Egisheim Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Egisheim Castle and the Leokapelle in the center of Eguisheim

The castle Egisheim ( French Château d'Eguisheim , including Château de Saint-Léon or - to distinguish it from skin-Eguisheim  - Bas-Eguisheim called) is a castle in the center of the Alsatian village of Eguisheim in the Lower Rhine , around six kilometers south of Colmar . The complex, which is often incorrectly referred to as the Palatinate , stands out from the numerous castles in Alsace with its octagonal floor plan with a central, also octagonal keep , which is only known from Wangen and Gebweiler in this region . The exact time the castle was built has not yet been clarified; possible builders are the Counts of Dagsburg or the diocese of Strasbourg . However, research in the last few decades has shown that the claim that Egisheim Castle was the birthplace of Pope Leo IX , which has been handed down since the 19th century . , cannot be conclusively proven. The plant is since March 27, 1903 under monument protection (now a monument historique ).

history

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Illustration of the castle by François Walter, 1785

The Etichonen , whose descendants were the later Counts of Egisheim , had possessions in Egisheim early on, but the assumption that the city ​​castle there was built in the 8th century by Count Eberhard, the grandson of Duke Eticho , is unbelievable. This statement, which was often made in the past, is based on the Ebermünsterer Chronik , which was only created in the 12th century , in which it can be read that Count Eberhard, who died in 747, lived in Egisheim Castle, which he built. In addition to the fact that the history of the monastery was only recorded four centuries after the actual event and its correctness is therefore rather doubtful, the nearby Hoh-Egisheim Castle would have been a much more likely place of residence for Count Eberhard. All documented mentions of a castrum Egisheim in the period from the 11th to the middle of the 13th century refer to this hilltop castle above the place, which was inherited by the Counts of Dagsburg after the Count of Egisheim died out in 1144. With the death of Gertrude von Dagsburg, daughter of Count Albert II, in 1225, this family also died out, and several parties raised claims to his successor. In addition to the Leiningen family, these included the Margraves of Baden , the Counts of Pfirt and the diocese of Strasbourg. A war of succession broke out between them, which may have been the reason for the construction of the city castle. At least the Counts of Dagsburg or their direct successors are considered to be the builders of the facility. On November 2, 1226, the Strasbourg bishop Berthold von Teck bought the claimed rights to Egisheim from the margrave of Baden.

Due to architectural features in combination with the existing written records, the oldest building structure and thus the establishment of the complex can be dated to the first half of the 13th century. For this reason, the claim, often found in older publications, that Egisheim Castle was the birthplace of Brunos von Egisheim-Dagsburg, who later became Pope Leo IX, in 1002 cannot be proven. The first documentary mention, which undoubtedly refers to the Egisheimer Stadtburg, can be found in a Strasbourg property register from the time of Bishop Johann I , which confirms that Bertschin von Blienswilr ( French Berschelin de Blienswiler ) a quarter of the castle in the City of Egisheim was a fiefdom at that time ( quartam partem castri siti in opido Egensheim ). In 1348 the entire complex was owned by Hans von cells mountain, the governor of Egisheim. Temporarily occupied by the Écorcheurs in 1444 , shortly before 1600 it was in a poor structural condition, so that it was restored at "low cost". During the Thirty Years War it served as a safe place to keep the church treasures of Husseren-les-Châteaux .

Post-revolutionary period

Plan drawing for the redesign of the castle and the addition of the chapel by Charles Winkler, 1886

The castle remained the seat of the Strasbourg bailiwick until the French Revolution . Then it was confiscated as church property and declared national property, which was sold to private in 1795. The new owner had the keep and the gate construction of the castle demolished and the other buildings converted into accommodations for day laborers . During this work, the moat that was still in place was also filled in. After the post-revolutionary buildings had burned down in a fire in January 1877, their remains were completely laid down in the same year. In 1885, the later Strasbourg Bishop Peter Paul Stumpf acquired the castle complex in the name of his diocese to create a memorial for Pope Leo IX. set up. According to plans by the architect Charles Winkler , he had the leo chapel built in neo-Romanesque style between 1886 and 1895 on the site of the former keep . Subsequently, from 1903, the logis was rebuilt using the masonry of the previous building that was still preserved. Winkler added a stair tower and a balcony in the neo-renaissance style to the residential building . In 1908, the ring wall of the complex , which was still largely preserved, was secured, relieved of buildings and restored . During the work, the foundation of the former keep, which is below today's ground level, was discovered and exposed, but later filled in again. A further exposure and restoration of the curtain wall took place from 1988 to 1989.

Today the castle belongs to the Egisheim community, which uses it as an event space and for temporary exhibitions. Visitors can only see the inside of the lodge as part of such events or on a guided tour organized by the local tourist office .

description

Floor plan of the castle based on a plan from 1790

Curtain wall and gate

Egisheim Castle rises on an octagonal area with a diameter of 32 meters, which is surrounded on all sides by a 1.78 meter thick circular wall from the 13th century. The double city ​​wall of Egisheim runs at a distance of 90 and 100 meters from the castle and indicates that the defense system was probably in the center of the village from the start. The lower part of the curtain wall is clad with 14 layers of humpback blocks made of yellow sandstone at a height of five meters , while the upper part of the wall - like all later parts of the castle - consists of red sandstone. The height of the curtain wall now varies between 12.97 and 13.16 meters. Seven of the eight sides of the wall once had a round arched slit window in the middle , on the eighth side the castle gate was located in a risalit with a protruding half-timbered upper floor. Due to the preserved construction seam, the no longer preserved risalit can be used as an extension of the 15th / 16th century. Century. The ogival gate had Gothic shapes and a stepped garment with a cornice . On the north side of the curtain wall, the two console stones of a lavatory can still be seen today.

Defense elements

In addition to a battlement as the upper end of the curtain wall, Egisheim Castle had other defensive elements for its protection. These included an approximately twelve-meter-wide moat that surrounded the castle on all sides, and a drawbridge that was still there in 1578 but has now disappeared. In 1790 the ditch was still in existence and in the northern area it was still filled with water, but its southern area was already filled in at that time and transformed into a garden. Both the garden and the moat no longer exist today.

building

Housing in the neo-renaissance style

The center of the facility was the octagonal keep, the sides of which were 2.2 meters thick and 3.8 meters long, giving the tower a total width of almost eleven meters. Its masonry consisted of bumpy blocks with a chipped edge. The keep was demolished in 1795, but remains of it were still visible around 1840. There was also a residential building ( Logis ), which leaned against the southern curtain wall from the inside. It is still preserved today, but only got its neo-renaissance appearance during a partial reconstruction at the beginning of the 20th century. His stair tower with internal spiral staircase does not belong to the initial building stock, but comes from that construction work. The two-storey logis has a depth of eight meters and was originally built at the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, as indicated by the originally preserved cross-frame windows . The door in the north gable of the building used to lead to the battlement on the curtain wall.

The castle also had a number of farm buildings, which, like the residential building, leaned against the inside of the curtain wall. Their number and structural condition are unclear, because due to the renovations and a fire there are only minor signs of construction. On the south side there was probably a building that had at least one upper floor. Another building on the west side of the complex has been handed down in writing.

literature

  • Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 1200–1250 (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Volume 2). Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich / Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06635-9 , pp. 55–57, 195–201.
  • Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace (= castles, palaces, mansions. Volume 24). Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1962, pp. 132-134.
  • Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales d'Alsace. Dictionnaire d'histoire et d'architecture. La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 2013, ISBN 978-2-7165-0828-5 , pp. 80–81.
  • Gilbert Meyer: Eguisheim. In: Roland Recht (Ed.): Le Guide des Château de France. 68 Haut-Rhin. Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-025-5 , pp. 32-33.
  • Charles Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace. Alsatia, Strasbourg 1991, ISBN 2-7032-0193-1 , pp. 73-74.
  • Felix Wolff: Alsatian Castle Lexicon. Reprint of the 1908 edition. Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1008-2 , pp. 53-55.

Web links

Commons : Egisheim Castle  - Collection of images

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on January 18, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Brief history , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  3. ^ A b c Gilbert Meyer: Eguisheim. 1986, p. 32.
  4. ↑ a b c Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 195.
  5. ^ Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace. 1962, p. 133.
  6. ↑ Christian Wildorf: Le château de Haut-Eguisheim jusqu'en 1251. Regestes. In: Revue d'Alsace. Volume 106, 1980, ISSN  0181-0448 , pp. 30-31.
  7. ↑ Jean-Marie Nick: Eguisheim: un château au cœur de la ville , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  8. ^ A b c Charles Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace. 1991, p. 73.
  9. ↑ Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 200.
  10. ↑ According to Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz, Der late Romanische Burgenbau im Elsaß. 1200-1250. 2007, p. 195 and p. 201, note 21. Charles Laurent Salch, dates the corresponding entry to 1355 and thus to the time of Bishop John II. See Charles Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace. 1991, p. 74.
  11. ↑ Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 201, note 21.
  12. ^ Charles Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace. 1991, p. 74.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 196.
  14. ^ Felix Wolff: Elsässisches Burgenlexikon. 1979, p. 55.
  15. ↑ Information about the castle on the website tourisme-alsace.com , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  16. ^ Website of the Egisheim Tourist Office ( Memento from June 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ a b Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 198.
  18. ↑ a b c Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 199.
  19. ^ Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages . Flechsig, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-88189-360-1 , p. 163.
  20. ^ Walter Hotz: Small art history of the German castle . 5th edition. Komet, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-89836-220-5 , p. 50.
  21. ↑ Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace. 2007, p. 201, note 27.

Coordinates: 48 ° 2 ′ 33.6 ″  N , 7 ° 18 ′ 21.9 ″  E