Hatzfeld Castle

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Hatzfeld Castle
19th century steel engraving

19th century steel engraving

Creation time : 13th Century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Place: Hatzfeld (Eder)
Geographical location 50 ° 59 '39.3 "  N , 8 ° 33' 3.6"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 59 '39.3 "  N , 8 ° 33' 3.6"  E
Height: 435  m above sea level NHN
Hatzfeld Castle (Hesse)
Hatzfeld Castle

Hatzfeld Castle , built in the 13th century, was the ancestral castle of the Lords of Hatzfeld . The ruin of the Spornburg lies on a mountain slope at 435  m above sea level. NHN above the Eder valley east of the town of Hatzfeld in the Hessian district of Waldeck-Frankenberg .

history

The original aristocratic court of the Lords of Hatzfeldt, first mentioned in 1138, was where the Romanesque village church (formerly St. Cyriacus) of Nieder-Hatzfeld now stands as the Emmaus chapel. Beyond the Eder, the Lords of Hatzfeldt built a castle on a mountain ledge, which was first mentioned in 1282.

Since 1194, the von Hatzfeldt were more Mainz than Landgrave Hessian partisans, but in 1311 they had to give their festivals as fiefs to Hesse, while the city court in the bourgeois "valley", which had been laid out in 1340 with the imperial permission on the mountain slope on the Eder side, was admissible to the Archbishopric Mainz . As energetic, combative Mainz administrators here and especially at Mellnau Castle , they acquired Bringhausen “in den Birken” (today Birkenbringhausen near Frankenberg) and Eifa in addition to their small rule around 1387 . When the Hatzfeldt-Hatzfeldt line became extinct in 1570, the landgraves, who had been pledgers of the Mainz office of Battenberg since 1464, took over half of the rulership as a fallen fief and bought the rest in 1588 and 1772. The other, the Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg line, made it into the imperial line Service to imperial counts, due to the Silesian rule Trachenberg in 1748 as imperial prince.

View of the ruins of Hatzfeld Castle

Hatzfeld Castle began to fall into disrepair as early as the 16th century and, as an inventory shows, was already partially desolate in 1570 . A small part was still inhabited in 1707. In 1842, parts of the castle ruins were laid down on the instructions of the Grand Ducal Darmstadt superstructure management.

In recent years, the Hatzfeld Castle and Local History Association has uncovered the ruins. The castle has been gradually being renovated since 1991. Garment clips, clay figures and vessels that were found during excavations still bear witness to life in the medieval fortifications.

The castle hill with the ruins is still owned by the von Hatzfeldt family. The owner is Sebastian Graf von Hatzfeldt.

  • South-eastern flank tower

  • Inside view of the tower

  • Castle gate

literature

  • Jens Friedhoff : Sauerland and Siegerland. Theiss Castle Guide . Edited by Joachim Zeune . Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1706-8 , pp. 80-81.
  • Jens Friedhoff: Castles, palaces and noble residences in the Hessian hinterland . Published by the Hinterland History Association, 2018, p. 132.
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse: 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites . 3rd edition, Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg – Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 143-144.

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