Eilenburg Castle
| Eilenburg Castle | ||
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 The Eilenburg with the office building, wall tower, keep and prison (from left to right), 1952 |
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| Alternative name (s): | Ilburg | |
| Creation time : | 9/10 century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Preserved essential parts | |
| Standing position : | High nobility | |
| Construction: | Brick | |
| Place: | Eilenburg | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 27 '31.7 " N , 12 ° 37' 23.4" E | |
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The Eilenburg (also Eulenburg ) is a castle complex in the Saxon town of Eilenburg of the same name in the district of Northern Saxony and was formerly in the area of the Limes Sorabicus . The Slavic fortification , which was probably built in the 9th century, became the center of Burgwards Ilburg in the second half of the 10th century . At the turn of the millennium it came into the possession of the Wettins and then gave the family of Eulenburg (noble family) its name of origin. The castle, which is important for the history of Saxony, today consists of two brick- built residential towers from the decades around 1200, a circular wall of about the same age , several moats and the baroque office building. The third tower, a keep of unknown age, partially collapsed in 1972. The ruin was blown up shortly afterwards.
history
Early and High Middle Ages
The hilltop castle was probably built in the 9th century and formed the center of a 270 square kilometer settlement area on the central hollow in the border zone of the Limes Sorabicus . The castle owners were probably called Siusli and belonged to the tribal association of the West Slavic Sorbs . The Eilenburg (Eulenburg u. Ä.) Was a ring-like scale castle on a dome-like rim height of Muldental , which included an approximately 220 by 150 meters large plateau. Remains of this fortification can be seen in up to ten meter high earth walls on the castle hill.
With the incorporation into Eastern Franconia and the structural recording of the areas between the Saale and Elbe under the kings Heinrich I and Otto I. , the castle became the center of a castle around the middle of the 10th century and thus in this region the center of the manor of Ilburg (Eulenburg, Eilenburg). Presumably, in connection with the establishment of the manor, the fortifications were also renewed and expanded, but no precise statements can be made about the type and scope of the redesign without extensive archaeological excavations. A church consecrated to St. Peter also belonged to the castle , which served primarily as a church for the castle garrison, but also as a church for the entire Burgward. Under canon law it belonged to the diocese of Merseburg , but due to the transfer of the church tithe from the income of the inherited subjects of the Ilburg manor to the Magdeburg Mauritius monastery, a not inconsiderable share of the local Benedictine monks in the mission of Christianity in the Eilenburg area can be assumed. A civitas Ilburg in the Suisile area is mentioned for the first time in a document from Otto I of July 29, 961 .
In the year 1000, the manorial rule , which was originally directly subordinate to the king, was the entire area with Eilenburg Castle in the center, in the county of Count Friedrich I from the Wettin family . After Friedrich's death, his nephew, who later became Margrave Dietrich I, was enfeoffed with the county of Eilenburg. The pagus Siusili and with it Eilenburg Castle became the eponymous ancestral seat of the Eulenburg family and were temporarily owned by the Wettin family again .
At the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, the castle experienced a representative expansion with a curtain wall and at least two, possibly three towers made of brick. The so-called Sorbenturm and the south-west tower of the castle were residential towers, which the castle men , presumably numerous of Sorbian origin, may have served as the seat of the castle. Among the Burgmanns are particularly those of Eulenburg, one of the most important ministerial families of the Wettins and subsequently owner of Eilenburg Castle (Eulenburg and the like). It is possible that the keep belongs to this expansion phase.
Late Middle Ages
At the turn of the 13th to the 14th century, the Eilenburg and the Mark Landsberg were incorporated into the domain of the Margraves of Brandenburg as pledges . In the 14th century the castle was redesigned again.
The Lords of Eulenburg sold the rule to Thimo von Colditz in 1376 , before it was destroyed in the Merseburg bishops feud in 1386 . In 1402, Margrave Wilhelm I bought the castle after pledging it and had it redesigned again. As the center of a manorial rule, the complex became a state seat of the Eilenburg district and served as the seat of the court for the residents in inheritance .
Modern times
The reformer Martin Luther stayed at Eulenburg Castle in 1523 . On April 24, 1536 Caspar Cruciger the Elder married Apollina († September 28, 1557), daughter of the Leipzig councilor Kunz Günterode, there for the second time. Martin Luther gave the wedding sermon. During the Schmalkaldic War it was conquered by Duke Moritz of Saxony . In the Thirty Years' War the conquered Sweden in 1644, the castle. In the period that followed, the facility that was damaged during the conquest fell into disrepair. The medieval defensive facilities and buildings were dismantled as a quarry with the exception of a few remains. The buildings that have been in use until recently, the office building and the prison, were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century.
Demolitions and renovations in the 20th and 21st centuries
At the time of the German Democratic Republic, a car garage was set up inside the keep. The entire northern half of the tower collapsed in 1972. With the exception of the roof, the southern half remained at full height. The ruins were then blown up a few days later and the rubble was used as building material.
In 1993 the office building burned down due to arson. It was then provided with a flat emergency roof, which is still on the building today. The office house fire provided the occasion for the establishment of a castle association in Eilenburg . Renovation work has been carried out on the castle complex since the 1990s . The most extensive structural work was the renovation of the wall tower in 2004 and the old prison in 2008/09 and 2014/15. After the August floods in 2002 , extensive slope stabilization work totaling six million euros was carried out when the loamy eastern slope of the castle hill began to slide. On the night of January 10, 2011 there was another landslide on the cleared eastern slope, with around 600 cubic meters of earth and rubble slipping onto the Mühlstrasse at the foot of the mountain. As a result of various measures such as the dismantling of the stone stairs on the Sorbenturm (2007) and the road expansion on the Schloßberg (2012/13), the facility has recently lost parts of its authentic appearance.
Todays use
The Eilenburg castle ruins are freely accessible and both towers can be climbed during certain opening times. There are occasional exhibitions on the three floors of the Sorbenturm. It has had a generally accessible viewing platform since 1863 . Based on the Eilenburger Heinzelmännchensaga, the old prison serves today as a guesthouse for cyclists and pilgrims.
architecture
Towers and curtain wall
The Eulenburg castle complex still has the sorbent tower and the wall tower . The tower known as the keep no longer exists today. The curtain wall was built from brick, with a band consisting exclusively of runners in large areas on the inside. The dating of the two towers, one of which is in the immediate vicinity and the other directly on the curtain wall, and the comparison with the curtain wall of Jessen Castle , dating from around 1210 , suggest that it was built in the High Middle Ages .
The Sorbenturm and the wall tower , together with the curtain wall, belong to a group of brick buildings from the second half of the 12th and 13th centuries in central Germany. Starting with the Augustinian Canons' Monastery in Altenburg - the so-called "Bergerkloster" - built from 1165 onwards, several important sacred and secular buildings were built from brick from the last third of the 12th century , such as the Cistercian monastery Altzella or the one that was built in the 13th century East wing of Glauchau Castle . In particular, a greater number of towers, including both residential towers and keep, were listed in brick. These include the two keep of Mildenstein Castle in Leisnig (the tower in the main castle probably dates from the last third of the 12th century and in the outer castle from the period between 1180/90 and 1230/59), the Hausmannsturm in the castle Altenburg , which can be dated from around 1180 to around 1220/30, the keep of Rochsburg built around 1200 to 1300 , the tower in Gruna Castle from the second quarter of the 13th century , which was built shortly after 1226 / 27 [d] built the keep of Schnaditz Castle as well as the keep on the Upper Castle in Greiz (between 1220/30 and 1300) and on the Weidaer Osterburg , the brick top of which dates from 1280 [d] at the earliest. In addition, some buildings were built with the occasional use of bricks, such as the hall building of Gnandstein Castle, built in 1225/30 .
Sorbent tower
The most famous building is the so-called Sorbenturm in the northeast of the castle , which was built around the beginning of the 13th century, directly in front of the curtain wall. The historicist name has nothing to do with its original meaning and purpose. The dating back to the 10th century, which has long been assumed, is also incorrect.
With its well-preserved and rich furnishings with fireplace, niche and toilet , the Sorbenturm in Eilenburg is unique in Saxony. It is one of the richly furnished residential towers in the German-speaking area and is a very important representative of this type of construction in Central Germany. When the Sorbenturm was dilapidated in the middle of the 19th century and was about to be demolished, the citizens of Eilenburg prevented this with massive protests.
The 16-meter-high tower was built from yellow, sometimes yellow-gray to dark-gray bricks, unique in Central Germany , in an irregular masonry bond. The foundation of the tower is also made of brick. The square floor plan has an outer side length of 7.55 meters, a wall thickness of 1.65 meters and an inner dimension of 4.25 meters square (measured above the slight slope at a height of about 1.20 meters).
The first floor was also the entrance floor, as shown by the high entrance, which is closed with a round arch and is not emphasized by rolling layers, in the south-east wall facing the inner surface of the castle. The interior has a size of 4.43 meters square, and the brickwork of the tower jumps back about 25 centimeters on the outside, so that the wall is still 1.30 meters thick. To the right of the entrance, a large round arched wall niche is set into the wall at a height of about 1.30 meters, for which there are only a few comparative examples, such as in the red tower of the Palatinate Wimpfen, built around 1200, and in the keep of the Württemberg castle Lichtenberg . In the southwest wall are the remains of a partially reconstructed chimney , which was cut into the masonry to a depth of 55 cm and is emphasized by side pilaster strips . The northeast wall is broken through at a height of 2.50 meters by a slotted window and the northeast wall at a height of about one meter by another arched door. Since this opening is too big for a window on the one hand and toilets in high medieval towers are often arranged a little above the floor of the respective storey, it is likely to be an outlet .
The masonry on the second floor has been severely damaged and renewed. However, the arched biforic window in the south-east wall should also still belong to the original inventory.
The dating of the tower is based not only on the historical classification of the interior fittings, but also on the dendrochronological determination of the oak planks of the slotted window in the tower's entrance floor. a By adding the sapwood with a growth of at least 20 years, a construction time of the tower “around / after 1179” would have to be expected according to the protocol of the dendro laboratory. When the head of research, Yves Hoffmann, examined the wood again on site, no sapwood border could be seen, so that the tree could only have been felled a certain time after 1179. A more precise dating of the sorbent tower is currently not possible.
Wall tower
A little separated from the curtain wall, there is another tower in the south-west of the complex, known as the wall tower . In local parlance it is also referred to as the “small keep”, but it is not a keep, but rather a residential tower. The wall tower was built with red bricks, which are set in a largely regular runner-runner-truss bond. The side length of the roughly square tower is about 7.90 meters at ground level. Access was through a simple round arched high entrance. The tower was slightly raised in the 16th century with slightly lighter bricks so that the original battlements can still be clearly seen. Sometimes small windows were also inserted here.
In the course of the renovation in 2001, this tower was also examined from a building archaeological point of view and the age of several preserved ceiling and facing beams was dendrochronologically determined. b The wood preserved with the edge of the forest was felled in 1187, 1229 and 1230. According to this, the residential tower could not have been built until 1231 at the earliest.
In 1546 the interior of the tower was reinforced and more timbers were added. According to the dendrochronological analysis, one wood was felled shortly after 1543 and two more in the winter of 1545/46. The octagonal tower tower was built in 1573, which is proven by two samples with a forest edge in the winter of 1572/73.
Former keep
Another tower, the remains of which were blown up after a partial collapse in 1972, has to be called a donjon because of its size and the fact that it was only slightly windowed. The square tower had a wall thickness of about 3.50 meters. A chronological classification is currently not possible. The "similar wall structure corresponding to the south-east tower" could speak for a dating to the early 13th century, but a dating to the 14th century cannot be ruled out.
Office building
The office building was built around 1700 using materials from the decaying castle. In 1786 a representative portal was installed on the north facade with the electoral-Saxon double coat of arms. Initially it served as the seat of the Eilenburg office, the Eilenburg district court was housed in the building from 1890 to 1992 . In 1993 the roof structure of the high hipped mansard roof was completely destroyed by arson . The emergency roof that was put on as a result could not be replaced by an adequate roof structure reconstruction until today. The building has been unused since then.
jail
The former prison, which is directly adjacent to the curtain wall, was built around 1700 and thus around the same time as the office building. The plastered brick building stands on the rectangular floor plan of the former south house of the old castle. The ground floor of this previous building has been preserved and now forms the prison basement, as the surrounding height increased due to the debris of the destroyed castle buried on site. The building initially served as the central prison of the Office Eilenburg, was later Prussian Inquisitoriat and was still right up to the time of National Socialism as a detention center used. In 1934, for example, the resistance fighter Kurt Bennewitz was imprisoned here until he was transferred to a Gestapo prison. During the GDR era, the building was used as a residential building. After several years of vacancy, the renovation of the roof structure and the facade facing the city began in 2008. Here, the received hipped roof one on either side shed dormer . In 2014/15 the renovation was completed and in 2016 the Burgplatz was redesigned. Based on the Eilenburg Heinzelmännchensage, the old prison now serves as the Heinzelberge guesthouse for cyclists and pilgrims.
literature
- Gerhard Cheap , Heinz Müller: Castles. Witnesses of Saxon history . Degener, Neustadt ad Aisch 1998, ISBN 3-7686-4191-0 , pp. 93-94.
- Heinz Müller, Heyko Dehn: Castle hike through Saxony. A castle book with accompanying CD . Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2006, ISBN 978-3-937517-60-5 , pp. 26-28.
- Yves Hoffmann: Brick towers from the 12th and 13th centuries on castles in Upper Saxony and East Thuringia . In: The Upper Castle in Greiz. A Romanesque brick building in East Thuringia and its historical surroundings . Erfurt 2008 (workbook of the Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology NF 30), ISBN 978-3-937940-51-9 , pp. 130–143, on this p. 133–136.
Web links
- Eilenburg Castle Association
- The Eilenburg on burgenwelt.org
- Pension "Heinzelberge" on the castle hill Eilenburg
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
Individual evidence
- ↑ Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae IA 1, p. 238 No. 3. Online edition
- ↑ Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae IA 1, p. 280 No. 52 lines 15-16. Online edition
- ^ Yves Hoffmann: Brick towers of the 12th and 13th centuries on castles in Upper Saxony and East Thuringia , pp. 133–136
- ^ Gerhard Cheap, Heinz Müller: Castles. Witnesses of Saxon History , p. XXX
- ^ Great district town of Eilenburg: Great keep. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Kathrin Kabelitz and Heike Liesaus: Landslide in Eilenburg: parts of the castle hill sink into the depths ( memento of the original from July 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 10, 2011 in LVZ Online (accessed on January 11, 2011)
- ^ Yves Hoffmann: Brick towers of the 12th and 13th centuries on castles in Upper Saxony and East Thuringia , pp. 133–136.
- ^ The Sorbenturm> Building on the website of the large district town of Eilenburg
- ↑ Minutes of March 14, 2001, see also in a leaflet written by Andreas Flegel The Sorbenturm in Eilenburg .
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