Hertenstein Castle

Hertenstein Castle
Part of the moat
Creation time :	probably early 13th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Humpback cuboid
Place:	Blaufelden -Billingsbach
Geographical location	49 ° 17 '52.4 "  N , 9 ° 53' 18.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '52.4 "  N , 9 ° 53' 18.8"  E
Height:	442.8  m above sea level NN

The Hertenstein Castle is an Outbound Spur castle southwest of the local part of the municipality Bach Billing Blaufelden in district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Wuerttemberg .

Geographical location

The Burgstall is located about 840 meters southwest of the local church in Billingsbach on the edge of the Blaufelden-Gerabronner level.

The site of the former castle is 442.8  m above sea level. NN height on a mountain spur that rises above the Hertensteiner Mühle at the confluence of the Billingsbach in the Rötelbach . The spur is bounded on three sides by steep slopes, on its northwest side in the valley of the Billingsbach and on the west side in the Rötelbachtal. The south side is also naturally well protected by the steep drop into the so-called "Galgenklinge", a small Klingental valley . The fourth, east-northeast side merges into the adjoining plateau and thus formed the main attack side.

history

Hertenstein Castle was probably built at the beginning of the 13th century, as is indicated by the dating of two broken glass pieces with floor markings, which were found during an excavation by Emil Kost in 1948. It is not known who built and lived in the castle. At that time, the function of the castle could have been to monitor a section of an old road that crossed the Jagst valley from Künzelsau , then pulled up the Geigersteige directly below the castle and continued via Schrozberg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber .

The first news of the castle did not start until the 14th century, when in 1314 an Eberhard von Hertenstein appeared as a documentary witness for Gottfried and Gebhard von Brauneck from Hohenlohe . At that time he belonged to the German Order .

The noble lords of Hertenstein were probably ministerials of the noble family of Hohenlohe. However, it is also unknown whether they had the castle built or by what route the castle came into their possession. Further mentions in documents show that the Hertensteiners were probably identical with the local nobility of Billingsbach, in 1315 Walter von Hertenstein “sat in Billingsbach” sold his own people to Mergentheim to the German Order. The Lords of Billingsbach moved their seat in the village, which is also a castle stable today, apparently during the 14th century to the hill castle, which is naturally much better protected . After the year 1374, the Hertensteiners died out, the last known bearer of the name was the Wachbach pastor Eberhard von Hertenstein .

At this point in time, Hertenstein Castle was probably no longer inhabited, because in 1393 Count Ulrich von Hohenlohe enfeoffed Rezzo von Bächlingen, among other things, with a part "on the Burgstadel zu Hertenstein, vnd what eygens had rulership on the same Burgstadel" . Hertenstein Castle was also listed as a ruin on the map of the Langenburg Office from 1578 .

The mill in Rötelbachtal and a building yard that can no longer be localized originally belonged to the castle.

literature

• Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district. An inventory . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1228-7 , pp. 28-30.

Web links

Commons : Burg Hertenstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Source history: Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory , p. 29ff