Castle high-rise

Castle high-rise
Ruins of the Palas in the west
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Tower and wall remains
Standing position :	Noble
Place:	Hohenaltheim
Geographical location	48 ° 47 '13.9 "  N , 10 ° 29' 13.2"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 47 '13.9 "  N , 10 ° 29' 13.2"  E
Height:	555.2  m above sea level NHN

The Hochhaus castle is the ruin of an originally high medieval hill castle at 555.2  m above sea level. NN above the Kartäusertal , on the edge of the Ries crater near Hohenaltheim in Swabia in the Donau-Ries district . The ruined castle, which is in great danger of collapsing, is located within a large, older rampart, about one kilometer from the neighboring Niederhaus castle .

history

The castle was probably built around 1200 as the ancestral seat of a branch of the noble von Hürnheim family , who subsequently named themselves after the castle (de alta domo, i.e. to or from the high house). In 1236 Rudolf I von Hochhaus was named as a witness to a notarization.

In 1347 the facility was sold to the Counts of Oettingen-Oettingen by Konrad II for £ 3,000 . The last of the lords of the skyscraper died in 1353 without an heir, which was probably one of the reasons for selling the castle. The counts use the castle as an official residence, which was modernized and strengthened in terms of defense technology in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 1719 the old castle complex was finally expanded into a palace, but the fortifications and the old palace were largely retained. This castle building burned down in 1749, no reconstruction was required.

The journalist and educator Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin was imprisoned at the skyscraper between 1787 and 1792 . While in custody he writes articles for his political magazines Das graue Ungeheur , Hyperborean Letters and Paragraphs .

The old hall is still used as the official building of the Oettingen-Wallerstein line until 1807 and then left to decay. This decay was deliberately accelerated for romantic motives, the castle ruins - like the neighboring Niederhaus castle - should serve as a picturesque landscape scenery in the Karthäusertal . Nevertheless, the ruins are apparently still inhabited for a long time: In 1839, the city council of Nördlingen granted the court councilor Helene le Bret from the skyscraper to move to the city.

In the sixties of the twentieth century the countercarp of the neck trench was secured (already partially collapsed again), other maintenance measures on the building fabric are not discernible.

description

The Hochhauser Berg is reinforced by extensive section fortifications of various times. About 300 meters before the neck ditch of the actual castle, the plateau is cordoned off from the hinterland by a 200-meter-long moat, with another moat in between. The middle ditch stretches partially down the slope, possibly the outer bailey of the high-rise building was behind this ditch, structural remains or traces of the terrain have not been preserved.

The outer wall ( counter scabbard ) of the neck ditch is partially bricked, behind which the few remains of the baroque, four-winged castle building rise above the old circular wall .

The ground plan of the main castle is an irregular square about 60 × 70 meters in circumference. To the west of the small remains of the castle is the three-storey old palace (danger of collapse) with its large window openings. The gate kennel is to the south, the remains of a flanking tower can still be found here , the main gate has disappeared.

The best preserved part of the former castle building is the slender, southwest corner tower, which is preceded by a low, elongated gun turret.

Two surviving oil paintings (around 1750/60) that are now kept at Harburg Castle give a good impression of the castle and palace complex before it fell into disrepair . One shows the system from the northwest, the other the southwest view. According to these paintings, the main building of the castle had a half-timbered upper floor with a stone or plastered turret, the lower side wings were crowned by small tail gables. The slender corner tower reached up to the roof ridge of the main building.

Because of the acute risk of collapse, it is not advisable to enter the facility, essential components can be viewed from the outside.

photos

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  If the trees have no leaves, you can see the ruin in the forest

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  Southwest part of the castle with the hall and the gate building (right)

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  Torzwinger in the southwest

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  Half-round tower of the gate kennel

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  Casemates in the south next to the gate kennel

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  View over the casemates to the west

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  The lined neck ditch to the southwest

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  Southeast tower with the wall to the north

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  Northeast part of the castle over the moat

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  Castle courtyard to the west. In the background the Palas

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  South side with the remains of the castle building

literature

• The art monuments of Bavaria , VII, Swabia, 1 - District Office Nördlingen. Munich 1938, pp. 204-208.
• Günter Schmitt : Castle Guide Swabian Alb. Volume 6 Eastern Alb. Hiking and discovering between Ulm, Aalen and Donauwörth . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1995, ISBN 3-924489-74-2 , pp. 177-186.
• Hans Frei, Günther Krahe: Guide to archaeological monuments in Bavaria, Swabia 2: Archaeological walks in the Ries . 2nd edition, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart and Aalen 1988, ISBN 3-8062-0568-X , pp. 245–249.
• Wilfried Sponsel, Hartmut Steger: Past castles and mansions. A search for traces in the view of the giant . Typesetting and graphics partner, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-935438-27-3 , pp. 34–45.

Web links

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

• Reconstruction drawing

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bernhard Hampp: Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin and Karl Gottlob Beck. A publicist and his publisher at the time of the Enlightenment. Eichstätt (Dipl.), 2001.
2. ↑ Wilfried Sponsel, Hartmut Steger: Past castles and manors. A search for traces in the view of the giant. Augsburg: Typesetting and Graphics Partner, 2004.