Brandenburg (Leek Roden)
| Brandenburg | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Brandenburg seen from the south |
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| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Summit castle (double castle) | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Counts, temporarily city (Erfurt) | |
| Construction: | 3 towers, 2 cellars, circular walls preserved | |
| Place: | Leek rotting | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 59 '39 " N , 10 ° 10' 20" E | |
| Height: | 274.6 m above sea level NN | |
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The Brandenburg ruin is a castle ruin near the village of Lauchröden , a district of Gerstungen , in the Wartburg district in Thuringia .
location
The ruin of the hilltop castle is 274.6 m above sea level. NN in the middle Werra Valley , east of the village of Lauchröden, directly opposite the Hessian community of Herleshausen .
Hollow roads on the slopes immediately behind the double castle occupy an important high-medieval road from Bad Hersfeld to Eisenach with fords at Sallmannshausen, Herleshausen and Neuenhof. The double castle thus secured western access to Thuringia and exercised escort protection in the Werra Valley from Gerstungen to Eisenach ("Escort of Brandenburg").
history
Prehistoric finds indicate that the ridge of the later castle hill was already settled in the pre-Roman Iron Age.
middle Ages
The family of the Counts of Wartburg , who administered the Wartburg for the Landgraves of Thuringia , has been documented with Wigger von Wartburg since 1138 . In 1224, Count Ludwig II of Wartberg also called himself von Brandenburg. One can assume that the Brandenburg already existed at this time. In 1279/80 Albert II of Brandenburg sold the rule with the castle to Landgrave Albrecht II the Degenerate . In 1290 he transferred the castle to his son Apitz . Albert von Brandenberg was the last count with the title of count. From 1288 he is listed as an ordinary servant in the documents.
The places Lauchröden , Sallmannshausen and Unterellen belonged to the territory of Brandenburg . They were therefore named as belonging to the Brandenburg courts , administratively the places probably belonged to the Wettin office of Wartburg ( Saxony-Eisenach ). Originally the place Wommen also belonged to the castle district of Brandenburg. In a document issued by the Kaufunger Stift in 1268, Burgrave Burghard von der Brandenburg ceded some possessions in Wommen to this monastery. The goods and rights in Wommen still in the possession of the count family came in 1364 to the Lords of Kolmatsch, who had already settled in Stedtfeld near Eisenach . In 1401 Reinhard von Brandenburg also sold his last property in Wommen.
By the beginning of the 14th century at the latest, there were two independent structures on the castle hill, which are differentiated as lower and upper castle or as western and eastern castle. In the period that followed, the two castles - apart from brief interruptions - always had different owners:
The Ostburg - also Oberburg or Oberhaus
After its destruction at the end of the 13th century, Brandenburg was rebuilt as an eastern castle at the beginning of the 14th century. In 1322 Fritsche and Heinrich von Heringen received the castle as a landgrave fief . It was owned by the Lords of Heringen until 1359, but in the following period it changed hands frequently. a. the gentlemen von Witzleben , von Weberstadt and von Kolmatsch . From 1415 to 1892 it was owned by the Lords of Herda zu Brandenburg. After their extinction in 1895 it came to the sovereign .
The Westburg - also Niederburg or Niederhaus
The western castle was built at the beginning of the 14th century and was probably owned by the city of Erfurt as a pledge . In 1322 Fritsche and Heinrich von Heringen received the castle as a landgrave fief. The Lords of Heringen pledged the castle again in 1383 to the city of Erfurt, which stationed a permanent crew at the castle. From 1390 it was owned by the marshals von Thamsbrück, the von Nesselröden and then the lords of Boineburg-Honstein. In 1405 the western castle came to Helwig von Ruckus, through whose daughter Gertrud, who married Georg I von Reckrodt, the castle came to the lords of Reckrodt in 1411 , who held it until it died out in 1703.
Modern times
Having become militarily insignificant, the western castle was abandoned in the middle of the 16th century and the eastern castle after the Thirty Years War . From then on, the castle complex fell into disrepair and was used as a quarry for the construction of castles and goods in Lauchröden and the surrounding communities. Only in 1841 was the demolition stopped by Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Saxony - Weimar - Eisenach . The development of the Werra Valley for tourism was connected with the construction of the Thuringian Railway . The Brandenburg was a popular destination as early as 1870. In 1906/07 extensive structural security work was carried out on the east castle in particular, which was continued in the 1920s. The Werra Valley Association , founded in Eschwege in 1883 , formed a Brandenburg branch association in 1924 . An architect from Suhl made a very detailed, true-to-scale model of the double castle after extensive studies; it shows the (intact) castle complex as it was built in the 15th century. In the years of German division, Brandenburg was fenced in from 1962 because of its location near the border and even the residents of the village of Lauchröden were no longer allowed to visit. It was not until 1988 that the castle could be re-entered under guard.
Rehabilitation of the castle ruins
With the restoration of the accessibility of the castle ruins, interested citizens of Lauchrödens immediately initiated security work. To this end, they founded a community of interests that joined the Werra Valley Association in 1990 as the legal successor to the Brandenburg branch association. This, also known as the Brandenburg Association, initiated the structural securing of the keep of the western castle and the bower on the eastern castle, which took place from 1990 to 1994, in cooperation with the state of Thuringia after mapping damage.
Since biotopes with nature conservation status had developed during the decades of isolation of the castle complex, all monument preservation work was carried out taking these conditions into account (area natural monument).
All securing work was accompanied by monument preservation in order to obtain data on the building history. The two cellars and the cistern of the east castle were uncovered and examined, and the remains of the wall and the moat were freed from wild growth. In 1994 the castle complex was transferred to the Thuringian Palaces and Gardens Foundation , which took over the further preservation of historical monuments from this point on. The Brandenburg Association took over the castle administration of the foundation and the further development of the castle for visitors, including the establishment of the castle museum in the bower and the connection to the electricity and water supply, which took place in 2000. A rest and visitor parking lot and a network of hiking trails to the castle were created.
Events
- The Brandenburg Association also had the idea to hold a medieval festival, Europe-wide contacts were established and thus enable an authentic history game with a castle siege .
- In the summer months the Brandenburg concerts take place at the castle .
- The castle was the venue for the Open Monument Day several times .
- Since 2015, the Medival - Open Air Electronic Festival has been held annually in July .
literature
- Hans Heuse: The Brandenburg near Lauchröden - a remarkable example of castle building in Thuringia . In: Our village of Lauchröden. A compilation of local history contributions. Published on the occasion of the 850th anniversary of the first mention of Lauchrödens in 1994 . Municipality of Lauchröden, Lauchröden 1994, OCLC 258600213 , p. 22-29 .
- Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . Jenzig-Verlag Köhler, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , p. 71-72 .
- Sabine Pflauger: Brandenburg at Lauchröden (= Small Kunstführer . No. 2360 ). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 1999, ISBN 3-7954-6167-7 .
- Hans Patze , Peter Aufgebauer (Ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 9: Thuringia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 313). 2nd, improved and supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-520-31302-2 , pp. 54-55.
- Willi Stubenvoll: Castles in Thuringia. Palaces, castles, gardens, monasteries and historical facilities of the Thuringian Palaces and Gardens Foundation . Verlag Bildung + Wissen, Bad Homburg u. a. 1997, ISBN 3-927879-96-7 .
- Stefan Wetterau: Without borders . Prolibris-Verlag, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-935263-76-4 (A historical detective novel based on historical records about Brandenburg).
- Helge Wittmann: In the shadow of the landgraves. Studies on aristocratic rule formation in late medieval Thuringia (= publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Small series . Volume 17 ). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20805-9 (At the same time: Jena, Univ., Diss., 2004: Nobility in high medieval Thuringia, on the history of the Lords of Heldrungen, the Counts of Buch and the Counts of Wartburg-Brandenburg in the 12th century . and 13th century. ).
Web links
- The Brandenburg Werratalverein, Branch Association Brandenburg e. V.
- Thuringian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, Brandenburg castle ruins
- Historical reconstruction drawing
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces. Pp. 71/72.
- ↑ Wilfried Warsitzka: The Thuringian Landgrave. Publishing house Dr. Bussert & Stadeler, 2004, ISBN 3-932906-22-5 , p. 204.
- ↑ Border hiking trail in the Wartburg region - Lauchröden. In: Wartburgkreis-Online. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012 ; accessed on October 3, 2016 .
- ↑ Heuse / Schneider, Brandenburg Association Lauchröden (ed.): Worth knowing about Brandenburg. Leaflets, newspaper reports. Leek harvesting 1994-2005.
- ↑ Gitta Wittig: For the hiking friend . In: Our village of Lauchröden. A compilation of local history contributions. Published on the occasion of the 850th anniversary of the first mention of Lauchrödens in 1994 . Municipality of Lauchröden, Lauchröden 1994, p. 85-87 .
- ↑ Homepage of the organizer