Ettensberg Castle

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Ettensberg Castle
The rubble cone of the former keep

The rubble cone of the former keep

Creation time : before 1377
Castle type : Höhenburg, Spornkuppe location
Conservation status: Remains of the foundation
Standing position : Lower nobility
Place: Blaichach
Geographical location 47 ° 32 '27.7 "  N , 10 ° 15' 9"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 32 '27.7 "  N , 10 ° 15' 9"  E
Height: 737  m above sea level NN
Ettensberg Castle (Bavaria)
Ettensberg Castle

The ruins of Ettensberg Castle are located on a mountain tongue west of the municipality of Blaichach in the Oberallgäu district in Swabia . The few remnants of the wall of the relatively small castle complex, which are highly endangered, are freely accessible.

history

View from Burgberg Castle to the Nagelfluhkette with the Stuiben (left), the Mittagberg and the Immenstädter Horn . The Ettensberg castle ruins are located on the wooded hill below the Immenstädter Horn
The memorial stone in the courtyard
Wall remains in the east
The last remaining stone layer of the keep (east side)

The fortress was built at the end of the 11th century as the seat of a servant of the Augsburg bishopric . Whether a Luitgard von Outensperch mentioned in 1147 is related to the castle cannot be clearly determined.

It was not until 1377 that a Benz Oetisperg was documented as a seal of approval. Like most of the lower nobility of this era, he had to renounce his knighthood , so he was only a nobleman without a sword or knighthood .

Around 1409 the Counts of Montfort took over the small rule that lay in the middle of their sovereign territory. The fortress was occupied by bailiffs who came from the surrounding knighthood. Conrad von Laubenberg, who was replaced by Swigger von Rauns as early as 1410, is known to be the first Vogt.

From 1446 to 1466 the castle was used by Countess Beatrix von Montfort as a widow's residence, who donated an anniversary to the Blaichach church in 1457 and is said to be buried there.

1562 was awarded the Immenstädter a bailiff with the castle invested Jakob Guthainz again. Only two years later the fortress was already abandoned and was referred to as " Burgstall " when the county of Rothenfels was sold .

In the following centuries the ruins of the complex served the population as a welcome quarry . In 1934 a memorial stone was set up in the courtyard that tells the story of the small fortress. Such monuments mostly go back to the Kempten mayor and passionate castle researcher Otto Merkt , who often financed the stones and slabs out of his own pocket.

After the Second World War, only the remains of foundations up to a height of around 2.5 meters were preserved, some of which were excavated in 1948 and documented in the inventory volume from 1964. In autumn 2008 the castle ruins were in a desolate state. Particularly in the area of ​​the keep , the masonry had already been completely removed except for a stone layer in the east.

description

The small castle ruins are located about 500 meters southwest of the parish church of Blaichach on a long ridge (737 meters above sea level) above the Illertal . Access is via the almost flat, very long ridge that connects Burgplatz with the mountain range rising behind it. The ridge is only about 15 to 20 meters wide on average. On the other sides, the terrain slopes down very steeply into the valley.

At the eastern end of the mountain spur, a partially buried neck ditch carved into the Nagelfluhfels protects the castle. In the south, a later material pit intervenes in the trench area.

Behind the pit, a prominent tower hill rises around eight meters. Here on the attack side stood the keep, a former residential tower with a side length of about 11.30 meters square. Of the remains of the foundations of Nagelfluh ashlars documented by Nessler and in the inventory tape on three sides up to a height of 2.5 meters (south side) only a stone layer has been preserved in the east. The castle gate was north of the main tower and has completely disappeared.

The regular floor plan of the main castle (approx. 35 × 24 meters) can only be read today on the older plan photographs. Only in the northeast is a higher section of wall made of mighty Nagelfluh blocks as a retaining wall, behind which the area slopes down to a small terrace. The castle's residential buildings were probably located here. The 1948 excavations suggest three rooms on the ground floor. A few more wall sections stand out as rubble walls in the area.

The desolate condition of the few remaining castle ruins leads to fear of the complete loss of one of the oldest tower castles in the Allgäu over the next few decades .

literature

  • Toni Nessler: Castles in the Allgäu, Volume 1: Castle ruins in the Altlandkreis Kempten and Altlandkreis Sonthofen . 1st edition. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1985, ISBN 3-88006-102-5 , pp. 217-223.
  • Michael Petzet : Sonthofen district (= The art monuments of Bavaria. The art monuments of Swabia. Volume 8). Oldenbourg, Munich 1964.
  • Klaus Wankmiller: Ettensberg Castle near Blaichach. Scene of a cruel murder in the Thirty Years' War, in: Das Schöne Allgäu 82 (2019), issue 5, pp. 134-136.

Web links

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