Frauenstein Castle (Wiesbaden)
| Frauenstein Castle | ||
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 Frauenstein castle ruins |
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| Alternative name (s): | Vrouwensteyn | |
| Creation time : | around 1180 | |
| Castle type : | Location | |
| Conservation status: | Keep | |
| Standing position : | Nobles, clericals | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Frauenstein | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 3 '54 .5 " N , 8 ° 9' 16.5" E | |
| Height: | 180 m above sea level NHN | |
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The ruins of Frauenstein Castle (formerly also called Vrouwensteyn ) stand at about 180 m above sea level. NHN Höhe on a rock cone in the Wiesbaden district of Frauenstein in Hesse and was built in the 12th century by Heinrich Bodo von Idstein.
history
The beginnings
Heinrich Bodo von Idstein probably had a castle built in a narrow valley around 1184 . It was given the name Vrouwensteyn, which in the course of time changed to today's "Frauenstein". On the one hand, this name contains the word "stone", which at that time referred to the stone defense tower in an aristocratic court and can still be found in some place names today; so z. B. in the name " Eppstein " or in " Schierstein ", where a knight family von Scerstein is mentioned in a document as early as 1195. On the other hand, the name “Vrouwensteyn” probably hides the word “Vrouwe” (woman). But this probably does not mean just any woman, but the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was proven namesake of several other places such as Frauenstein in Upper Austria and Frauenstein in the Eastern Ore Mountains. These places had an image of the Virgin in their coats of arms. It is therefore possible that the virgin was also the namesake for Frauenstein Castle in Wiesbaden.
However, the name Vrouwensteyn was first mentioned in a document in 1221: Heinrich Bodo von Idstein had obviously given himself the name of his new residence in the meantime, because as a witness in a dispute, he signed a document in 1221 as Heinrich Bodo von Vrouwensteyn. However, it is known that the castle is older, as a beam from the founding of the castle on the top stone floor under the wooden dome revealed by dendrochronological examination that it had been struck in 1184. There are very few similar structures left in Germany. Since the masonry of the keep's the end of the 20th century was still get to 80%, he could be restored to scientifically reliable basis from the 1997th
What did the castle look like originally?
The castle is one of the smallest among the Nassau castles. It stands on a steep rock cone made of Taunus quartzite , the east side of which is connected to the slope side of the pointed stone. In order to protect itself against attacks by, the castle had a neck ditch there . This was an artificial, deep ditch that separated the hillside from the castle and tried to keep the attackers at a distance. On this mountain side, the castle was secured even more strongly by a deeply staggered, dense hedge of thorns. It had to be kept in order by the local residents and reached from Pauli's little gate to the front part of today's Burglindenstrasse.
On both sides of the tower of Vrouwensteyn Castle, there was a high wall that ran down into the valley to a pond that was fed by the Lippbach. During excavations in 1943, remains of foundations were found in the valley.
In order to protect itself against attacks from the south, i.e. from the valley, the tower of the castle has a massive wall triangle in this direction, on whose two flanks the arrows of the attackers should slide. Seen from the outside, the tower therefore forms a pentagon, but inside it is roughly a square with rooms each 7 m × 8 m. In the two-meter-thick outer walls made of layered rubble stones , spiral stairs were set into which one could get from floor to floor of the four-story building. A fireplace each heated the rooms on the second and third floors. In order to let light and air into the castle, window openings were cut out, which could be closed with wooden flaps but were not loopholes . There was also a toilet bay, formerly called "haymlich gemach", the entrance to which could be exposed again in the course of the restoration. On the last floor under the wooden hood, the stone building was closed off by a barrel vault . The beam from the time the castle was founded in 1184 was found here, and can still be seen there today, after more than 800 years.
After all, the castle tower was originally crowned by a bell. This is proven by a land map from 1723, which is kept in the main state archive in Wiesbaden. The tower guard had the task of ringing this bell in case of danger in order to warn the inhabitants of the small village below the castle. The guards at the upper and lower gate of the village of Frauenstein then immediately closed the gates and bolted them. In the event of danger, runners had to hurry out of the village on separate paths to get help from knight friends in the area.
Armed conflicts
The castle was only exposed to a few attacks. It was overrun for the first time in 1301 by the soldiers of King Albrecht I of Austria, the son of Rudolf von Habsburg , and partly destroyed. He had got into a dispute with the Archbishop of Mainz , Gerhard II von Eppstein , and in May 1301 revoked all customs privileges that his father and himself had granted the archbishops. Gerhard responded to this withdrawal with excommunication and the curse (interdict) against King Albrecht and his helpers. The king then gathered an important army, invaded the Rheingau and conquered the castles there. Since parts of the Frauenstein Castle had previously been acquired by the Archbishopric of Mainz , it was also one of the victims of the war, but was quickly restored.
Another time the castle was probably damaged in the war of 1375. The cause of the war was the dispute between Adolf I of Nassau, elected archbishop by the Mainz cathedral chapter, and Bishop Ludwig von Meißen , appointed by the pope as archbishop . Here, too, the partially Mainz possession of Frauenstein Castle was the reason to involve them in the conflict.
How Frauenstein Castle came to Mainz
The owners of the castle, the Frauenstein knights, were highly respected hereditary marshals of the Mainz ore monastery for several generations . Through pledges, foundations and donations, the family lost a large part of its assets and ultimately also the hereditary marshal's office. Before 1301, part of the castle belonged to Archbishop Gerhard II of Eppstein from Mainz . The reason for the purchase was presumably the intention to create a defense barrier for the (Mainz) Rheingau against the powerful eastern neighbors, the Counts of Nassau. In addition, Gerhard's successor, Archbishop Peter von Aspelt , acquired another share of the castle in 1310. This gave the archbishops security for their Mainz property across the Rhine to the north.
The ownership of the castle was complicated. Which is closed in 1319 from a November 11 truce and the terms associated with it significantly. The Archbishopric Mainz owned the majority with seven twelfth of the castle and its accessories (including one twelfth was owned by the cathedral chapter), three twelfth belonged to the knight Gottfried Stael von Biegen, one twelfth belonged to the brothers Friedrich and Gerhard von Biegen, and the last twelfth belonged to the knight Heinrich of Lindau. No Knight von Frauenstein is mentioned in the contract, so the family no longer owned any shares at that time.
The archbishop was also given the right to appoint the burgraves or knightly bailiffs at the castle . The burgrave had to swear to act according to the terms of the treaty. It was also determined that the castle men , who lived in the valley to protect the castle and the serfs, should receive vineyards, meadows and fields near the castle as remuneration, as has been customary since ancient times. The establishment of the Burgmann system brought the archbishop reliable protection of the castle, while it ensured the castle men their income and at the same time a knightly connection.
In 1330 the scribe Johann von Bingen reported to his master, Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg , that he had started the construction of buildings in Frauenstein. It is probably about the five Burgmann houses below the castle, four of which are still standing today: the Gasthaus zur Burg, the house near the linden tree, the Schönbornschen Hof, the Falkerschen Hof and the now demolished Spechtshof in Georgstrasse.
The burgrave had a very responsible task: the castle hat and guard had to be procured and the guards, tower keepers and gatekeepers appointed and paid. The burgrave had to maintain the castle at his own expense. For this he was allowed to use part of the castle property, but had to hand everything over to a possible successor in good condition. When he took over the office, the successor had to prepare a detailed inventory list in which everything on horses, cattle, crockery, armament as well as castle and household utensils was recorded. He had to respect the rights and freedoms of the local citizens, the taxes had to be collected and handed over to the archbishopric.
The names of the castle men are recorded in documents: Gottfried Stael von Biegen (1323), Kuno von Scharfenstein (1424), Heinrich Brömser von Rüdesheim (1520), Philipp Erwein von Schönborn (1662). In later times there is no longer a separate burgrave for Frauenstein, because the office is co-administered by other offices.
Mainz bulwark against the Nassau
The counts, later princes and finally dukes of Nassau owned a large part of the area surrounding Frauenstein. This family came from the Lahn, where they had extensive possessions up to Siegen. They had already acquired the castle and town of Idstein and then gained a foothold in Königssondergau , whose royal court they owned in Wiesbaden as early as 1215. The Königssondergau was the property of the king and his heirs, from whom territories and localities were assigned as fiefs, given to the Archbishopric of Mainz (e.g. the places Oestrich, Geisenheim, Rüdesheim and Lorch in the Veronese donation from 983 by Emperor Otto II. ) or were also sold to others. It originally comprised an area from Kemel and Bärstadt in the west to the Rhine in the south and further east to Hofheim and Eppstein. In the north the Roman Limes formed its border. The Archbishopric of Mainz owned numerous properties to the left and right of the Rhine, and of course it was important to the archbishops to secure these properties. That is why they seized the opportunity when they had the opportunity to acquire shares in the castle and town of Frauenstein.
The people of Nassau did not like this expansion and protection policy of the Mainz residents, because they wanted to prevent Kurmainz from expanding further. That is why they founded five farms around Frauenstein, four of which still exist today: Hof Rosenköppel (which no longer exists today), Hof Nürnberg , Hof Armada , Grorother Hof and Hof Sommerberg (today Sommerberg Palace ). One of them, the Grorother Hof, was a fortified courtyard with walls, loopholes and defensive turrets. They all prevented any attempts by the Mainz residents to expand their property even further.
In the 17th century , therefore, each other was blocked and the parties were by no means friendly. For example, the Mainz Frauensteiners devastated the fields of the Nassau Georgenborn family in a 30-year feud , and the Nassau Dotzheimers didn't get along very well either. Finally, in 1723 the parties came to a comparison, in which a clear boundary between Georgenborn, Frauenstein and other areas was determined and established by setting boundary stones. In order to protect against the clandestine movement of the stones, additions were buried under them, the type, number and order of which only the two contracting parties knew. They recorded this data in the event of a later dispute about the position of a boundary stone.
- four of the five former Nassau defense yards still exist
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The youngest chapter of the castle
Until the reorganization of Germany by Napoleon and the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, through which Frauenstein fell to the Principality of Nassau-Usingen , the castle was inhabited by officials from Mainz. After that, it gradually deteriorated. The Schiersteiner Hofkammerrat Habel stopped its decay and its use as a quarry with the support of the Hessischer Altertumsverein founded in 1821.
In 1996 the Burgverein Frauenstein e. V. the castle and the associated grounds for 1069 DM, i.e. 1.00 DM per square meter. The association began in 1997 after scientific analysis and under constant scientific advice with the restoration, which ended in 2005 with the complete restoration of the castle tower. The total costs amounted to almost 400,000 euros.
Today the listed castle can be visited on Sunday afternoons from Easter to the end of October. The third floor houses an exhibition on the castle and has been available for weddings since 2007. From here there is a good view of Frauenstein from the window openings.
literature
- Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 507f.
- Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 375.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ↑ see website of the Burgverein Frauenstein eV
- ↑ Dream weddings in the castle on the website of the Burgverein Frauenstein eV
