Daun Castle
| Daun Castle, Dhaun (around 1900) | ||
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 Castle hill from the south: Right the tithe barn, Evangelical Church, left office building, aerial photo (2015) |
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| Alternative name (s): | Daun Castle | |
| Creation time : | around 1000 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Ring wall, bastion tower | |
| Standing position : | Noble | |
| Place: | Down | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 11 '50.1 " N , 6 ° 49' 52.8" E | |
| Height: | 445 m above sea level NHN | |
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The Burg Daun is the ruins of a hilltop castle . It was the family seat of the gentlemen in Daun , in Oberstein an der Nahe, in Densborn near Gerolstein, in Bruch near Wittlich and Zievel near Euskirchen. Before the time of the Daun lords and later counts, the basalt hill was probably a Celtic refuge and in the following period a Roman watchpoint.
The castle has been destroyed several times, most recently in the Palatinate War of Succession in 1689 by French troops from Louis XIV, like most of the Eifel castles. Today only a curtain wall and a bastion tower with loopholes remain from the former castle, which is probably over 1000 years old .
The office building, which was replaced by the hunting lodge from 1712 by Elector Karl III. Joseph of Lorraine is now used as a hotel. Below the castle there are several restored Burgmannen houses, which are also under monument protection.
history
From around 700 BC A refuge of the Celts could be proven by individual finds . Around 50 BC Chr. Was located on the site of a fortified waiting the Romans , as can be concluded from the discovery of a tomb. Towards the end of the 9th century, Daun Castle was built as the town residence of the Lords of Daun, who lived on the "Altenburg" near Schalkenmehren.
In the middle of the 14th century, Daun consisted of the castle and the town built close to the steep rock. Daun had city rights, the castle men took the toll for the lord of the castle, Aegidius von Daun, known as "the great Gilles". Aegidius had received the city of Daun as a fief from King John of Bohemia in 1340. He excelled as an impartial arbiter in a number of disputes, but a few minor knights allied against him. Aegidius won this dispute in 1348 and was reconciled with his enemies.
But the intrigues and complaints about robber barons in his area of office increased. In addition, the small free county of Daun was sandwiched between the archbishopric of Trier and Cologne. In 1352 a campaign by Baldwin against Daun was settled by a peace treaty, details are not documented. Gilles was obliged to pay damages but did not come to the trial. He felt that he was being treated unfairly.
A year later, the archbishops Baldwin of Trier and Wilhelm of Cologne got together to take Daun Castle under the pretext that Gilles was a robber baron. Eventually the castle was conquered and Gilles was forced into the feudal lordship of Baldwin. However, the castle was hardly damaged. Since then, Daun has belonged to the Electorate of Trier , and spiritually to the Archdiocese of Cologne. The Burgmannen houses below the castle and the city were razed and destroyed. The castle building itself was divided. In order to pay damages, Aegidius had to go into debt and therefore had to sell large parts of his office and the house of Nannstein to Baldwin. Balduin von Trier received the Nannstein house, a tower and the castle ring. The Rodemacher house with its own wall was given to Wilhelm of Cologne. But two years later, Gilles lived in the castle again, so he had the right to live in it. In the later decades, several branches of the family shared the houses in the shape of a Ganerbeburg. Aegidius' grandson, Johann, planned to rebuild the town of Daun in 1398, but that did not materialize. The new Daun was created on the other side of the castle, the steep side towards the Lieser was only repopulated in the 19th century.
In 1643 the lords of the castle were raised to the status of imperial count and were now called "Counts and Lords von und zu Daun". The last count who lived in Daun Castle was Philipp Ernst von und zu Daun. In 1657 his brother, Wilhelm Johann Anton Count Daun, entered Austrian service. His son Count Wirich Philipp von und zu Daun made a military career there, and his son Leopold Joseph von Daun , Field Marshal General of Maria Theresia of Austria and Prince von Tiano, achieved fame during the Seven Years' War . This line of the Counts of Daun also died out in the 18th century.
The building had been badly damaged since the Thirty Years War , but funds were not available for renovation. In 1637 the plague had killed half of the population, and taxes were practically non-existent. Looting soldiers continued to roam the country long after the war was over. Since the death of Count Philipp Ernst in 1671, the buildings were used by the elector's bailiffs. Part of the tithe received went to the descendants in Austria. In 1689 the town and castle were destroyed by French troops from King Louis XIV , who tore down most of the palaces and castles in the Eifel and the Palatinate during the War of the Palatinate Succession . The town was plundered and the Catholic Church used as a horse stable.
The next Elector of Trier, Karl Joseph von Lothringen , had the heavily damaged main house rebuilt as a hunting lodge in 1712. His coat of arms can still be seen above the main entrance, it was restored in the 1990s. The descendants of the former count, who lived in Austria, had to help finance the construction of the castle. The ruins of the other buildings and the rest of the property were therefore sold to the elector by the community of heirs in 1714. They merely retained ownership of the castle, but it soon became clear that the rental income did not cover the costs of maintenance. In 1722 they sold the half-ruined castle and all ownership rights to Elector Franz Ludwig .
In 1793, during the French Revolution , the electorate was confiscated and all properties were auctioned. Daun Castle was now ownerless and stood empty for a long time and was further destroyed and devastated by the occupation. In 1815 the town and castle Daun came into Prussian possession. Daun became the seat of the chief forester's office, the office man's house served as an administration building. At the east end of the castle there is still a large barn (tithe barn) with a crooked hip roof from 1740 with the Trier cross in the keystone of the wide gate.
A Protestant church in neo-Gothic style was built on the castle grounds from 1865 to 1867 . It was primarily intended for the Prussian officials, as the population of the former electorate was largely Catholic at that time.
In 1948 the state of Rhineland-Palatinate took over sovereignty. In 1957 the town of Daun became the owner of the castle. In 1978 the main building went into private ownership and was expanded into a hotel in the following years (Schloss-Hotel Kurfürstliches Amtshaus).
literature
- Walter Pippke, Ida Leinberger: The Eifel. History and culture of the old volcanic region between Aachen and Trier (= DuMont art travel guide ). 5th edition. DuMont, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-7701-3926-2 , p. 244 .
- University of Bonn (Ed.): Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter. Publications of the department for Rhenish regional history . Vol. 1, 1931, ISSN 0035-4473 .
- Johann Friedrich Schannat , Georg Bärsch : Eiflia illustrata or geographical and historical description of the Eifel . tape 1 , part 1, 1824, OCLC 46772408 .
Web links
- Michael Losse's entry on Daun Castle in the " EBIDAT " scientific database of the European Castle Institute
- General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Vulkaneifel district. Mainz 2020, p. 8 (PDF; 4.6 MB).
- Yearbook Vulkaneifel: Destruction of the city of Daun 1353
- Yearbook Vulkaneifel: The castle in modern times
- History of the city of Daun
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto Piper : Castle Studies. Construction and history of castles .... 3rd edition 1912 Munich. New edition Weltbild Verlag GmbH, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-554-7 , p. 584
- ↑ Hanswilhelm Haef: The 2nd manual of useless knowledge . Books on Demand, 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3754-4 , pp. 76 .
- ^ A b Dorothee Kern: Eifel, Aachen . HB-Verlag, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-616-06383-6 , p. 120 f .
- ↑ Michael Maass: A guest in the castle - a travel guide to hotels in historic houses in Germany . wtv, Weimar 2007, p. 82 .