Hohenfels Castle (Palatinate)
| Hohenfels Castle | ||
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 Hohenfels castle ruins |
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| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Wall remains | |
| Standing position : | Nobles | |
| Construction: | Humpback cuboid | |
| Place: | Imsbach | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 36 '6.5 " N , 7 ° 53' 34.7" E | |
| Height: | 545 m above sea level NHN | |
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The Hohenfels is the ruins of a hilltop castle on 545 m above sea level. NHN , in the " Beutelfels " nature reserve north of the municipality of Imsbach in the Donnersbergkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . The castle can be reached via a steep path from the “White Pit” visitor mine in Vallunga , past the Iron Man monument .
history
There are several indications that the old Rockenhauser Strasse mentioned in the records , which came from the Hahnweilerhof area, continued past Hohenfels Castle in the direction of Falkenstein, Rockenhausen to Bad Kreuznach , had existed since Roman times. In 1820 a Roman treasure with 28 coins was found in the castle area, which was dated to the year around 340 AD. Since there are also indications of Roman mining in the lower Vallunga, the assumption is that there was a Roman mountain fortress or road station in the area around Hohenfels Castle, as was common in the late Roman period.
The statement that Werner von Bolanden and his wife Guda von Hohenfels were named in 1128 and that Guda suggests a last member of an old Hohenfels family cannot be documented. Although Werner von Bolanden was mentioned by name for the first time this year, he was mentioned in a document, but his wife is not known by name. The fact is, however, that in the "Bohlander fief books" from the 12th century the brothers Werner and Philipp von Bolanden as fiefdom of a castle, which the Prüm exabbate Caesarius von Milendonk 1222 in the commentary on the Prümer Urbar as Latin: bonum castrum quod Hoviles appelatur (the Imsbach mining area has belonged to the Prüm Eifel Abbey since the 9th century) and that the Bolander family split into the lines of "Bolanden", "Falkenstein" and "Hohenfels" in the first decades of the 13th century. After that, Philip III. von Bolanden-Hohenfels owner of the castle until 1277, he was Imperial Treasurer and “ Procurator on the Middle Rhine”. His sons Philip III. jun. named von Isenburg and Dietrich von Hohenfels shared the castle as heir until 1290. The following owners, the brothers Hermann II the Elder and Werner von Hohenfels, were feuding with the imperial city of Speyer in 1333 .
According to a document dated July 11, 1287, the Templar Provincial Master Wildgraf Friedrich , as well as the Commander of the Templar Coming Kirchheim an der Weinstrasse , Heinrich von Hohenfels, together with his brothers there, sold shares of their goods in the corridor district of the village of Laumersheim to the St. Martinsstift in Worms .
Hohenfels Castle was destroyed after a long and extensive siege of Count Walram von Sponheim , Heinrich von Veldenz and the cities of Speyer and Worms in the spring of 1351, who allied on October 1, 1350 because of robber barons of Hohenfels. After that, the castle was contractually agreed not to be rebuilt. Half of the remains were sold to Count Palatine Ruprecht I in 1355 , the other half remained in the possession of Hermann III. von Hohenfels, the second son of Hermann II. He sold his share in 1386 to Raugraf Philipp II. zu Alten- and Neuenbaumburg . Ten years later Raugraf Philipp II sold his half to Elector Ruprecht II of the Palatinate. The castle ruins came into complete possession of Count Palatine Johann II von Simmern in 1531. Six years later, the Burgstadel was exchanged for the County of Falkenstein .
Excavations
During excavations in 1932/33 by the Speyer museum director Dr. Friedrich Sprater found a large number of stone sling balls from this time, which were stored in the castle area until the 1960s and gradually disappeared. Today you can admire one or the other of the spheres in Imsbach on various private walls. Sprater also found cornice stones, a Romanesque capital, saddle stones, humpback cubes, cuboids with edging, weapon parts and various floor and chimney tiles, some of which are exhibited in the Palatinate History Museum in Speyer . The discovery of a sandstone ball points to a smaller stone box that was used during the siege. This is considered to be one of the earliest evidence that such a weapon was used to siege a castle in Germany.
Hohenfels castle ruins
Hohenfels castle ruins
Hohenfels castle ruins
literature
- Imsbach municipality (ed.): Imsbach. From the history of a Bergmann village in the north of the Palatinate and its citizens . 1993, ISBN 3-926306-10-6 .
- Ulrich Burkhart: Hohenfels / Donnersberg . In: Jürgen Keddigkeit , Alexander Thon, Rolf Übel (eds.): Palatinate Burgenlexikon. Vol. 2. F - H (= contributions to the history of the Palatinate ). tape 12.2 , 2002, ISBN 3-927754-48-X , ISSN 0936-7640 , p. 390-400 .
Web links
- Entry on Hohenfels Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Hohenfels Castle on the burgen.de site
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry in the Templerlexikon of the University of Hamburg, on the Templerhaus Kirchheim There named as a source: Johann Friedrich Schannat : Historia episcopatus Wormatiensis , Frankfurt am Main, 1734
- ↑ Gerd Strickhausen: Comments on early firearms in the 14th century. In: Olaf Wagner / Heiko Laß (Hrsg.): ... threw in stones, large and not small ... sieges and siege systems in the Middle Ages. Lang, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-631-55467-2 ( supplements to Mediaevistik 7 ), pp. 47–57, here: p. 55.