Hammerstein Castle (on the Rhine)

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Hammerstein Castle
Hammerstein Castle, remains of a round tower

Hammerstein Castle, remains of a round tower

Creation time : around 900 to 1000
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Place: Hammerstein
Geographical location 50 ° 28 '16.2 "  N , 7 ° 21' 27.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 28 '16.2 "  N , 7 ° 21' 27.8"  E
Height: 195  m above sea level NN
Hammerstein Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Hammerstein Castle

The castle Hammerstein is the ruins of a hilltop castle on a 195  m above sea level. NN high hill on the Rhine south of the village of Hammerstein in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate .

history

Aerial view of the Hammerstein castle ruins
Hammerstein castle ruins seen from the south

The complex was built in the 10th century by the Konradines in what was then Engersgau and is therefore probably the oldest castle in the Middle Rhine Valley . It was named as an imperial castle in the year 1000 (although the infill wall technique of the curtain wall could even indicate Roman origins). The burgraves of Hammerstein lived and ruled here until around 1417, before the trace of this family is lost from a genealogical point of view.

Otto von Hammerstein (Gaugraf in Engersgau ) entered into a marriage with his relative Irmingard , which was not recognized by the church (see Hammerstein marriage ). He did not adhere to the resolution of the dissolution of his marriage with Irmingard, which was resolved on the Reichstag in 1018 , and attacked the Archbishop of Mainz . The castle was then successfully besieged by Emperor Heinrich II in autumn 1020 . On December 26th, the defenders gave up the castle, starving. Hammerstein Castle then fell into disrepair.

The future Emperor Heinrich IV had the castle restored in 1071. In 1105 he had the imperial insignia fetched from here , which were kept in the castle when he was deposed in Ingelheim by his son Heinrich V , who in 1125 also kept the imperial insignia there. Hammerstein owned a customs post in 1071 and a mint from 1215 . In 1225, the future Roman-German King Wilhelm of Holland visited the castle.

In 1337 the place Oberhammerstein received city ​​rights .

Hammerstein remained an imperial castle until Emperor Charles IV transferred the feudal sovereignty over the castle and its accessories as property to the Electorate of Trier in 1374 .

In 1431, Archbishop Raban von Helmstatt pledged the castle and valley of Hammerstein to Count Ruprecht von Virneburg and in 1434 allowed him to build 1,500 guilders into the castle .

1632–1646 the Spanish occupied the castle in the Thirty Years War . 1646–1654 troops of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine , used it as a base for raids. It was held by its occupiers long after the end of the war. Only after immense effort could it be captured by armed forces from Kurtrier and Wied . In 1688 the castle was conquered and destroyed by the French.

In 1815 the ruins fell to Prussia . The castle has been owned by the Barons von Hammerstein since 1893 .

  • Remains of the exit port

  • Remains of the eastern parapet wall

  • A notch in the "Barbarossa Wall"

  • Reconstruction of a castle gate

  • Coat of arms of the burgraves of Hammerstein

literature

  • Udo Liessem: The interest of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in the ruins of Hammerstein am Rhein. - In: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte, 35 (2009), pp. 387–417. ISSN  0170-2025
  • Roman-like processing of the so-called Hammerstein marriage dispute: Günter Ruch : The mistress of Hammerstein Castle. Droemer / Knaur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-426-63390-6 .
  • Werner Schönhofen: Hammerstein am Rhein . In: Rheinische Kunststätten. Issue 324. Neusser Dr. u. Verl., Neuss 1987, ISBN 3-88094-582-9 .
  • Alexander Thon / Manfred Czerwinski: Middle Rhine . The most beautiful castles in Germany, part 2, CD-ROM. Kaiserslautern 2003, ISBN 3-936216-08-8 .
  • Alexander Thon: ... ut nostrum regale palatium infra civitatem vel in burgo eorum non hedificent. Studies on the relevance and validity of the term “Palatinate” for the exploration of castles of the 12th and 13th centuries . In: Wartburg-Society for the research of castles and palaces in connection with the Germanic National Museum (Hrsg.): Castle building in the 13th century. Munich 2002 (Research on Castles and Palaces, Vol. 7), pp. 45–72.
  • Alexander Thon: From the Middle Rhine to the Palatinate. On the prehistory of the transfer of the imperial insignia from Hammerstein Castle to Trifels Castle in 1125 . In: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte 32, 2006, pp. 35–74.
  • 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. 80-87.
  • Johann Christian von Stramberg , Rheinischer Antiquarius, Department III., Volume 6, Koblenz 1859, pp. 60–556. limited preview in Google Book search
  • Heinrich Neu / Hans Weigert: Art monuments of the Neuwied district , L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1940, pp. 159–165.

Web links

Commons : Hammerstein Castle  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rhein-Zeitung of May 3, 2017: Christina Nover: Hammerstein has the most important castle on the Middle Rhine
  2. ↑ Philipp de Lorenzi: Contributions to the history of all parishes in the Diocese of Trier , Bischöfliches General-Vikariat Trier, 1887, p. 513 ( dilibri.de )
  3. ^ Heinrich Neu and Hans Weigert: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Neuwied , L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1940, p. 163.