Bärenfels Castle (Duggingen)

Bärenfels Castle
	Crevice in which the old castle was built (2009)
Alternative name (s):	Aeschburg
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Duggingen
Geographical location	47 ° 27 '48.2 " N , 7 ° 36' 49.7" E Coordinates: 47 ° 27 '48.2 " N , 7 ° 36' 49.7" E ; CH1903: 613.21 thousand / 256970
Height:	488 m above sea level M.

The castle Baerenfels even Aesch Castle called, is a ruined castle in the Swiss municipality of Duggingen in the district of Laufen in the canton of Basel-Land .

location

The ruin of the multi-part mountain castle complex lies on a wildly rugged rock spur along a Fluh on the border between the Birseck and the Laufental near the Ober-Aesch farm on the slope of the Gempen plateau .

investment

The facility has not yet been systematically excavated and therefore the timing is difficult. The castle will not have been built until after 1200. Nothing is known about the heights and roofing of the buildings, and more information about the interior fittings (e.g. tiled stoves) will only be available after an archaeological investigation. The facility was built in at least three construction phases, which is documented in writing and is still clearly visible today.

Old castle

The oldest part of the castle was built on the highest point of the rock spur, almost at the summit. The construction method was optimally matched to the situation: Several floors of the fortress were built into the large gap in the rock that splits the rock head into two parts (this gap existed long before the Basel earthquake in 1356 ). Many beam holes on several floors clearly show the dimensions of the extensions in the crevice. The location of the access gate is also clearly visible through the northeast of the two rock faces: It used a natural rock crevice, which was artificially expanded and adapted for this purpose.

Access Gate Cliff (2009)

The upper end of the excavated crevice ends in a space that was cut into the rock.

Rock chamber carved into the rock (2009)

As you can easily see from the many beam holes, this room had a wooden ceiling. From this rock chamber, stairs carved into the rock lead up to a tower.

In addition to the tower, there must have been other small buildings on the topmost rock head, because foundation bearings in the rock and small remains of walls are evidence of this. However, the dimensions and the purpose cannot be determined without an archaeological excavation.

Middle castle

The middle castle, which was built around 10 meters northwest of the old castle , probably consisted of a single, rectangular residential tower . After all, this tower had a dimension of around 13 by 13 meters. With its location on the edge of the Fluh and its 2.5 meter thick walls - still a clear space of 8 by 8 meters - a very defensive construction method was pursued. Only very small remains of the wall have survived: Since this tower is best accessible, it was probably first used as a building material supplier, which accelerated the decay.

new Castle

The new castle - on a flat and terraced rock head 15 meters northwest of the Middle Castle - consisted of several parts of the building. Meyer suspects that the New Castle was only built in the second half of the 13th century, perhaps as a successor to a little fortified outer bailey to the Old Castle . The size of the buildings and the much thinner walls - made of little worked stones - indicate that economic efficiency moved into the foreground and that defensibility was no longer the first priority. At least the access to the north was still protected by a kennel . Also a bering

Northwest Wall of the New Castle (2009)

was available, to which wooden buildings were probably built inside. A filter cistern ensured the water supply. Wall joints show that the New Castle was not built in one piece either. A moat in the north-west of the castle, which is still clearly visible today, protected the castle complex and certainly served as a supplier of building materials.

history

Bärenfels Castle is likely to be a cleared castle on land that had been cleared by itself : This enabled the medieval nobility to build up their own goods in the legal system of the time, which they could freely dispose of and did not have to take on as fiefs . The Lords of Aesch , a knightly ministerial family of the Counts of Thierstein, are documented as the owners of the Bärenfels' estates .

In the 14th century the Bishop of Basel had already laid his hand on the Bärenfels estate and gave it back to the Lords of Aesch as a fief. After the Aeschers died out, the old castle was given to the Macerel family of knights from Basel and the other two castles to the Lords of Frick .

It was not until the late 14th century that the complex with the associated rights and property passed to the Lords of Bärenfels , whose name was then attached to the castle.

Damage caused by the Basel earthquake in 1356 is documented in writing, but it is not known whether this was repaired. In the 15th century, however, the castle was referred to as a ruin.

literature

Werner Meyer : Castles from A to Z - Burgenlexikon der Regio . Published by the Castle Friends of both Basels on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. Klingental printing works, Basel 1981, pp. 152–153.