Ellhofen Castle

Ellhofen Castle
Creation time :	Late 13th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, valley edge location
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Weiler-Simmerberg - Ellhofen
Geographical location	47 ° 35 '32.1 "  N , 9 ° 57' 24.7"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 35 '32.1 "  N , 9 ° 57' 24.7"  E
Height:	760  m above sea level NN

The castle Ellhofen is the ruins of a hilltop castle on 760  m above sea level. NN about one kilometer south of the village of Ellhofen, which belongs to the Westallgäu market Weiler-Simmerberg . Only a few remains of the walls of the formerly well-fortified medieval castle complex have survived.

history

The history of the castle and that of the village of Ellhofen are closely linked. The entire system of the castle buildings and castle walls located on the hill represents a fairly regular square of 18 meters in length and width. With the built-in kennel and staircase, the castle was 28 meters long and 18 meters wide.

The castle was built towards the end of the 13th century by the local noble family von Ellhofen. The rule can be proven for the first time in 1287. It was endowed with the lower jurisdiction since 1418 . In 1446 the male tribe of the sex died out when Rudolf von Ellhofen was stabbed to death by Swiss Confederates near Ragaz . His sisters then sold the property to Rudolf von Weiler. As early as 1462 the castle passed to the Counts of Montfort-Rothenfels , who also owned it for only a short time. In 1475 Wilhelm von Neidegg, a wealthy patrician from Ravensburg, acquired the castle and village of Ellhofen for the considerable sum of 1,600 guilders.

The castle was looted and devastated during the Peasants' War in 1525.

The male line of the Neidegger died out in 1562, after which the rule was sold to the Teutonic Knights . In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War , Ellhofen Castle was burned down by the Swedes and has probably been uninhabited since then. In 1806 the ruin came to Bavaria, in 1853 it was deliberately removed in order to expand the church in Ellhofen with the building material obtained in this way.

Stones were also used to build the firewall of today's courtyard and for the Simmerberg church. Most likely also for the construction (1552) of the office building in Ellhofen, today's Gasthof Adler.

description

Ellhofen castle ruins in August 2017

The ruin stands above the valley of the Ellhofer Tobelbach on a small hill, which is bordered by two double trenches , presumably dug manually . The existing wall remains can be assigned to a square keep on the western side and the main buildings of the castle. A memorial plaque is attached to a six meter long and two and a half meter high section of the wall.

The former building yard of the castle has been preserved and is now inhabited.

literature

• Toni Nessler: Castles in the Allgäu, Volume 2: Castle ruins in the West Allgäu and in the neighboring Vorarlberg, in the Württemberg Allgäu, in the northern Allgäu around Memmingen, in the northeast Allgäu around Kaufbeuren and Obergünzburg as well as in the eastern Allgäu and in the adjacent Tyrol . 1st edition. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1985, ISBN 3-88006-115-7 , pp. 55-63.
• Dieter Buck: Castles and ruins in the Allgäu - 33 excursions in the footsteps of knights. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1602-9 , pp. 56-58.

Web links

Commons : Burg Ellhofen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pictures and history of Ellhofen Castle
• Ellhofen (castles detailed description of places A to F) , mediuminfo.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ellhofen home parlor: The Ellhofer Castle . Information board at the castle ruins, read on 8/24/17.
2. ^ Ellhofen home parlor: The Ellhofer Castle . Information board at the castle ruins, read on 8/24/17.