Ellar Castle

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Ellar Castle
Ellar Castle

Ellar Castle

Creation time : around 1300
Castle type : Höhenburg, location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Place: Waldbrunn - Ellar
Geographical location 50 ° 30 '30.6 "  N , 8 ° 5' 37"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 30 '30.6 "  N , 8 ° 5' 37"  E
Height: 290  m above sea level NHN
Ellar Castle (Hesse)
Ellar Castle

The castle Castellar is the ruins of a hilltop castle at around 290 m above sea level. NN in the district of Ellar in the municipality of Waldbrunn in the Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse .

history

View from Ellar to the church and castle

At the end of the 13th century, Ellar Castle was built, probably by the Counts of Diez , to secure imperial roads. The Gadelheimer Mühle customs station was located near the castle .

The castle was first mentioned in 1323 when a Heinricus burgrave of Ellar appears in the suite of Count Emicho von Nassau Hadamar . In the 14th century, several castle men took over the name of the castle as a nickname. Between 1337 and 1362 the castle was pledged to Nassau-Hadamar by the Counts of Diez. After the redemption, the castle was repaired.

In 1367/68 the castle came into the possession of the County of Katzenelnbogen as a dowry . During this transition, Emperor Charles IV confirmed the castle as an imperial fiefdom . Ellar Castle had two castle seats. Around 1400 Johann I von Nassau-Dillenburg is mentioned, who in 1408 concludes a truce with Johann von Katzenelnbogen. During the Mainz collegiate feud , the castle served as a base for the Katzenelnbogen counts against the County of Sayn . When the Katzenelnbogen family died out in 1479, half of the castle fell to Hesse . In the Frankfurt Treaty of 1557, however, the entire castle finally fell to the Counts of Nassau-Dillenburg. After that, the castle fell into disrepair without any political or military significance.

In the 15th and 16th centuries the castle was the seat of a bailiff and a cellar . From invoices of this cellar a tower with a bridge is occupied for the castle. The tower also served as a dovecote . A tower keeper was permanently employed at the castle. The staff also included two cooks.

During the Thirty Years' War , the ruins were once again expanded as a refuge for the residents of the surrounding villages.

From 1969, measures to preserve the castle were initiated.

investment

It is an approximately rectangular castle complex with the external dimensions of 21 × 27 meters. The roughly two meter thick foundation walls are made of basalt stones. Amazingly, these have neither windows nor loopholes . In one corner there is a tower that is used as a lookout tower. A covered pavilion was built inside the castle, which can be used for events. Outbuildings that used to be around the castle have completely disappeared.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse: 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 440.
  • Ferdinand Luthmer : The architectural and art monuments of the Wiesbaden region. Volume 3: Lahn area . Walluf 1973, ISBN 3-500-27310-6 .
  • Ernst Gall Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments. Southern Hessen. Berlin 1950, DNB 450887731 .
  • Walter Rudersdorf : Waldbrunn / Westerwald - From farming village to climatic health resort . Ed .: Community of Waldbrunn Westerwald. 1st edition. Geiger-Verlag, Horb 1986, ISBN 3-89264-015-7 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Ellar  - collection of images