Boxberg Castle

Boxberg Castle
The Schlossberg today
Alternative name (s):	Boxberg Castle
Creation time :	1430
Castle type :	Location
Conservation status:	canceled
Standing position :	Knighthood
Place:	Boxberg
Geographical location	49 ° 28 '45.3 "  N , 9 ° 38' 32.3"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 28 '45.3 "  N , 9 ° 38' 32.3"  E

The castle Boxberg , including Castle Boxberg called, is the ruin of a castle in Boxberg near Lauda-Königshofen in Main-Tauber-Kreis in Baden-Wuerttemberg .

history

Boxberg around 1645. Engraving by Matthäus Merian . It shows the last of the plants, which was demolished in 1857

A castle was named Boxberg as early as the 11th century. The Würzburg bishop Berthold II. Von Sternberg exchanged the castle in 1287, the Hochstiftslehen was exchanged for Schweinberg Castle from the Johannitern zu Wölchingen . A second complex was built on the foundations of the first castle in 1430. Boxberg Castle was then owned by the von Rosenberg family . As early as 1470, the castle was destroyed by the same as the Rosenberg raids against Kurmainz , the Electoral Palatinate and the Bishopric of Würzburg . After its destruction in 1523, a third facility was built, which existed from 1547 to 1857 and was then demolished.

The fateful year 1523

At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century a time of great upheaval had come, which led to the fact that many of the former noble families of Franconia lost their property and their often great wealth with the transition to the money economy. The von Absberg family was also plagued by these problems and so a representative of the family was not known as a noble gentleman but as a robber baron : Hans Thomas von Absberg . This crony, sometimes called “hand-chopper”, was the mortal enemy of the Swabian Confederation , a union of Franconian and Swabian estates under the leadership of Nuremberg . He kidnapped merchants on their trade trips and demanded a large ransom for their release. In order to reduce the growing danger of being caught, he looked for allies who would support him in his raids and hide in their castles if there was a risk of capture. Kuntz von Rosenberg, at the time the owner of the Boxberg castle complex, also supported him, as he hoped to be able to replenish his dwindling wealth a little. In 1523 the Swabian Federation finally sent its troops to level 23 “predatory nests”, including Boxberg Castle. They reached the facility on June 14th and blew it up the following day. The possession of the outlaw Melchior von Rosenberg fell to the Palatinate. In 1548 Albrecht von Rosenberg tried to enforce his ownership rights to the castle, and as a result it was finally sold to the Palatinate in 1561.

The destruction of the castle in 1523

The woodcut by Hans Wandereisen

→ Main article: Wandereisen woodcuts from 1523

The woodcut made by Hans Wandereisen clearly shows the shape of the castle. Boxberg dominated the huge complex in the foreground. The castle is surrounded by a palisade fence, two moats and a castle wall. All the buildings that are part of the wall are already on fire. The hall and the inner castle estates collapse. On the right edge of the picture you can see a smaller system that will be the target of a cannon that has been brought in, which you can see in the center of the picture. In the upper left corner of the picture you can see parts of the troops of the Swabian Federation, which in this section consist of two mounted trumpeters and a good 30 foot soldiers. Also recognizable is the captain who has turned his back on the viewer.

investment

Located in the middle of the village of the same name, only sparse remains of the castle can be found today. According to a floor plan attached to the ruin, the castle had two curtain walls , two drawbridges and several defense towers . Three of these defense towers still exist today, the one in the south-west was rebuilt. A trench extends from it, which also served as a kennel . Otherwise, there is not much left to discover today of the complex, which, according to the woodcut, must have been large. Only the casemates , which are located in the rock on which the mighty shield wall used to be, and the re-exposed fountain in the core castle are reminiscent of the former complex next to the towers. All in all, Boxberg Castle is a special complex, as it is not very often that a castle that existed until the 19th century almost completely disappears. In 1893 the complex came into the possession of the city and a beautification association began to keep it from deterioration. Finds from the castle can be seen in the Boxberger Heimatmuseum.

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  Tower remnant

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  Entrance to a cellar, remains of the wall, the cistern can be seen to the left in the picture

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  Rock formation that leads into the interior of the castle

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  Hidden staircase on a rock in the back of the entrance

See also

• List of castles, palaces, aristocratic residences and fortified sites in the Main-Tauber district

literature

• Manuscript by Karl Dietel in the Münchberg City Archives
• Karl Hofmann: A thousand years of Boxberg Castle in Franconia. Lecture. 26 pages, with one illustration. Boxberg 1932.
• Horst Carl: The Swabian Federation 1488–1534. Country peace and cooperative society in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Reformation (= writings on Southwest German regional studies , vol. 24). DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2000, ISBN 3-87181-424-5 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Boxberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of the castle at Burgenarchiv.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Private website about Boxberg ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 12, 2008)  
2. ^ The local history museum in Boxberg on boxberg.de ( Memento from February 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )