Camburg Castle
| Camburg Castle | ||
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 Camburg Castle |
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| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 3 '9 " N , 11 ° 42' 41" E | |
| Height: | 179 m above sea level NN | |
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The castle Camburg is the ruins of a hilltop castle of the same name Camburg , a district of at the Saale located town Dornburg-Camburg in Saale-Holzland in Thuringia , about 20 km north of Jena halfway to Naumburg .
location
The right of the Saale on the "Meißener Stadtseite" of Camburg, extending in north-south direction, about 285 m long and 25-75 m wide castle hill (179 m above sea level) is through a wide and deep ditch through the Today the trunk road B 88 leads, separated in two parts. Originally, the Saaltal- or Nuremberg road ran north-south connection called, posing as impressive ravine has received along the eastern slope of the valley of Schleuskauer creek. According to the written sources of the Middle Ages, two castles, a lower one ( inferius castrum ) and an upper one ( superius castrum in Camburg, que vulgariter dicuntur enclosure ), are said to have existed in Camburg . However, it can be assumed that both mentions refer to this facility and that only the parts of the mountain spur at different heights have been distinguished.
history
Already in the second half of the 11th century a branch line of the Wettins took their seat in Camburg, after they had already gained a foothold from their ancestral castle up the hall near Weissenfels . After 1088 a Wilhelm appears as Count von Camburg in a document . He was the middle son of Count Gero von Landsberg (* around 1020, † after 1089) and brother of 1079 of anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden as Bishop of (ruled 1077-1080.) Naumburg collected Günther I of Wettin († 1090, reg . 1079-1090). Together with his older brother Count Dietrich von Brehna († before 1116) he is represented among the donor figures created around 1250 in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral. With Wilhelm, the line died out in the male line before 1116 and the county of Camburg fell to the Wettin margrave of Meissen, Konrad the Great (1123-1156).
For the margraves, the castle was of great importance as a base against the Ludowingers . Its traffic situation was extraordinarily favorable, as it was at an important Saale crossing and (later?) The intersection of Saaltal or Nürnberger Strasse with the so-called Salzstrasse, which led from Sulza an der Ilm via Schmiedehausen.
The Wettins had the castle administered by Ministeriale , who belonged to the family of a Gerhard von Camburg. From 1133 to 1190 - mostly in Naumburg bishops' documents - there were also representatives of a noble sex, which also named itself after Camburg. According to more recent research by Wolfgang Hartmann , both families are descendants of Count Dietmar von Selbold-Gelnhausen from the Franconian noble family of the Reginbodonen , whose wife Adelheid was closely related to Count Wilhelm von Camburg and his wife Gepa. From Dietmar and Adelheid , the burgraves of Kirchberg , the noble free of Gleißberg ( Kunitzburg ) and other noble families in the area, possibly also the Lobdeburger, descend after Hartmann . Within the aforementioned Naumburg donor cycle, the portrait of Wilhelm von Camburg is conspicuously aligned with the statue of a (slain) Count Dietmar, who, according to Hartmann, is Wilhelm's relative (probably brother-in-law). Hartmann also connects the Camburg Cyriakus Chapel (as Adelheid's grave site) with Dietmar and asks whether the division of Camburg Castle in two originates from the coexistence of the Counts Wilhelm and Dietmar. This could be supported by the fact that the Wettin heirs of Wilhelm von Camburg also played a role in the history of Gelnhausen Castle (as the predecessor of the imperial palace there).
Since Camburg was apparently intended to have a central function for the south-western part of their domain, the Wettins tried to expand the castle settlement, which already existed there in 1149 to the right of the Saale. The castle is documented for the first time in 1166 in a document by Margrave Otto the Rich (1156–1190). In 1170 a chaplain from Camburg appears as a witness in a document from Margrave Otto. The castle chapel itself is mentioned for the first time in 1213 and several times in the following years. At the end of the 12th century, Camburg was one of the most important fortifications of Margrave Albrecht I the Proud (ruled 1190–1195), along with Leipzig and Meißen . In the course of the dispute between him and his younger brother Dietrich , the castle was besieged and captured by the Thuringian landgrave Hermann I , who was allied with Dietrich . In 1194/95 Albrecht apparently had the castle expanded again.
In 1280 Camburg is said to have been besieged unsuccessfully by Count Günther von Kevernburg in the course of the fighting Albrecht II the Degenerate (1240-1314) with his sons . It is also sometimes assumed that Camburg was one of the approximately 60 castles that were destroyed by King Rudolf von Habsburg and the city of Erfurt in 1290/91 . After frequent changes of ownership in the 14th century, the castle was sold to Vitzthume in 1439 and completely destroyed in the Saxon fratricidal war in 1450 by Elector Friedrich II the Meek (1412–1464), with the exception of the keep .
Also in the future the city and changed office Camburg with the square of the castle still often the owner: in 1485 they came first to the Albertine line , in 1573 the Ernestine line of the Wettin , 1603 to the product obtained from this line Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg and in the following years to other of the frequently changing Ernestine duchies. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a restaurant was built in the ruins of the castle and the area was converted into a park. The inn was demolished in January and February 1935 and the lower castle was expanded into a " youth castle " for the Hitler Youth and the Association of German Girls .
After extensive renovation, the keep has been used as a museum since 2006 and also serves as a lookout tower . There is also a registry office in one of the castle buildings .
investment
Of the complex, which was probably founded in the second half of the 11th century and destroyed in 1450, only the impressive keep and a few remains of the surrounding wall have been preserved.
Preserved building remains
The lower castle in the area known today as the Turmberg is a roughly square complex. The 37 m high keep with an outside diameter of 11 m, which was probably built in the second half of the 12th century or at the beginning of the 13th century, has been preserved. Some remains of the arched castle wall still emerge from it. From the presumed upper castle, now known as Matzberg, the huge 45 m long, 25 m wide and 15 m high earth wall, which seals off the spur to the south, has been preserved. There is a considerable difference in altitude between the two.
Results of the archaeological investigations in 1935
During the construction of a construction pit for the “ Jugendburg ” in January and February 1935, several wall sections and finds came to light along the western edge of the mountain. At the location of today's L-shaped residential wing, a slightly trapezoidal cellar (5 × 6 m) and other remains of the foundation were uncovered and then measured by Gotthard Neumann and the staff of the Germanic Museum at the University of Jena . Although it was not a regular scientific excavation, since the uncovering and recovery of the finds were in the hands of the architect and site manager, the investigation of the Camburg ruins is nevertheless one of the first medieval archaeological measures on a castle in Central Germany.
The exposed walls belong to a larger and probably representative building that rose south of the keep. Since the rooms showed signs of fire and were filled with construction or fire rubble, which contained a large number of finds, it can be assumed that this building was destroyed by fire.
The oldest finds date from between 1080 and 1220/25. Fragments of older ceramics in the Slavic manufacturing tradition are so far neither from the tower nor from the Matzberg. The bulk of the ceramic material belongs to the gray / blue-gray earthenware of the 13th to 15th centuries. In addition to the earthenware, stoneware is also represented with several examples, including a so-called Jacoba jug, which probably comes from Waldenburger production. The majority of the stoneware vessels date to the 14th century. Few pieces, such as a small pot with handle and the rest of a mineral water bottle made of stoneware, date from modern times.
The extraordinary ceramic finds include the remainder of an aquamanile in the form of a horse's head (b) and the torso of a rider, as well as a mask that is believed to represent a lion's head (f). The remains of a ribbed glass cup belong to the middle of the 15th century. A Prague groschen and the lid of a box for Meissen groschen (g) are particularly noteworthy among the coins found . Of the other finds are copper fittings with inscriptions (i, n = book clasp?), Strap fittings made of copper or brass (c, d), an earring originally probably provided with a pearl (u), a pearled wire with gold plating (e) and a steep eight-pronged ridge from leg (q). In addition, a number of weapon parts and tools made of metal were recovered, such as a bolt point (w), the nut of a brass crossbow (a), the remains of two trapezoidal stirrups (m), several wave and slipper irons (r, p , v), a donkey iron (l), chain parts (k), a door hinge, a number of fittings, a manure and a meat fork etc. the fragment of a sting Sporens (t) can only generally in the 10-11. Century to be dated. A poultry bone with a central drill hole (p) can have served as a toggle or as a buzzing / buzzing toy, a toy that produces a sound with the help of a twisted thread. The informative value of the finds remains limited, however, as a more precise stratigraphic classification is missing.
Overall, this confirms that the castle was built in the second half of the 11th century at the earliest. It has been assumed since the 19th century and in some cases is still claimed to date back to the 9th / 10th. and the beginning of the 11th century can be almost ruled out. A more precise archaeological dating of the beginnings is still hardly possible, based on the finds only an existence of a castle in the period around 1200 or in the first quarter of the 13th century is certain. The facility came to an end in the middle of the 15th century, although a connection between the fire effects described and the traditional destruction in the Saxon civil war in 1450 can be assumed. However, the area was occasionally walked on and used for various purposes in the following period, as indicated by some recent finds.
No archaeological investigations have yet been carried out on the upper castle. A few finds were recovered when the area was redesigned into a park at the beginning of the 20th century. This includes another steep ridge, which is also only generally in the 12th-14th centuries. Century can be dated, a lance tip and six crossbow bolt tips. The finds are lost and only passed down as a drawing. A determination of the age of the facility and a comparison with the lower castle are therefore not possible. It is also unclear whether the built huge earthen wall sections in the Middle Ages or a Bronze Age belongs fortress because the terrain of the lower castle some Urnfield be fragments of ceramics.
literature
- Ewald Eichhorn: History of the county of Camburg. 12 parts. In: Writings of the Association for Saxony-Meiningen History and Regional Studies. Vol. 20, 1895, ZDB ID 513329-4 ; Vol. 22, 1896; Vol. 26, 1897; Vol. 34, 1899; Vol. 41, 1902; Vol. 48, 1904; Vol. 55, 1907; Vol. 60, 1910; Vol. 64, 1912.
- Gustav Eichhorn : The prehistoric and early historical finds of the county Camburg. In: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Archeology. Vol. 22, 1904, ZDB -ID 200434-3 , pp. 97-144, 269-330.
- Gotthard Neumann : Camburg Castle on the Saale, historically and archaeologically. In: Karl-Heinz Otto , Joachim Herrmann (ed.): Settlement, castle and city. Studies at its beginnings (= German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Writings of the Section for Prehistory and Early History. Vol. 25). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1969, pp. 404-418.
- Walter Schlesinger : Church history of Saxony in the Middle Ages (= Central German research. Vol. 27). 2nd unchanged edition. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1983, ISBN 3-412-02078-8 .
- Stefan Pätzold : The early Wettins. Noble family and house tradition until 1221 (= history and politics in Saxony. Vol. 6). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1997, ISBN 3-412-08697-5 (also: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 1996).
- Thomas Bienert: Medieval castles in Thuringia. 430 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-631-1 , pp. 195f.
Web links
- Excavations in Camburg Castle in 1935 ( memento of June 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (expanded version of this text with numerous illustrations).
- Wolfgang Hartmann: From the Main to Trifels Castle - from Hirsau Monastery to Naumburg Cathedral Information on the book by Wolfgang Hartmann
Individual evidence
- ↑ Camburg Castle on Thuringia.info