Bierde Castle
| Bierde Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Today's wall remains of the castle |
||
| Creation time : | around 1250 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Place: | Bierde | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 46 '43 .1 " N , 9 ° 30' 18.1" E | |
|
||
The castle Bierde was an existing in the 13th and 14th centuries lowland castle in the Aller near the place Bierde in Lower Saxony . With its extensive wall and moat systems in rectangular shape, it had a total dimension of up to 250 m. A longer, U-shaped wall piece 2.5 m high has been preserved from the inner castle complex. Large parts of the earthworks were removed during the land consolidation around 1860.
location
The Burgstall is located southwest of Bierde in the Aller valley . It lies on the east bank of a former arm of the Aller, from which the elongated Bierder See developed.
description
The remains of the castle core consist of a U-shaped wall around 15 m wide and around 2.5 m high. The longer side is 55 m long, the shorter sides are each 40 m long. Originally it was a square wall that was completely closed. The earth material of the western, inner rampart area and also that of some of the outer ramparts was removed during the land consolidation around 1860 and used to build roads. Other parts of the ramparts were probably removed over the centuries by floods from the Aller.
The inner wall of the castle was surrounded on the outside by moats and ramparts that were of considerable dimensions. The total extent of the outer walls is estimated to be 80 m deep. Today the sinks of the former trenches are between 7 and 30 m wide, the ramparts about 10 m. The trenches are now largely silted up. The ramparts have been preserved at a height of about 1 m.
On the map of the Kurhannoverschen Landesaufnahme from 1779, the castle site was drawn as a square wall with rounded corners. The land consolidation map from the middle of the 19th century also shows the inner wall in its complete state. On the younger map, a parcel called the Burggarten is shown in the northeast. The entire area was a pasture plot at that time. In the land consolidation files from 1858 there is a reference that the site has 5 walls and is hardly usable due to ditch-like, swampy depressions. In 1860 the files mention that three quarters of the earth of the castle ramparts had been removed. It was used to build a dam through the Bierder See, which served as a connection between Bierde and Eilte.
history
Bierder Castle is believed to have been built around 1250 when Bierede had existed for a long time. The territorial conditions at that time suggest that the castle was built by the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as a western border fortification against their noble neighbors, such as the Counts of Wölpe , the Bishops of Minden in Ahlden (Aller) and the Lords of Hodenberg . It is documented that Duke Albrecht the Great installed Conrad von Heymwide in the town of Bierde as Vogt in 1267. In 1282 the Lüneburg castle men Alberich and Gebhard von Schucke resided in Bierde. Between 1330 and 1370, the von Schleppegrell, von dem Broke, Haverber, von Honstedt and von Ride families appeared as feudal owners in Bierde. At the same time, they must have been the last castle men. The castle was probably abandoned at the beginning of the 14th century. Around 1350 the seat of the bailiwick of Bierde was relocated to Rethem Castle . In 1371 the lords of Fulde received the goods connected with Bierde Castle. They held the goods in their hands until their line expired in 1798.
Archaeological research
A magnetometer inspection was carried out around 2003 . Structures of the wall ditch system were recognizable in the ground. Rectangular structures suggested building foundations.
Early indications of the development of the interior of the castle emerged from records made in 1886 in the Bierde school chronicle. Then a teacher found a spot with ashes and charred bricks at the castle site. During this time, wood and stone residues as well as discoloration of the earth were found during plowing. Fragments and iron remnants were found later during site inspections.
Similar fortifications in the vicinity
In the lower area of the Aller there were a number of other medieval castles, some of a similar design, which existed only a few kilometers apart. These include fortifications in Ahlden (Aller) ( Bunkenburg ), Essel ( Blankenburg Castle ), Hodenhagen ( Hodenhagen Castle ), Rethem (Aller) ( Rethem Castle ), Grethem ( Blankenhagen Castle ).
Bierde Castle is one of the former castles that were examined in more detail in the Burgenlandschaft Aller-Leine-Tal (BALT) project between 2003 and 2005. The project was supported, among other things, by the European LEADER + funding program , as the castle complex is located in the Aller-Leine-Tal region.
literature
- Castles in the river , publisher: Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel, Bad Fallingbostel, 2005, ISBN 3-00-017281-5
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann about Bierde Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute