Abenberg Castle

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Abenberg Castle
Abenberg Castle

Abenberg Castle

Creation time : After 1000
Castle type : Höhenburg, hillside location
Conservation status: Preserved in substantial parts
Standing position : Count
Place: Abenberg
Geographical location 49 ° 14 '36.2 "  N , 10 ° 57' 46.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 14 '36.2 "  N , 10 ° 57' 46.8"  E
Height: 430  m above sea level NHN
Abenberg Castle (Bavaria)
Abenberg Castle

The Burg Abenberg is above the eponymous central Franconian town of Abenberg in the Bavarian district of Roth . The hill fort is sometimes referred to as the crown of the Rangau .

history

The statue of Wolfram von Eschenbach adorns the castle wall
The Schottenturm named after Anton Schott

The Abenberg family appeared in the 11th century . Under Count Adalbert II (before 1040 until after 1059) the first castle was built largely from wood. Under Count Rapoto (1122–1172) it was replaced between 1130 and 1140 by one of the most imposing stone castles in Bavaria (40 × 40 meters). The Abenberg noble family, whose last Count Friedrich II was praised by Tannhäuser in the 13th century for promoting poetry, died out around 1200.

In 1236 the town and castle were married to the Hohenzollern , the then burgraves of Nuremberg (see also Conrad IV. ), After the male line of the Abenbergs with Count Friedrich II had expired. In 1230–1250 the people of Nuremberg replaced the building from the Salier period with a partially new building, which they hardly ever used. For this purpose, the curtain wall was demolished and the main castle was expanded to double its size. The front was thickened and the fortified castle gate was built on the southeast corner. The curtain wall built at that time is the oldest preserved part of the castle.

In 1296 the castle was sold to the prince-bishopric of Eichstätt , which set up a maintenance office there and strengthened the weakly fortified northwest corner with a square tower.

A series of renovations took place in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. From 1496, the eastern front was provided with new nursing homes. New farm buildings were built inside the castle. In the following years the castle fell into disrepair. In 1799 the St. Otmars Chapel collapsed.

In 1806 the Kingdom of Bavaria came into possession of the castle through secularization and sold it to Max Freiherr von Welden for demolition. It was not until 1875 that the Munich art dealer KJ Zwerschina acquired Abenberg Castle and saved the castle from total destruction. He rebuilt some towers, such as the 33 meter high Luginsland . The next owner, the chamber singer Anton Schott , continued Zwerschina's work between 1881 and 1913. After that, however, the castle fell into disrepair again.

The city of Abenberg initially acquired half of the castle in 1982 and the rest in 1984. In order to be able to finance the renovation and maintenance, it founded the Burg Abenberg association on March 8, 1986 together with the district of Roth and the district of Middle Franconia , which took over the castle as owner . The aim was to preserve the monument and to revitalize it culturally. An operating concept in the form of a museum and a restaurant was developed.

In the same year extensive renovation work began, which lasted until the mid-1990s and which was followed by further expansion and renovation work, which ended in 2001 with the opening of the lace museum. During the work, excavations took place from 1988 to 1992, which provided information about the stages of the building history.

Excavation results

Ceramic finds and post holes made it possible to prove the first wooden castle in 1991, which is dated to the 11th century. However, it is no longer possible to reconstruct the system.

The first stone castle was built in the 12th century and consisted of a 40 × 40 meter main castle . The main building was a free-standing residential tower with a floor area of ​​15.6 × 14.6 meters that rose in the middle of the courtyard. The masonry was 2.5 meters thick and consisted of sandstone blocks. Directly south of the main castle there was a large meadow, which Wolfram von Eschenbach in Parzival describes as a tournament meadow with “anger ze abenberc” and complains about its poor condition. The Anger was the only proven tournament meadow in Bavarian castles.

today

Abenberg Castle above the city

The castle houses a restaurant , the castle hotel , a conference center as well as the house of Franconian history and the Abenberg lace museum.

Every year in summer, various concerts and the fire dance festival take place on the castle grounds as part of the Burg Abenberg Open Air .

Others

  • In the twelfth album of the Franco-Belgian comic series Michel Vaillant by Jean Graton , The Knights of Königsfeld , the fictional Königsfeld Castle has the appearance of Abenberg Castle. There are many detailed drawings of the castle in the comic. Jean Graton had stayed at the castle for two days to prepare photographic templates for the drawings. The comic album was created in 1965.
  • The castle was the place of work of a tower clerk several times. Reinhard Knodt stayed in the east tower from September 12th to October 10th, 2004. During this time Knodt worked literarily, attended public events and presented works at readings in literary circles and in schools. In 2007, Gerd Scherm followed him as a tower clerk.

literature

Web links

Commons : Burg Abenberg  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jörg von Forster: Famous thanks to Parzival - part of the Eschenbach epic written at Abenberg Castle . In: Trutziges Franken. Fürther Nachrichten , March 24, 2007, p. 22.
  2. ^ District office Roth: 1. Tower clerk at Abenberg Castle. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  3. ↑ Tower writer at Abenberg Castle 2007. Accessed on May 8, 2015 .