Gussenburg Castle

Gussenburg Castle
Shield wall and keep of Güssenburg Castle
Alternative name (s):	Güssenberg Castle
Creation time :	around 1350
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Quarry stone
Place:	Hermaringen
Geographical location	48 ° 36 '2 "  N , 10 ° 14' 49"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 36 '2 "  N , 10 ° 14' 49"  E
Height:	500  m above sea level NN

Coat of arms of the casts of Güssenberg, around 1450

The shield wall (inside)

The keep

The castle Güssenburg , also called Burg Güssenberg , is a ruin above Hermaringen in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg . Even larger remains of the shield wall and the keep have been preserved from the high medieval castle .

Geographical location

The ruin of the Spornburg lies at a height of about 500 meters about 50 meters above the Brenz Valley on a hill spur, the so-called Schloßberg . In the north, west and east, the steep slopes of the castle hill protect the facility.

history

The castle was the ancestral seat of the Lords of Güssenberg , who later (15th / 16th century) called themselves Güß von Güssenberg . The sex, which at times ruled over numerous places in the area (including Brenz , Haunsheim , Leipheim ), is widely ramified and is usually summarized under the term castings . The family seat of this Diepolding , later Hohenstaufen ministerial family could have been the “Burkstall” in Hermaringen, mentioned in 1372.

On 1 and 7 May 1171 entered Diepoldsberg castings as a witness in two documents Emperor I. Frederick on.

In 1216 Heinrich von Güssenberg was named as a witness on the occasion of the settlement of a dispute between the monasteries Ellwangen and Kaisheim.

In 1328 the feudal sovereignty passed to the Counts of Helfenstein . Around 1350 the castle was strengthened with the construction of the shield wall and other modifications. After the casts of Güssenberg died out , the fiefdom came to the casts of Haunsheim . In 1372 the Haunsheimers sold their feudal rights to the counts. The Güssenburg became the administrative center of the count's possessions in the Brenz Valley.

Bruno and Hanman von Güssenberg fell in the battle of Sempach and were buried in Königsfelden (→ list of fallen nobles on the Habsburg side in the battle of Sempach / G ).

The count's bailiffs sat at the Güssenburg until 1448. In that year the rule came to the House of Württemberg. However, the castle was destroyed by troops from Ulm , Giengen and Lauingen in the "City War" in 1449 and was not rebuilt afterwards.

In 1709, the municipality of Hermaringen acquired the ruins and the associated farmyard under the castle.

In 1970/71 the existing stock was preserved and partially supplemented. Another renovation took place from 1981 to 1998 by the castle association. The ruin has been an important sight on the Staufer road since 1997 .

description

The main and outer bailey form an irregular rectangle of around 45 × 70 meters.

In the south, a wide ditch separates the castle area from the plateau. Shortly behind this ditch, the mighty shield wall rises from up to 3.4 meters wide quarry stone masonry . A walled-in beam was dendrochronologically dated to around 1350.

The shield wall is 47 meters long, the western part has partially collapsed. At the ends, short sections of the wall join at an angle. The western, slightly longer remnant of the wall is likely to be the rest of the former outer gate, the eastern one is the approach of the outer bailey wall.

About 25 meters behind the shield wall runs a - today flattened - wide inner ditch.

From the main castle behind, only traces of the terrain, rubble walls and the ruins of the keep can be seen.

The square keep is about six meters high. At the beginning of the 20th century, remains of the exterior cladding are said to have been visible. Today, with the exception of the plinth (probably supplemented), only the infill masonry remains on the outside, the inside (approx. 2 × 2 meters) is covered with 26 layers of small cuboids.

literature

• Günter Schmitt : Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Volume 6: Ostalb - hiking and discovering between Ulm, Aalen and Donauwörth . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1995, ISBN 3-924489-74-2 , pp. 353-360.
• Alexander Antonow: Castles of southwest Germany in the 13th and 14th centuries - with special consideration of the shield wall . Verlag Konkordia, Bühl / Baden 1977, ISBN 3-7826-0040-1 , pp. 154-156.

Web links

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

Commons : Güssenberg (Magenau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Burg Güssenburg  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Straße der Staufer on stauferstelen.de. Retrieved July 10, 2016.