Grenzau Castle

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Grenzau Castle
Grenzau Castle, aerial photo 2014

Grenzau Castle, aerial photo 2014

Alternative name (s): Gransioie Castle (great joys)
Creation time : around 1210
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: essential parts received
Place: Höhr-Grenzhausen
Geographical location 50 ° 27 '1.1 "  N , 7 ° 39' 18.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 27 '1.1 "  N , 7 ° 39' 18.8"  E
Height: 250  m above sea level NHN
Grenzau Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Grenzau Castle

The grenzau castle is the ruin of a Spur castle on 250  m above sea level. NHN near Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . It is the only castle in Germany to have a triangular keep .

history

The castle was built by Henry I of Isenburg around 1210 as a fortress Gransioie construction ( altfrz. For large pleasures (fr. Grande joie ), resulting in about Gran Joie (1238), Gransoge (1275), Grensoy (ge) (1331, 1343, 1346), Grensawe (1356), La Grange (1525), Grensove, Grensauwe, Grentzawe then Grenzau developed). The first documented mention of January 6, 1213 shows that the Isenburg man disregarded the rights of the Laach monastery in this place by building castles . The fortification monitored a trunk road that led from the Rhine Valley near Bendorf to the east on the Westerwald, and thus secured a connection to the Isenburg possessions and rights in the Lahn valley, including the lords of Limburg and Meudt and the Vogtei of Villmar . Grenzau Castle was also the center of a small lordship with Isenburg possessions, which included the parishes of Alsbach , Grenzhausen , Breitenau , Nauort and Ransbach . In the centuries that followed, the Grenzau castle and dominion acquired the character of a secondary residence of various lines to the widely ramified House of Isenburg with its scattered territory.

An apparently small crew of Burgmannen can be proven with various documents. In 1337 a clergyman is recorded for the first time on Grenzau, probably the chaplain of the castle chapel.

In 1346 Archbishop Balduin von Trier captured the castle in the Grenzau feud . Philip I had to recognize the feudal rule despite his victory on Gumschlag over the Koblenz vigilante in 1347. Emperor Karl IV granted Grenzau city ​​rights to Frankfurt . In 1436, the seat of a winery in the castle is documented for the first time . In 1464 a farm yard is mentioned. In 1439 the older Salentine line of the lords and counts of Isenburg lived in the castle. In 1460 Gerlach II got the castle back from Kurtrier . In 1557 the younger Salentine line of the Isenburg counts lived here and strengthened the fortifications with gun bastions in the north and a roundabout on the south slope.

During the Thirty Years War , the castle was set on fire on March 14, 1635 by French troops from Ehrenbreitstein . In 1664, after the death of Count Ernst von Isenburg-Grenzau , the heavily damaged castle fell back to Kurtrier as a settled fief and remained the seat of a winery and an office for a few years . In 1700 the mill below the castle was renewed, in 1722 a house for the Trier admodiator was built on the "Grenzach Castle", but the castle was noticeably deteriorating. In 1788 the castle chapel , which had been in use by the residents of Grenzau, was demolished and rebuilt elsewhere, and in 1793 the roof of the castle tower collapsed.

Due to the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , the castle fell to Nassau-Weilburg in 1803 . In 1866 it came to Prussia . In 1925 the castle was acquired by the government master builder Rudolph Arthur Zichner from Wiesbaden and made available to the Nerother Wandering Bird . In 1953, Hans Spiegel bought the castle and carried out maintenance measures. Since his death in 1987 the castle has been looked after by a family company.

description

Keep

The two-part spur castle has a core castle , the western outlying bailey of which has been removed. On the south side there is a bulwark with a round gun turret and two wing walls (around 1540) separated by a ditch . The triangular, 32-meter-high four-storey keep (mid-13th century) lies above the northern neck ditch. The triangular shape of the keep, which is unique in Germany today, can possibly be derived from the connection between the builder Heinrich I and the Count's House Peilstein , which had large estates in Lower Austria and Styria , where such types of construction were common. Only the gatehouse flanked by a small round tower (Tourelle) on the former ring wall on the south side is preserved from the 14th century . The ruins of the palace can still be seen on the west side . Presumably in the first half of the 17th century, the fortifications were reinforced and designed for the use of firearms.

Lower nobility

From the castle team of the castle, two families of lower aristocracy can be found today.

The von Grenzau were a branch of the von Braunsberg family . A knight Johann von Grenzau-Braunsberg has been handed down for the year 1305 . The last recorded member of the family in the male line is Dietrich von Grenzau, who acquired Dernbach Castle in 1380 , died in 1415 and bequeathed the castle to his daughter, the ancestral mother of the Hilchen von Lorch family. In 1467 Wilhelm von Staffel sold properties near Grenzau Castle, which he had received from the Grenzau house through his wife. The possession of those from Grenzau is proven across the entire southern Westerwald up to the valleys of the Rhine and Lahn. The family's coat of arms showed three silver diamonds or awakenings in the red shield, which reappear on the helmet on two red eagle wings.

The Schneiß or Schnetz von Grenzau with Heinrich mentioned in 1310 probably emerged from the Schnitz von Kempenich . Important members of the family were Heinrich, Margaretha, abbess of Gnadenthal from 1492 to 1504, mentioned as prior of Maria Laach in 1391 , and Johann, Hofmeister to Siegen around 1500 . The last verifiable heir is a Johann who apparently died shortly before 1576. Until 1781 unequal descendants can be found who received fiefs from the family estates. The main focus of ownership was in the Westerwald, with free float as far as Rheingau , Eifel and Taunus . The coat of arms of the Schneiß von Grenzau showed two blue stakes covered with a red pinnacle bar in a silver shield.

literature

  • Hellmuth Gensicke : Grenzau and Kammerforst . In: Nassauische Annalen 73rd Volume (1962), pp. 250-262
  • Hans Spiegel: Chronicle of Grenzau Castle . In: Burgen und Schlösser 25 (1984), pp. 22–52
  • Dietmar Spiegel: The architect Hans Spiegel and "his Grenzau" 1954 to 2004: Securing and modernizing a castle ruin. In: Burgen und Schlösser 45 (2004), pp. 93–97
  • Lorenz Frank: The keep of the Grenzau castle ruins: New observations on building history. In: Burgen und Schlösser 45 (2004), pp. 98-103
  • Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich: "... like a monarch enthroned in the middle of his court". Castles on the Lower Middle Rhine . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2210-3 , pp. 74-79.

Web links

Commons : Burg Grenzau  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files