Grünwald Castle

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Grünwald Castle
The impressive remains of Grünwald Castle - large parts of the castle have slipped off the slope or were removed for safety reasons.

The impressive remains of Grünwald Castle - large parts of the castle have slipped off the slope or were removed for safety reasons.

Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Standing position : Dukes (previously: ministerials of counts)
Geographical location 48 ° 2 '35 "  N , 11 ° 31' 9.5"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 2 '35 "  N , 11 ° 31' 9.5"  E
Grünwald Castle (Bavaria)
Grünwald Castle
Grünwald Castle seen from the entrance

The Grünwald Castle is located in the town of Grünwald south of Munich above a modern road bridge. The late medieval hilltop castle above the Isar valley houses a branch museum of the State Archaeological Collection .

history

Even before 1000 there was a fortified complex with a residential tower as the successor to the Römerschanze (Grünwald) (a Roman road station) about 2.5 kilometers southwest of the current location. The high medieval castle is documented as the property of the Counts of Andechs as early as the 12th century . In 1272 it came into the possession of the Wittelsbach family . At that time, Duke Ludwig the Strict acquired the fortress from the property of Ulrich von Vellenberg, a ministerial of the Andechs counts. The castle was then inhabited by his third wife Mechtild - a daughter of Rudolf von Habsburg . Her son Ludwig, who later became Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian , also visited her there frequently. The Duke's son Johannes Grünwalder was born in the castle around 1392 , which is where his nickname came from. While the plague raged in Munich from 1439 to 1440, Grünwald served several times as a refuge for Duke Albrecht III.

Today's building fabric mainly dates from the end of the 15th century, when the castle was expanded on the occasion of Albrecht IV's wedding . The construction work was carried out in 1486/87 under the direction of foreman Jörg von Weikertshausen; the original building invoice for all renovation work has been preserved (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv).

With the Grünwalder Conference , which took place at the castle in February 1522, an event in Grünwald's history gained European significance. At this conference, the two ruling dukes, Wilhelm IV. And his brother Ludwig X , who was also born at Grünwald Castle, agreed that Bavaria should continue to belong to the "old faith" in future, but that the church should be reformed. This decision is understood today as the beginning of the Counter-Reformation in the empire and the Habsburg lands and had an impact that would shape the history of Europe over the next few centuries.

The decline of Grünwald Castle began when, at the end of the seventeenth century, Elector Max Emanuel preferred the Schleißheim , Nymphenburg and Dachau castles . Grünwald Castle became increasingly neglected and still served as a hunting lodge, soon as a prison and powder magazine.An Italian impostor who called himself "Count Domenico Manuel Caetano , Conte de Ruggiero" was the first prisoner to sit here from 1698 . In fact, it was a farmer's son from the environs of Naples , who traveled through Europe as an alchemist and offered his services at the royal courts. After several unsuccessful attempts to escape, the alleged gold maker did not regain his freedom until 1704 after Bavaria was occupied by the Austrians.

In 1879 the castle passed into non-aristocratic private ownership. Around 1970, a Munich property developer acquired the complex and planned the extensive demolition of the ailing monument. Only the original towers would have been preserved, the castle buildings were to be rebuilt as a luxury residential complex. However, the project was prevented by a committed citizens' initiative , which was finally able to obtain the purchase of the castle by the Free State of Bavaria in 1976 .

The Grünwald Castle Museum , a branch museum of the State Archaeological Collection , has been housed here since 1979 . The castle can be visited, the ascent to the tower offers a rewarding view.

In the east wing there is a café, a museum shop and premises of the MPZ ( Museum Pedagogical Center Munich ). A large room is used for special exhibitions, but can also be rented for events of all kinds. In the west wing, a permanent exhibition provides information about the history of Grünwald Castle, from its early beginnings to the high time around 1500 (large model of the castle) to Ludwig Schwanthaler and Karl Valentin . A second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the “Castles in Bavaria”; The roots of castle building, various functions of the castle, everyday life in the castle and castle building are explained in a clear and child-friendly manner.

The Blutenburg and Grünwald castles are the only medieval castles that have survived in the immediate vicinity of Munich.

description

Large parts of the castle had to be demolished in the 17th and 18th centuries because the Isar had washed away the castle hill. At that time, the late Gothic palace with its rich interior and the St. Georg castle chapel were also lost. The early modern condition of the castle around 1590 is u. a. handed down on a fresco in the Antiquarium of the Munich Residence .

Since the partial demolition, the fortress has been an irregular rectangular structure, which is protected by a kennel with a round tower and a deep, angular neck ditch with an earth wall. You enter the castle in the southeast through a projecting gate tower with a renewed coat of arms (1486/87). In the north-east corner, a tall, square tower rises like a keep . In between lies the elongated, three-storey east wing, which is dominated by two former residential towers (one was originally the "bell tower") with differently oriented gable roofs .

The north-west corner is dominated by the crenellated "Small Tower". The adjoining west wing is formed by three gable roof buildings of different heights. The deep fountain in the castle courtyard, lined with tuff stones, dates back to the late Middle Ages.

In 1984 some large-scale drawings made of brick powder were found on a piece of wall in the former prison wing during construction work . The pictures show u. a. the fallen Jesus on the way of the cross. The drawings are the work of the Italian impostor "Count Caetano, Conte de Ruggiero" ( first prisoner ) who was imprisoned here around 1700 and who had completely covered his cell walls with such drawings.

literature

  • Georg Paula , Timm Weski: District of Munich (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume I.17 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-87490-576-4 , p. 86-88 .
  • Michael Weithmann: Castles in Munich. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8307-1036-4 .
  • Joachim Wild : Guide through the history of Grünwald Castle. Prehistoric State Collection Munich, Small Museum Guide No. 5 (2nd, improved and expanded edition). Munich 1993.
  • Joachim Zeune : Castles and palaces - Bavaria. Regensburg, undated, ISBN 978-3-930572-57-1 .
  • Richard Michael Reitzenstein: Chronicle of Grünwald near Munich. Munich 1885.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ archaeologie-bayern.de
  2. ↑ The castle above the Isar became known nationwide primarily through the “beer hymn” by the Munich comedian Karl Valentin , who had his “Oiden Rittersleit” live here.