Holdberg Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Holdberg Castle
Holdberg Castle 1.jpg
Creation time : before 1260
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Keep, remains of walls, trenches
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Nagelfluhquader
Place: Scheuring - Haltberg
Geographical location 48 ° 8 '20.4 "  N , 10 ° 52' 3.4"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 8 '20.4 "  N , 10 ° 52' 3.4"  E
Holdberg Castle (Bavaria)
Holdberg Castle

The Burghalten Mountain is the ruins of a hilltop castle on the steep banks of the Lech between Scheuring and Kaufering in the district of Landsberg am Lech in Upper Bavaria . Today the facility is the only ruined castle in the entire Lechrain area between Donauwörth and Füssen .

history

Holdberg Castle around 1695–1700 after an engraving by Michael Wening . The location of the village of Schwabmühlhausen is indicated on the right in the picture on the horizon .
Information board at the castle entrance

It was not until 1260 that a Konrad von Haltberg appeared in a document as the servant of the last Staufer Konradin . Later members of this family also served the dukes of Bavaria.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the duke bought half of the castle, which he sold on to the Augsburg patrician Peter Rehlinger in 1425 .

The Rehlinger subsequently acquired the entire castle, which remained in the family's possession until the early 17th century.

In 1612, the later Elector Maximilian I bought the complex, which was then converted into a hunting lodge . The nearby Lechau meadows were particularly suitable for "heron pickling", ie falcon hunting for herons. The nearby “Westerholz” also offered fertile hunting grounds for the Munich court society, who came here on the Kurfürstenweg .

However, the time of the great court hunts came to an end in the 18th century. The hunting lodge, now dispensable, was largely demolished. However, the former farm yard in the outer bailey has been preserved and managed to this day . The castle grounds had belonged to the Lords of Thyssen since the 19th century.

In 1982 the Landsberg am Lech district was able to acquire the main castle from the owners and began to renovate the complex. The remaining substance was secured and the keep was made accessible as a lookout tower . The tower end was also bricked up and roofed over. Until the renovation, the ruins were in a completely neglected condition. A leaky water reservoir was built into the large keep , the leakage of which caused considerable frost damage in winter.

Building description

The ruins of the castle chapel with the keep
The remains of the mansion facing north
The keep from the west

The castle lies above the Lech on the edge of the plateau. The rectangular main castle is protected in the north and east by an impressive double moat system . In the south, a simple neck ditch separates the main and outer bailey . The outer bailey is separated from the site by a further outer ditch.

Today you enter the castle ruins on the north side via a heaped dam, which gives a good view of the moat system. The plateau of the main castle is surrounded by the outer walls of the former castle. An upper floor made of brick has been preserved above the base from Nagelfluh . The inner courtyard is paved with Lech pebbles, which are largely hidden under a thin, grassy layer of earth. In the east, steps lead to the former cellar rooms, which had to be filled for conservation reasons.

The mighty Romanesque keep rises in the southeast corner. The round tower made of large Nagelfluh blocks has been cleared of rubble over the last few decades and partially supplemented. Like other bergfrieds in southern Bavaria, it is also known as the Roman Tower and has a diameter of 9 meters and a height of around 18 meters. The arched entry opening at a height of around 8 meters can now be reached via a steel frame. The tower can be climbed as an observation tower after prior registration in Landsberg . The view of the Lech plain and the Alpine chain is largely impaired by tall trees.

The original main gate of the medieval castle was certainly on this side and was secured by the large outer bailey and the keep. The entrance was moved to the other side for use as a hunting lodge. In place of today's dam, apparently ( Wening ) there was a wooden bridge over the moat.

The mansion stood in the west directly above the steep drop. In the east the servants' quarters was directly to the castle keep grown (gable approach visible). Between the main and the outer bailey are the ruins of the Romanesque-Gothic castle chapel , which was only destroyed after the Second World War.

The hunting lodge of the 18th century is well documented by a view by Michael Wening (1726). The copper engraving shows the castle from the northeast in a bird's eye view. Around the main castle there was a narrow kennel with several rectangular towers. The elongated buildings had simple gable roofs, the keep a high helmet. The double moats and the choir of the chapel are clearly recognizable.

This chapel was well preserved until the post-war period. The originally Romanesque building, consecrated to Saint Erasmus, was raised and expanded in the Gothic period. The small church was later baroque and stuccoed (Wessobrunn master).

Around 1960 a Nagelfluh cuboid detached itself from the wall of the adjacent keep and broke through the roof of the chapel. However, rumors persist in the population to this day that some fellows from the area helped a little in exchange for payment. The building maintenance should have become a nuisance to the owner. Later the vault collapsed completely. When the castle was being repaired, the ruins were protected by a temporary roof and the remains of the stucco were recovered from the rubble.

The ruins are now owned by the Landsberg am Lech district and freely accessible. The outer bailey is privately owned and serves as an agricultural estate.

About two kilometers south of the castle, the earthworks of two pre- to high-medieval fortifications can be seen on the Lechhofufer ( Schanzen im Westerholz ). Another castle stable north of Haltberg was largely built over with the Lichtenberg farm.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bavaria IV: Munich and Upper Bavaria (edited by Ernst Götz, Heinrich Habel and others). 3rd updated edition. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-422-03115-4 .
  • Werner Meyer : Castles in Upper Bavaria - A manual . Verlag Weidlich, Würzburg 1986, ISBN 3-8035-1279-4 , p. 142-144 .
  • Christof Metzger, Ulrich Heiss, Annette Kranz: Country estates of Augsburg patricians . Munich / Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-422-06574-1 .
  • Michael W. Weithmann: Inventory of the castles of Upper Bavaria . 3rd revised and expanded edition. Published by the district of Upper Bavaria, Munich 1995, pp. 170–172.
  • Michael Weithmann: Knights and Castles in Upper Bavaria - Forays into the medieval country between the Alps, Danube, Lech and Salzach . Verlagsanstalt Bayerland, Dachau 1999, ISBN 3-89251-276-0 , pp. 32–34.
  • Joachim Dellinger : Historical notes about the castle and the Hofmark Haltberg am Lech . In: Upper Bavarian Archive for Fatherland History (Historical Association of Upper Bavaria, ed.), Volume 4, Munich 1843, SS 271–382 ( online ).

See also

Web links

Commons : Burghaltenberg  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Photo of the memorial plaque on the tower, on commons.wikimedia.org