Hohenerpfingen Castle

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Hohenerpfingen Castle
Creation time : Second half of the 12th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, mountain corner
Conservation status: Castle ruins
Standing position : Probably Erpfinger local aristocratic castle
Construction: Square and hump square masonry
Place: Sonnenbühl- Erpfingen
Geographical location 48 ° 20 '52.7 "  N , 9 ° 11' 10.3"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 20 '52.7 "  N , 9 ° 11' 10.3"  E
Height: 785  m above sea level NHN
Hohenerpfingen Castle (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Hohenerpfingen Castle

The castle Hohenerpfingen or Schnatren called, is the ruin of a high medieval hilltop castle that once located above a Talecke the Erpf rose. The castle ruins are located above Erpfingen, a district of the municipality of Sonnenbühl in the Reutlingen district in Baden-Württemberg , Germany . From the castle, which was founded during the 12th century, have now only out of the rock struck moats and towering shield wall-like front wall of the main castle received on a boulder.

Geographical location

The place of the lost castle is located roughly in the center of the Swabian Alb , on the slope of 785  m above sea level. NHN meter high corner of the Kobel mountain in the Schlosshalde forest department. Burgplatz is about 75 meters above the Erpftal, which comes from the east and then curves to the south. To the north, northeast and west, the terrain slopes steeply down to the valley, while in the south the Kobelberg rises to 808  m above sea level. NHN slightly. The castle ruins are located about 815 meters west-southwest of the church in Erpfingen.

There are other former medieval castles and mansions in the vicinity: Below the former Hohenerpfingen Castle, roughly in the area of ​​today's festival hall, was the Niederhofen settlement belonging to the castle. In Niederhofen there was an older manor, the Stollenhof. In the place of Erpfingen itself, in place of today's rectory, was the Ortsburg, which was built later, but nothing has survived. About 1900 meters south are the ruins of Hölnstein and Aufhofen Castle , in a north-westerly direction the ruins of Hohenmelchingen and Salmendingen .

history

There were previously two settlements (Aufhofen and Niederhofen) in the area of ​​today's Erpfingen.

In 1304 (note by the presumably last local nobleman) Christine von Erpfingen was mentioned in the documents . At that time she was a nun in the Stetten monastery . The "von Erpfingen" family probably had their traditional seat in the old manor house, the "Stollenhof", about 500 meters west of the center of Erpfingen, roughly in the area of ​​today's festival hall. Later, the local nobility from Erpfingen probably sat on the Hohenerpfingen castle built at the end of the 12th century.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the "Zollern" were among the most powerful Swabian dynasties. Her court servants included a “cupbearer”, a “Werner, Schenk von Andeck”, whose official apartment and Andeck Castle (above Talheim, Tübingen district) was built towards the end of the 13th century. In 1314 Werner's eldest son, "Werner II., Schenk von Andeck, Erpfingen and Stauffenberg", married a daughter of the neighbor (and "Zoller friend") "Johann von Salmendingen" and so the donors themselves could only shortly before Property Niederhofen acquired by the departed Erpfingen local nobility - as a wedding gift - brought with them. Werner II himself resided with his wife on the Stauffenberg (near Wessingen) and called himself "Schenk von Andeck, Erpfingen and Stauffenberg". There are some indications that “Werner II” did not bequeath the entire Erpfingen property to his father-in-law. Around 1340 the “Schenken von Erpfingen” (= plural) also appeared in a document. Jürgen Meyer writes appropriately that the nephews of "Werner II.", I.e. the sons of his younger brother Konrad, were given this castle, which was later built in the Aufhofen settlement, as their domicile. They continued to call themselves "Schenken", which probably expressed their affiliation to the customs-loyal noble family of "Schenken".

In any case, in the middle of the 14th century the “Lords of Salmendingen” owned and lived in the Stollenhof, including the surrounding Niederhofen and Hohenerpfingen Castle. From the middle of the 14th century two brothers, "Knight Hanß von Salbadingen" (in 1350) and a "Haintz von Salbadingen" (in 1358), sitting at "Hohenerpfingen", are mentioned. These are likely to have been sons of "Johann von Salmendingen", who, together with them, had retired to his old part "Burg Hohenerpfingen, with the manor house of Stollenhof and Niederhofen". The reason for leaving the ancestral castle was provided by another marriage, which was to be fatal for the family and the two castles of Hohenerpfingen and Salmendingen : Agate von Salmendingen (probably a sister of the lords of the castle at Erpfingen) married "Burkhard von Mansberg " around 1350 “(Niederadel, Ministeriale from Dettingen unter Teck), who became the owner of Salmendinger Castle through them. During the heyday of the castle, the lord of the castle had the Erpf brook dammed up at the current boundary of Stetten and a sizable fish pond was created. The remains of the mighty Wuhrbuckels can still be seen today.

Since the by-related Mansperger were on the side of the dukes of Teck , who were competing with the house of Württemberg , there were repeated conflicts with the up-and-coming Counts of Württemberg in the further course of history. At that time, Württemberg's Eberhard II directed his policy strongly against the imperial cities that stood in the way of a further expansion of Württemberg . In the region there were numerous costly battles and costly fights, which presumably also took tribute from the lord of the Erpfingen castle. Because in 1358 Heinz von Salmendingen “sold all the goods and rights that I had at Erpfingen in the village, be it to wood, to fields, to Wasen or to Zwing, visited and unvisited or whatever it is called, without the castle, which is called Schnatren, and the wood that is underneath it ”to Friz Remp von Pfullingen (Ministeriale auf der Remppenburg near Pfullingen). The Erpfingen lord only kept the castle itself in his possession.

The dukes of Teck were even forced to sell the ancestral land around Teck Castle to the House of Württemberg in 1386 . The looming decline of the house also had serious consequences for the loyal Mansbergers and the families linked to them: in 1385, Hohenerpfingen Castle was referred to as the Burgstall , i.e. a castle in decline , and sold to the Pfullinger family. Salmendingen Castle was even abandoned in the 14th century after being destroyed (!) And was left to decay from 1386.

In the city ​​war (1387–1389) against the Württemberg people, the Mansbergers put everything on one card, officially appeared as adversaries of the Württemberg people in 1388 and placed themselves in the service of the imperial cities . Burkart von Mansberg was a captain of the Esslingen armed forces and attacked Grötzingen in Württemberg. There were many dead and the people of Esslingen took 56 prisoners under the leadership of the Mansberger. It can be assumed that the lords of Erpfingen also sought protection and refuge in the imperial cities.

The Württembergians won the war. The former Salmendingen territory ( Ringingen , Salmendingen, Melchingen and Erpfingen) was added to the Fürstenberg dynasty and placed under the administration of the Werdenberg family ( Ministeriale Jehle zu Trochtelfingen). As was customary at the time, the Mansbergers and their families had to act as servants or administrators of the victorious Counts of Württemberg after the end of the war. According to tradition, the former lords of Hohenerpfingen, the family of "Heinz von Salmendingen", were resettled as Württemberg servants in surrounding villages, outside of Salmendingen's former domain. In 1394 the children of the married couple Agate von Salmendingen and “Burkhard von Mansberg” waived all their claims on the castle and village of Salmendingen.

In 1487 the House of Württemberg acquired the Hohenerpfingen ruins from Caspar Remp von Pfullingen . On a map in a sea ​​book laid out under Duke Friedrich von Württemberg Hohenerpfingen is called again "Schnatren, also an old castle stable". The fish pond seemed to still be there at that time. The name "Hohenerpfingen" is controversial, Schmitt uses both names for the castle. in the case of castle researcher Bizer, only the name "Schnatren" (vernacular "Schnatrete") is used. The name could be derived from the old term "Snade", which was previously used to designate a border, after all, the castle was actually on the outermost edge of a small domain, on the outer borders of which far more influential families were able to establish themselves and the lords of the castle an expansion of their own domain made impossible in that direction. Very little is known about the early history of Hohenerpfingen Castle; according to dated ceramic finds, it was built in the second half of the 12th century.

Around 1800 the castle ruins were owned by the municipality of Erpfingen. This in turn sold "the ancient tower in the local community forest Schloßhalde together with the immediate vicinity from 1 to 2 Morgn Platz ..." to Count Wilhelm von Württemberg. There he planned a romantic knight's castle for one of his sons. In 1868 the municipality of Erpfingen tried unsuccessfully to acquire the castle ruins again. In 1985, restoration work on the castle ruins took place under the architect Rudolf Brändle.

According to a theory that has not been refuted, the "Heinz" family, which is still rooted in Sonnenbühl-Willmandingen today, is said to have emerged from the former lineage of "Heinz von Salmendingen".

literature

  • Christoph Bizer: Surface finds of castles in the Swabian Alb - A contribution to ceramic and castle research . Published by the regional council Stuttgart - State Office for Monument Preservation, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2038-7 , pp. 147-148.
  • Günter Schmitt : Castle Guide Swabian Alb, Volume 5 - West Alb: Hiking and discovering between Reutlingen and Spaichingen . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1993, ISBN 3-924489-65-3 , pp. 35-42.
  • Commercial instructor A. Dreher: The Burichinga-Gau - local history of the places Groß- and Kleinengstingen, Erpfingen, Mägerkingen, Trochtelfingen, Undingen and Willmandingen published in 1957, printed 2nd edition: Robert Blessing Pfullingen, 1972.
  • Sonnenbühl community: Erpfinger Burgen , published 1987
  • Jürgen Meyer: Rätsel der Geschichte , Oertel + Spörer Verlag 2003, pp. 112–126.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Dreher: The Burichinga Gau. P. 17 ff.
  2. ↑ Christoph Bizer: Surface finds of castles in the Swabian Alb - A contribution to ceramic and castle research. P. 147.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Meyer: Riddles of History. Oertel + Spörer Verlag, 2003, pp. 112–126.
  4. ↑ a b c Günter Schmitt: Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Volume 5 - Westalb: Hiking and discovering between Reutlingen and Spaichingen , p. 41ff.
  5. ↑ with Jürgen Meyer
  6. ↑ Ramingers Seebuch (1524) and 1200 Years Erpfingen , Ortschronik (1978), p. 20.
  7. ↑ A. Dreher: Der Burichinga-Gau , p. 17ff.
  8. ↑ Salmendingen ruins
  9. ↑ Ramingers Seebuch (1524) and 1200 Years Erpfingen, Ortschronik (1978), p. 20
  10. ↑ http://www.franken-wiki.de/index.php/Schnatterloch_Miltenberg
  11. ↑ a b Municipality of Sonnenbühl: Erpfinger Burgen , 1987
  12. ↑ Günter Schmitt: Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Volume 5 - Westalb: Hiking and discovering between Reutlingen and Spaichingen , p. 38ff.
  13. ↑ Hobby onomastics, genealogist and local history specialist Graduate in administration (FH) Sven MA Heinz, Sonnenbühl, 2012