Falkenstein Castle (Höllental)
| Falkenstein Castle | ||
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 Castle rocks with ruins on the upper castle plateau |
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| Alternative name (s): | Alt-Falkenstein | |
| Creation time : | 1120 to 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Place: | Buchenbach-Falkensteig | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 56 '26.5 " N , 8 ° 1' 0.5" E | |
| Height: | 617.6 m above sea level NN | |
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Falkenstein Castle is the ruin of a hilltop castle near Freiburg im Breisgau in the area of the Falkensteig district of today's Buchenbach municipality in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district in Baden-Württemberg ( Germany ). The castle site is located in the triangle between the entrance to the Höllental , the "Lower Höllental" and the Engenbachtal , 617.6 m above sea level. NN on a rock head that is difficult to access today. Only a few remains of the wall remain from the castle. It is one of the less well-preserved ruins in Breisgau .
history
The castle was possibly built around the year 1200 by a Zähring ministerial family on a steep hill at the lower entrance of the Hell Valley, which was also known as the "Falkensteige". The builders presumably came from the Wittental by the lords of Weiler and Blankenberg and are first attested from 1137 to 1148 as the lords of Falkenstein . In the following time they rose into the circle of the important noble families in Breisgau.
After them and their castle, the valley was called "Falkensteiner Tal", the name "Höllental" came about later. The castle was supposed to protect the important traffic route that connected the Breisgau with the Baar and Lake Constance . This was the Falkensteige, which was used to bypass the Höllentalschlucht, which was difficult to pass at the time, and which was divided in the direction of Breitnau / Nessellachen and in the direction of St. Oswald / Steig .
The rule of the castle soon extended up the valley to Hinterzarten and Titisee . Other castles, built by the Falkensteiner are Castle Falkenbühl , Castle birch Reute (Bickenreute) in Kirchzarten and ruin boys stone , and Neu-Falkenstein called.
After the route, which had brought the Falkensteiners considerable customs income , faced competition from the route through the Wagensteig valley , which was built between 1310 and 1379, the knights, according to legend, soon became more and more robber barons. In the dispute between an aristocratic coalition under the leadership of Count Eberhard II of Württemberg against the Swabian League of Cities , Werner von Falkenstein blocked the roads on behalf of his employer and plundered citizens of the League of Cities. Affected by the economic decline of the lower nobility at the end of the 14th century, it was probably money concerns that drove the Falkensteiners to extend this approach to uninvolved travelers. This behavior was the reason that the Freiburgers attacked and destroyed Falkenstein Castle on December 6, 1388. Other historians, on the other hand, justify the destruction with the Freiburg citizens' drive for power. The castle chapel apparently outlived the end of the castle. Mentioned for the first time in 1460 as the St. Nicholas Chapel, in 1606 it was moved to the valley of the Höllenbach, today's Rotbach .
Building description
The irregular and elusive castle area rises in four heights. To simplify matters, four subdivisions can be described.
- A lower castle (A), whose up to six meter high and three meter thick wall remains stretch in fragments from the south-western side of the castle rock to the north flank - with further very massive wall remains staggered into the deep and the presumably former entrance area with the castle gate (5) above the Engenbachtals as well as today's access at the western tip. (1)
- An adjoining cervical ditch (D) about 20 meters long, 4 to 6 meters wide and up to 12 meters deep , which breaks through the ridge to the northeast.
- A small middle castle (B) on a rock step around six meters high, which rises to the upper castle rock to the west and north over the lower castle and extends to the northeast to above the neck ditch.
- An upper castle or core castle (C) on the ascending, elongated rock ridge, which has a maximum extension of 55 meters in length in the southwest-northeast axis and a width between 12 and 16 meters. Among other things, there are still larger remains of the wall on the south and south-west tip - including a wall about ten meters long and three meters high facing the valley of the alleged castle kitchen (10), another six meters wide and around 2.5 meters high wall remains ( 11), which could be the location of the castle chapel; a tooth-like wall remnant in the middle section on the south-eastern edge of the rock, which is clearly visible from the Höllental from the direction of Hirschsprung, as well as the remains of an approximately nine by nine meter square wall - the presumed keep at a raised point at the northeast end of the castle rock.
literature
- Franz Xaver Kraus : The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden , Volume 6, Tübingen 1904, p. 298 ( digitized version of the Heidelberg University Library ).
- Max Miller (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 6: Baden-Württemberg (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 276). Kröner, Stuttgart 1965, DNB 456882928 .
- H. Mayer: Falkenstein and the Falkensteiner. In: Breisgauer Chronik 6 , 1914.
- Alfons Zettler , Thomas Zotz : The castles in the medieval Breisgau. Half volume 1. A - K. Northern part . Ostfildern. In. Archeology and history. Freiburg research on the first millennium in southwest Germany, issue 14 . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 2003, ISBN 3-7995-7364-X , pp. 57-62.
- Arthur Hauptmann: Castles then and now. Castles and castle ruins in southern Baden and adjacent areas . Verlag des Südkuriers, Konstanz 1984, ISBN 3-87799-040-1 , pp. 117–121.
- Roland Weis: Castles in the Black Forest . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2019, ISBN 978-3-7995-1368-5 , pp. 165-173.
Web links
- Entry on Falkenstein Castle in Höllental in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Falkenstein Castle (Höllental) at alemannische-seiten.de
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
Individual evidence
- ^ Evaluation of extensive readings by the Freiburg Monument Preservation. According to this, a castle can be assumed by 1230 at the latest. The aristocratic name “von Falkenstein” could also point to an earlier start of defense construction around the year 1150, as well as the inauguration of the St. Oswald Chapel in the upper Höllental in 1148 . However, there is currently no unequivocally reliable evidence for such an assumption.
- ↑ cf. Bernhard Mangei, rulership of royalty, church and nobility between the Upper Rhine and Black Forest , dissertation - Albert-Ludwigs-Universität , Freiburg 2003, p. 164 ( full text at the University of Freiburg )
- ↑ cf. Jutta Krimm-Beumann, The oldest goods registers of the St. Peter monastery in the Black Forest - the Rotulus Sanpetrinus [...] , Stuttgart 2011, p. 45
- ↑ Wolfgang Stülpnagel: From the Wagensteig Valley: Alte Straße and Metzgerbauernhof , annual issue of the Breisgau history association "Schau-ins-Land" Volume 93, Freiburg im Breisgau 1975, p. 103 ( digital copy from Freiburg University Library )
- ↑ cf. Heinrich Schreiber, Document Book of the City of Freiburg im Breisgau , Freiburg 1829, Volume 2, pp. 59–82