Grubenhagen Castle (Einbeck)
| Grubenhagen Castle | ||
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 The round donjon is the only remaining structure in Grubenhagen Castle |
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| Creation time : | 12. / 13. century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Keep | |
| Place: | near Einbeck , Northeim district in Lower Saxony | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 45 '53 " N , 9 ° 49' 2" E | |
| Height: | 298 m above sea level NN | |
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The Grubenhagen Castle is the ruins of a medieval castle from the 13th century not far from Einbeck in southern Lower Saxony .
Location
The ruins of the Höhenburg are located in the Northeim district on a 298 m high hilltop in the south-southwest of Einbeck and east of the Solling ridge of Ahlsburg , which rises between the Ilme basin and the Leine valley . Coming from Rotenkirchen (southern district of Einbeck), which is located on the northern edge of the ridge not far northeast below the castle ruins, you can reach the castle via a narrow forest path.
Building description
Of Grubenhagen Castle, which was built in the 13th century, only the round, 17.5 meter high keep is preserved today. It has a diameter of about 6.5 meters and extends almost 4 meters into the ground down to the limestone rock. Inside the tower was divided by seven beam ceilings. While the original entrance was almost 6 meters high, it was opened in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century moved to the ground floor.
An extension from the 19th / 20th centuries adjoins the tower to the southeast. Century on. The castle plateau of the main castle with a relatively small area is oval and slightly kidney-shaped. It is about 63 m long and 32 m wide. Below is the outer bailey . The complex is surrounded on three sides by a double ditch . On the fourth side, the terrain slopes steeply, making a ditch unnecessary. Remnants of the lining walls are still preserved in the northeast and southwest . A Merian engraving around 1650 shows the castle still with a round donjon and a roofless building with a gable in front of it. On the ramparts of the main ditch there was probably a wall with a battlement to the northwest. Remains of a battlement with loopholes can still be seen on the engraving to the north or northwest.
history
The Counts of Dassel or the Welfs can be considered as builders of Grubenhagen Castle . When the castle was built is not certain, it was probably built during the time of Henry the Lion (1129 to 1195). The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1263. At that time, the ministerial family of Mr. Grubo von Grubenhagen were at the castle as castle men . At the end of the 13th century the castle came back to the Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg .
The castle was named after the Guelph Principality of Grubenhagen, which was newly founded by Heinrich the Wunderlichen in 1291 . But it was never really the residence of the principality. It did not appear as the "house" of the dukes until the early 15th century. The dukes mostly resided in the nearby Heldenburg and later in Herzberg am Harz . The name of the principality of Grubenhagen came into being around 1617, the previous name is unknown.
Siege 1448
Henry III. von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen had to entrench himself in the castle in 1448 after he had carried out a raid in the area of Hofgeismar and on the way back had taken hostages to extort ransom. Against Heinrich, the Hessian Landgrave Ludwig of Hesse formed a coalition of cities and princes, which was supported by the Archbishop of Mainz . The cities of Braunschweig, Dransfeld, Duderstadt, Fritzlar, Gandersheim, Göttingen, Hanover, Hardegsen, Heiligenstadt, Hofgeismar, Höxter, Moringen, Münden, Northeim and Seesen were represented. Among the princes were Brunswick dukes and thus relatives of Henry III, such as Heinrich the Peaceful and Wilhelm the Elder .
A siege army, which is said to have comprised 16,000 men, 2,000 horsemen and 1,500 wagons, moved in front of the castle. From Göttingen alone, 1,000 men and two Makefrede and Scharpegrete guns came, the latter bursting during the battle. Although several attempts were made to storm the castle within 4 weeks, the efforts failed due to the disagreement of the besiegers. They did not agree on what to do with her after taking the plant. The cities wanted to grind the castle to take away its function as a predatory nest. The Hessian landgrave wanted to use it as a northern base. The disappointed attackers then devastated the neighboring villages of Altendorf , Reinsen, Bensen and Rotenkirchen instead . The latter was rebuilt in 1520 as a supply courtyard and as the residence and administrative seat of the dukes.
Follow-up time
In the years that followed, Grubenhagen Castle was hardly inhabited. The Grubenhagener line of the Welfenhaus died out in 1596 and fell to the other Guelph lines, which did not use the castle for 200 years. In this way, war hordes often wandered through the castle and found hiding places. In 1625 the Tillys' riders looked for treasures in the castle, but when they found nothing they began to devastate it. Together with the town of Rotenkirchen, Duke Heinrich Julius took possession of Grubenhagen in 1596, which resulted in a dispute with the House of Lüneburg , which was settled in such a way that the son of Heinrich Julius, Duke Friedrich Ulrich , ceded the castle in 1617. Until 1665, Grubenhagen remained in the possession of the Dukes of Celle. It was later given to Duke Johann Friedrich and the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen . When he died in 1679 without a male heir, it passed to the Duke and later Elector Ernst August . In 1815/16 Duke Adolf Friedrich von Cambridge took possession of the Rotenkirchen domain. As Viceroy of Hanover , he had the well-known master builder Laves in Rotenkirchen convert the half-timbered building of the manor house into an elegant hunting lodge. He had a horse stable added to the still existing castle tower. From 1861 to 1866 Rotenkirchen was the summer residence of the Kings of Hanover.
Current condition
After the Second World War , Grubenhagen Castle was initially left to its own devices and continued to deteriorate. Even the door to the tower was walled up so that climbing was no longer possible.
The Burgverein Grubenhagen, which emerged from a citizens' initiative, has been taking care of the castle complex since 1977. The keep was restored with donations and subsidies. The former horse stable can now be used for events. The entire complex is now a popular destination again. The tower can be climbed again as a lookout tower ; You have to collect the key from the castle tower warden in the village beforehand.
excavation
In the wider area of the castle there are two smaller jumps 900 meters away . A ski jump was archaeologically examined in 1950 with an excavation cut. Its remains consist of a shallow wall and a 40 cm deep ditch in front of it. It is not known whether there is a connection between the hill and the siege of 1448.
In autumn 2010, a limited archaeological investigation took place in the castle. Earth material was removed from the inside of the keep, and the limestone rock was encountered at a depth of 2.2 meters. Since the excavation had been rehabilitation material since the 18th century, the finds included modern ceramic and glass fragments. In the area of the outer bailey , a short excavation cut was made in a hollow in order to explore a suspected well. A 1.8 meter wide foundation was discovered, which is regarded as a bastion in front of the castle wall . The surroundings of the castle were examined with metal detectors , which led to metal finds from the siege of the castle in 1448. These included numerous crossbow bolts and fragments of rifle barrels.
literature
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The castle ruins Grubenhagen. In: If stones could talk. Volume III, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1995, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 , pp. 121-122.
- Karl Scheibe-Moringen: Grubenhagen. Description and history of the castle . In: History of South Hanoverian castles and monasteries . tape 9 . Bernhard Franke, Leipzig 1898.
- Stefan Teuber: Research at Grubenhagen Castle. In: Archeology in Lower Saxony , Volume 16, 2013, pp. 85–87.
- Stefan Teuber: Grubenhagen Castle - Siege 1448. In: Archeology in Lower Saxony. Volume 17. Oldenburg 2014, pp. 98-101.
- Markus C. Blaich , Sonja Stadje, Kim Kappes: Burg Grubenhagen in: The Heldenburg near Salzderhelden, castle and residence in the Principality of Grubenhagen , (= guide to the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. 32) Isensee Verlag , Oldenburg, 2019, p. 89– 92.
Web links
- Entry by Jens Friedhoff zu Grubenhagen in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Website of the castle ( Memento of March 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Description at burgenwelt.de
- Historical reconstruction drawing
Individual evidence
- ^ Entry on Grubenhagen in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- ^ Karl Scheibe-Moringen: Grubenhagen. Description and history of the castle . In: History of South Hanoverian castles and monasteries . tape 9 . Bernhard Franke, Leipzig 1898, p. 19 .