Ehrenfels Castle (Bavaria)

Ehrenfels Castle
Wall tower on the south side (1989)
Creation time :	probably shortly before 1256
Castle type :	Höhenburg in the summit
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Humpback block masonry
Place:	Beratzhausen- Haderlsdorf
Geographical location	49 ° 5 '59.2 "  N , 11 ° 47' 7.4"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 5 '59.2 "  N , 11 ° 47' 7.4"  E
Height:	554.8  m above sea level NN

The Ehrenfels Castle is the ruin of a high medieval to modern nobility castle in market Beratzhausen in Upper Palatinate district of Regensburg in Bavaria , Germany .

Geographical location

The ruins of the Gipfelburg are located in the western part of the Upper Palatinate on the mountain cone of 554.8  m above sea level. NN high Schlossberg , which rises about 150 meters above the valley of the Schwarzen Laaber . It is located about 1.6 kilometers west-northwest of the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Beratzhausen, or about 25 kilometers northwest of Regensburg .

In the vicinity of the Ehrenfels castle ruins, there is another medieval fortification to the west, the Hohe Felsen castle stable above the Schwarzen Laaber valley, and also northeast of Ehrenfels, on a spur over the Kohlmühle surrounded by the Schwarzen Laaber, there is a presumably early medieval section fortification .

investment

On the castle hill just yet Wall and now are digging , remnants of irregular polygonal landscaped mountain ring to see and the gate, the ruins of two round towers and a semi-circular tower and masonry foundation remains of the residential tract of the former castle.

history

Donation deed from 1256

The castle is mentioned for the first time in a deed of donation from Chunrad von Ernfels . He gave away his Gut Dettenhofen and his mother Hatwig her Gut Anzenhofer to the Pielenhofen Monastery to compensate for the annual tithe . In this document, which is in the State Archives in Augsburg , the Ehrenfelsers, who emerged from the Hohenfelsers , are mentioned for the first time. Even in the 16th century, the Ehrenfelsers were referred to as patrons and founders of the second oldest Cistercian monastery in the diocese of Regensburg, founded in 1237.

On August 23, 1335, Dietrich von Stauf was awarded Ehrenfels Castle by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian . But Dietrich reserves the man fiefs belonging to Stauf Castle and so the property around Stauf remained in the property of the family, while the headquarters was relocated to Ehrenfels.

Edification

Away from the old settlement and parish centers, the Ehrenfelsers , who were initially in the service of the Regensburg bishops, had established their center of power on the border of the bishopric of Regensburg . At the time, this place must have been ideal for a castle stand, because possible enemies could be spotted early due to the exposed location. The castle's special moat system can still be seen today and indicates that originally there must have been an extensive outer bailey in the south . Also unusual is the division of the core castle into two parts , which is still unmistakable today despite the ongoing decline and which can be traced back to an expansion of the original castle complex in the late Middle Ages.

On January 23, 1492, Ehrenfels Castle was captured by Duke Albrecht IV after an eight-day siege and was badly damaged. The reason for this was the significant participation of the Stauffer zu Ehrenfels in the knight rebellion of the Löwlerbund .

In 1567 the Ehrenfels rulership and thus the castle was sold to Pfalz-Neuburg , lost its function as a center and has fallen into disrepair over the years. In part, it was even used as a quarry for the nearby Beratzhausen.

Constant decline

As early as 1914, the former mayor of Beratzhausen, Alois Koller, feared the ruin of the castle, because in his “Chronik des Marktes Beratzhausen” he wrote: “The mossy remains of this venerable ruin would like to be protected by a protective hand ... and so the remains of Ehrenfels Castle even later generations proclaim as a sublime monument that powerful families lived here for centuries ”. But at the beginning of the 20th century there were still traces of the horse pond, the beginnings of the vault of the sacristy of the St. Michael castle chapel and a flat archway, and over the years more and more stones disappeared. In 1982, the local and home curator at the time began to repair and secure the endangered walls. Despite the many hours worked, the work could not be completed for financial reasons.

Argula of Stauff

The reformer Argula von Grumbach , née Reichsfreiin von Stauff, is also closely associated with Ehrenfels Castle . She was probably born in 1492 and grew up at Ehrenfels Castle. From 1523 Argula took a position for Luther with her leaflets. The New Zealand theologian Peter Matheson Argula's bold demeanor led back to "the pride and self-confidence of the Stauffer, who were among the most outstanding families of the Bavarian aristocracy".

The Stauffer von Ehrenfels and their castle in literature

But also in later years, especially in the 19th century, the castle ruins exerted a strong fascination on interesting personalities. In 1827, the historian and archivist Max Prokop von Freyberg wrote his work “Die Stauffer von Ehrenfels, partly history, partly novel”, Julie von Zerzog, known through her correspondence with the former reform minister Count von Montgelas, wrote a contribution for the historical association Regensburg and the Upper Palatinate with the title "Beratzhausen and the ruins of Ehrenfels im Nordgau".

Stauffer gravestones

In 1478 Hans von Stauff died. His valuable grave slab, made by master builder Roritzer, which shows the Stauffer in Gothic slab equipment, was supposedly originally in the castle chapel of St. Michael and is now attached to the west wall of the Beratzhausen parish church.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas Boos , Burgen im Süd der Oberpfalz , 1998, p. 109 ff.
2. ↑ Boos, Burgen im Süd der Oberpfalz , 1998, p. 114 ff.
3. ^ Wolfgang Wiessner: Hilpoltstein . In: Commission for Bavarian State History at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Historical Atlas of Bavaria . Part Franconia, Series I, Issue 24. Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7696-9908-4 , p. 83 ( digitized version ).
4. ↑ Manfred Jehle: Stauffer zu Ehrenfels, noble family. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria. May 28, 2013, accessed October 24, 2016 . 
5. ^ Joseph Maria Mayer: The regent house Wittelsbach or: Geschichte Bayerns 1880, p. 443.
6. ^ Peter Matheson: Argula von Grumbach. A woman's voice in the reformation . Clark, Edinburgh 1995, ISBN 0-567-09707-2 .

literature

• Andreas Boos: Castles in the south of the Upper Palatinate . Universitätsverlag Regensburg, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-930480-03-4 , pp. 282-289.
• Ursula Pfistermeister : Castles of the Upper Palatinate . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1974, ISBN 3-7917-0394-3 , pp. 85-86.
• Achim Hubel: Berthold Furtmeyr and the Regensburg Illumination of the Late Middle Ages. In: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Regensburg book painting . Prestel-Verlag Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7913-0802-5 , pp. 111-120, plates 73 and 169-172.
• Christoph Wagner and Clemens Unger: Berthold Furtmeyr. Masterpieces of illumination and the art of Regensburg in the late Gothic and Renaissance periods . Schnell & Steiner GmbH, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2313-1 , pp. 33, 530.
• Irmgard Prommersberger: Stauff (-Ehrenfels). In: Werner Paravicini (Ed.), Jörg Wettlaufer, Jan Hirschbiegel : Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire: Counts and lords . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7995-4525-9 , pp. 1415-1441.

Web links

Commons : Ehrenfels Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ehrenfels Castle ruins on the Burgseite.de website
• Ehrenfels Castle ruins on the Burgenwelt.org site
• Ehrenfels castle ruins on the side of the House of Bavarian History (plans, history, building history, existing buildings)