rhein with its Rochusberg and up the Rhine into the Rheingau .

The museum also includes the castle garden , in which historical wine presses (the oldest from 1594), barrels and transport equipment as well as the sandstone sculpture of a winemaker carrying a grapevine are on display.

  • Grape mill for crushing the mash , 1st half of the 20th century.

  • Romans and stem glasses of historicism (19th century)

  • Mesh glass à la façon de Venise, 17th century

  • Sign at the entrance of the Brömserburg, the Rheingau Wine Museum, in Ruedesheim am Rhein

literature

  • Thomas Biller, Achim Wendt: Castles in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Area - A Guide to Architecture and History. 1st edition. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7954-2446-6 , pp. 71-73.
  • Thomas Biller: Castles in the Taunus and Rheingau - A guide to history and architecture. 1st edition. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 3-7954-1991-3 , pp. 91-95.
  • Michael Fuhr: Who wants to be the keeper of the river? 40 castles and palaces on the Middle Rhine. 1st edition. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7954-1460-1 .
  • Wolfgang L. Roser: The Niederburg in Rüdesheim. A fortification of the Archdiocese of Mainz in the Rheingau. In: Nassau Annals. 101, 1990, pp. 7-29.
  • Art historical hiking guide Hessen. Stuttgart / Zurich 1984. (still represents the older version).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Minutes of the general meeting of the Rheingauer Weinmuseum e. V. on September 29, 2008; Result of the examination of a pile made of alder wood from the foundation of the tower using the C-14 method. Unfortunately, a dendrochronological examination of the wood was not possible because it was a side shoot with only 11 annual rings