Gebsenstein Castle

Gebsenstein Castle
Creation time :	First half of the 13th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Wall, ditch
Standing position :	Nobles
Place:	Hilzingen - "Heilsberg"
Geographical location	47 ° 45 '8 "  N , 8 ° 46' 49.3"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 45 '8 "  N , 8 ° 46' 49.3"  E
Height:	548.4  m above sea level NN

The castle Gebsenstein is an Outbound hilltop castle on the northern edge of the healing mountain at about 550  m above sea level. NN , 1500 meters south of the church of the Hilzingen community in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg .

history

The castle, built during the first half of the 13th century, may have been the seat of Gebzio von Twiel, mentioned in 1214 because of the similarity of names . A family named after the castle was mentioned with the Lords of Gebsenstein between 1253 and the beginning of the 14th century. They only owned their ancestral home until an unknown date before 1275, because in that year Count Mangold von Nellenburg sold the castle ze Gepsenstein to the Lords of Randegg. It is not known at what time the castle was sold; it is referred to as the castle stables in connection with hunting rights in 1683.

description

The approximately 900 square meter, two-part castle site is located on a spur-like spur facing northwest on the northeast side of the Heilsberg. This spur falls down to the south-east side of the valley, in the south-east the castle site is followed by a flat surface, which then rises to 561.4  m above sea level. NN high secondary summit of the Heilsberg rises. The main castle of the complex is located on a spur crest, which is set back a few meters from the spur tip. The approximately 23 × 16 meters large and around 380 square meters measuring plateau of this dome slopes steeply to the north over rocky cliffs, and is very steeply sloped on the other sides. A rampart at the edge of the plateau should represent the remainder of a dilapidated circular wall , further traces of building are the up to four meter deep hollows in the middle of the plateau, they probably go back to former cellars of former castle buildings, if there are not recent mining sites. The castle hill with the core castle has a three-meter-wide terrace on its south and east sides around five meters below the plateau level; a ring trench stretches around the foot of the hill , which only exposes on the steeply sloping north side. This trench is partially buried on the west side of the core castle hill, otherwise it reaches a width of up to 16 meters and a depth of three to four meters. On the attack side, in the east and south of the castle hill, a 0.4 meter high rampart has been preserved outside the moat.

This rampart, placed in front of the ditch, merges south of the core castle hill into an artificially steep slope that extends to a ditch at the top of the mountain spur. This trench reaches a depth of two meters to the outside and three to four meters to the inner surface, and runs from south to north across the sloping spur. The secured area to the west of the main castle hill is 30 to 35 meters long and ten to a maximum of 20 meters wide, and it will have been the location of the outer bailey with the castle's farm buildings. The northern boundary on the steep slope of the outer bailey is formed by a three meter wide and one meter high rock ridge.

Digs

In the book Bavarian Legends and Customs by Friedrich Panzer , an excavation is mentioned:
“They dug in the Gebsenstein
castle site for treasures and found a golden epee vessel (by Herr von Raiser)” .
We are probably talking about Johann Nepomuk von Raiser , who found a golden sword hilt during a “treasure hunt”. Panzer and Reiser were contemporaries and interested in history. They didn't live too far apart. In addition, both were civil servants.
The whereabouts of this epee is unknown.

literature

• Michael Losse, Hans Noll, Michael Greuter (Eds.): Castles, palaces, fortresses in Hegau - fortifications and aristocratic residences in the western Lake Constance area . In: Hegau-Geschichtsverein (Ed.): Hegau-Bibliothek, Volume 109 . Michael Greuter Verlag, Hilzingen 2006, ISBN 3-938566-05-1 , p. 88.
• Hans-Wilhelm Heine : Studies on weir systems between the young Danube and western Lake Constance . In: Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Research and reports on the archeology of the Middle Ages in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 5 . Stuttgart 1978, ISSN  0178-3262 , pp. 72 and 157.
• 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 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Source history: Hans-Wilhelm Heine: Studies on weir systems between the young Danube and western Lake Constance , p. 72
2. ^ Source description: Hans-Wilhelm Heine: Studies on weir systems between the young Danube and western Lake Constance , pp. 72 and 157
3. ↑ Friedrich Panzer: Bavarian sagas and customs. Рипол Классик, ISBN 978-5-877-33187-7 , p. 149 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).