Breitenstein Castle (Palatinate)
| Breitenstein Castle | ||
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 Breitenstein Castle |
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| Creation time : | 1246 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg rocky location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | Humpback cuboid | |
| Place: | Breitenstein | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 20 '40 " N , 7 ° 59' 55" E | |
| Height: | 220 m above sea level NN | |
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The ruins of Breitenstein Castle on a 220 meter high steep slope on the northern side of the Speyerbach Valley in the Palatinate Forest four kilometers east of Elmstein in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate .
history
The rock castle was probably built in 1246 during the unrest when Emperor Frederick II was deposed by Pope Innocent IV . It was first mentioned in a document in 1257 in connection with a knight from Kropsberg, castellan of Breitenstein and servant of the Counts of Leiningen . The knight then called himself Burkhard von Breitenstein in 1265. In 1339 Jakob von Flörsheim was employed as a castle man .
After the death of King Rudolf von Habsburg , fighting broke out between the Habsburgs and their opponents in 1291 . During this time the Counts of Sponheim built a siege castle just a few meters south of Breitenstein Castle. The two plants were only separated from each other by a wide neck ditch . The siege castle was mentioned in 1340 as Nieder-Breitenstein . In that year, Count Walram von Sponheim was found guilty at the royal court in Munich of having built a castle without permission on the territory of the Speyer monastery , and was supposed to cede it to the Speyer liege Friedrich Horneck. Against this judgment, however, Count Palatine Rudolf II raised an objection and declared the Sponheimer his liege, so that he was allowed to keep the castle.
In 1357 a truce agreement was signed that stipulated that the larger siege castle would henceforth be considered the main castle and the older, smaller building complex as the outer castle.
After the complex was mentioned for the last time in 1382, it probably came into the possession of the Counts of Leiningen in 1437 and was probably destroyed in 1470/71 during a feud between its owner family and the Elector Friedrich I - the so-called Electoral Palatinate War.
After the ruins came to the State Palace Administration of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1963, conservation measures were carried out on the walls from 1988 to 1989.
investment
The late Baptist core castle rises on a narrow rock plinth that is only accessible to experienced climbers today . The shield wall , executed all around in humpback ashlar masonry , has been preserved almost in its entirety . Seen from the mountain side, its right edge is beveled. The corbels of the battlements on the inside of the wall already show Gothic elements. The attack side is additionally protected by a neck ditch carved deep out of the rock . A modest residential building rose behind the shield wall, of which the surrounding walls are only partially preserved. The castle was not accessed via the moat , but via a staircase carved out of the rock on the south side. Around the rock is an almost rectangular lower castle, of which only small remains of the wall have been preserved. Beyond the neck ditch, about 50 m away and 20 m higher, are the remains of a separate outer bailey with its own ditch.
literature
- Magnus Backes, Heinz Straeter: State castles, palaces and antiquities in Rhineland-Palatinate . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2003, ISBN 3-7954-1566-7 .
- Manfred Czerwinski: Castles - proud witnesses of a great time - Palatinate and the surrounding area . Verlag Superior, Kaiserslautern, 2002, ISBN 3-936216-07-X .
- Walter Eitelmann: Knight Stones in the Palatinate Forest . 4. revised and substantially exp. Edition Palatinate Forest Association, Neustadt / Weinstraße 1998, ISBN 3-00-003544-3 .
- Arndt Hartung, Walter Hartung: Palatinate castle district . 6th, additional edition. Palatinate Publishing House , Ludwigshafen 1985, ISBN 3-9801043-0-3 .
- Walter Herrmann: On red rock. A guide to the most beautiful castles in the Palatinate and Alsatian Wasgau . Braun, Karlsruhe 2004, ISBN 3-7650-8286-4 .
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages . Bechtermünz-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-219-4 .
- Elena Rey: Castle Guide Palatinate . Superior, Kaiserslautern 2003, ISBN 3-936216-15-0 .
- Alexander Thon (Ed.): How swallow nests glued to the rock. Castles in the Northern Palatinate . 1st edition Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2005, pp. 40–43, ISBN 3-7954-1674-4 .