Groß-Arnsberg Castle

Groß-Arnsberg Castle
	Castle ruins
Alternative name (s):	Grossarnsburg, Gross-Arnsburg
Creation time :	12th Century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Construction:	Humpback cuboid
Place:	Baerenthal
Geographical location	48 ° 57 '5 " N , 7 ° 33' 41" E Coordinates: 48 ° 57 '5 " N , 7 ° 33' 41" E
Height:	356 m

The castle Groß-Arnsberg , also called Groß-Arnsburg ( French Château du Grand-Arnsbourg ), is the ruin of a spur castle in the Vosges .

Geographical location

The castle ruins are located in the French department of Moselle in the Grand Est region (until 2015 Lorraine ) in the municipality of Baerenthal around five kilometers west of Niederbronn-les-Bains in Alsace on the mountain spur that stretches from the Arnsberg to the south-west above the valley of the Northern Zinsel on the GR long-distance hiking trail 53 at an altitude of 356 meters.

history

middle Ages

The castle, built on behalf of Duke Friedrich II of Swabia by the Landgraves of Werd, is said to have been mentioned for the first time in 1229. The Lichtenberg lordship bought the castle from the Counts of Ötingen in 1332 . It was an imperial loan . Due to the acquisition of territory in the 14th century, the Ingweiler and Buchsweiler authorities, which had become too extensive, had to be reorganized at the beginning of the 15th century . Among other things, the Pfaffenhofen office was spun off and made independent, to which the Groß-Arnsberg Castle also belonged. In 1335 the country was divided between the middle and younger lines of the House of Lichtenberg . The castle fell to the descendants of Johann III, who died early . von Lichtenberg , who established the middle line of the house, or the older line - the information is contradictory.

Anna von Lichtenberg (* 1442; † 1474), one of the two heirlooms of Ludwig V von Lichtenberg (* 1417; † 1474) married Count Philip I the Elder of Hanau-Babenhausen (* 1417; † 1480), one of them had received a small secondary school from the inventory of the County of Hanau in order to be able to get married. The county of Hanau-Lichtenberg came into being through the marriage . After the death of the last Lichtenberger, Jakob von Lichtenberg , an uncle of Anna, Philipp I. d. Ä. 1480 half of the Lichtenberg rule . The Pfaffenhofen office with the Groß-Arnsberg castle also belonged to this half.

The Lords of Ochsenstein and their successors also held shares in the castle, which they attributed to their rule in Oberbronn .

Modern times

The castle was destroyed in the Thirty Years War . As a result of France's reunion policy in 1680, considerable parts of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Alsace fell under the sovereignty of France . This also included the Pfaffenhofen Office.

In the 18th century the castle was assigned to the Ingweiler office. In 1717/1718 the Count von Hanau von Kurmainz was able to buy sovereignty in a number of communities and Arnsberg Castle for 25,000 livres . They were no longer fiefs, but allod . 1736 died with Count Johann Reinhard III. the last male representative of the Hanau family. Due to the marriage of his only daughter, Charlotte (* 1700; † 1726), with the Hereditary Prince Ludwig (VIII.) (* 1691; † 1768) of Hesse-Darmstadt , the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg fell there.

In the course of the French Revolution , the part of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg on the left bank of the Rhine - and with it the Pfaffenhofen Office and Groß-Arnsberg Castle - fell to France. Since 1994, the ruin is a monument historique heritage protected .

According to a legend, large stocks of wine are stored in the cellars of the ruins, which give off a strong smell in good wine years.

investment

The ruin sits enthroned on a rock and is divided into a western and an eastern complex. Access has not been possible since 2008. The access stairs were removed due to the risk of falling rocks. It has a square keep made of humpback ashlars with a vaulted room and a spiral staircase as well as an upper door with a round bar. The keep and the main remains of the castle are located on the east complex. The castle ruins are to be renovated and will be accessible again by 2015.

literature

Rüdiger Bernges: rock castles in Wasgau . 6th edition. Binsy, Wuppertal 2005, ISBN 3-930376-25-3 , pp. 183-190.

Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Vol. 2). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06635-9 , here: pp. 229-237.

Fritz Eyer: The territory of the Lords of Lichtenberg 1202-1480. Investigations into the property, the rule and the politics of domestic power of a noble family from the Upper Rhine . In: Writings of the Erwin von Steinbach Foundation . 2nd edition, unchanged in the text, by an introduction extended reprint of the Strasbourg edition, Rhenus-Verlag, 1938. Volume 10 . Pfaehler, Bad Neustadt an der Saale 1985, ISBN 3-922923-31-3 (268 pages).

E. Haug: Groß-Arnsburg near Baerental . In: Wasgaublick . Vol. 19, No. 10, 1991, pp. 364-419.

Walter Hotz : Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine . 3. Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-422-00345-2 , p. 73.

Friedrich Knöpp: Territorial holdings of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Hesse-Darmstadt . [typewritten] Darmstadt 1962. [Available in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt , signature: N 282/6].

Alfred Matt: Bailliages, prévôté et fiefs ayant fait partie de la Seigneurie de Lichtenberg, du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg, du Landgraviat de Hesse-Darmstadt . In: Société d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie de Saverne et Environs (Eds.): Cinquième centenaire de la création du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg 1480 - 1980 = Pays d'Alsace 111/112 (2, 3/1980), p 7-9.

Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales d'Alsace. Dictionnaire d'histoire et d'architecture . La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 2013, ISBN 978-2-7165-0828-5 , pp. 21-22.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Eyer, p. 61.
↑ Eyer, p. 128.
↑ Eyer, p. 238.
↑ Eyer, p. 79.
↑ Eyer, p. 78.
^ Peter Karl Weber: Lichtenberg. Alsatian domination on the way to becoming a territorial state. Social costs of political innovation . Heidelberg 1993, p. 37, note 59.
↑ ^a ^b Entry of the castle ruins in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
^ Matt, p. 7; Knöpp, p. 7.

[1] Eyer, p. 61.

[2] Eyer, p. 128.

[3] Eyer, p. 238.

[4] Eyer, p. 79.

[5] Eyer, p. 78.

[6] Peter Karl Weber: Lichtenberg. Alsatian domination on the way to becoming a territorial state. Social costs of political innovation . Heidelberg 1993, p. 37, note 59.

[merimee-7] Entry of the castle ruins in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

[8] Matt, p. 7; Knöpp, p. 7.