Hohlenfels Castle
| Hohlenfels Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 View from the southeast |
||
| Creation time : | 1353 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, rock castle | |
| Conservation status: | Preserved essential parts | |
| Place: | Mudershausen | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 17 '25.4 " N , 8 ° 1' 51.6" E | |
| Height: | 231 m above sea level NHN | |
|
||
The castle Hohle Fels is a rock castle in the municipality Mudershausen in Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . It is privately owned, inhabited and is occasionally the location of special events.
location
The hilltop castle is located between Hahnstätten and Mudershausen in the Mudershausen district on one of numerous cracks and crevices ("hollow"), 231 m above sea level. NHN high limestone cliffs above the Hohlenfelsbachtal. The rock drops steeply on three sides and rises up to 60 meters. The forest area of the Fossenhelde (Fuchsenhalde) connects to the fourth, south-western side.
history
In 1326 the later castle rock and some of the surrounding area fell to Count Gerlach I from the Walram line of the House of Nassau . He initially had an estate built below today's castle, from which the village of Hohlenfels later developed.
Before 1353, on behalf of Count Johann I von Nassau-Weilburg-Saarbrücken († 1371), the construction of Hohlenfels Castle began by Daniel von Langenau († 1389). The castle was supposed to control the trade route between Aachen and Nuremberg (Kemel-Limburger Strasse) and Hessenstrasse , which passed in the immediate vicinity. The castle building sparked a feud with the Counts of Diez , who saw their sovereignty for fortification violated and were right in a first arbitration award in 1353. In it, the building of Hohlenfels is brought into connection with that of Neu-Elkerhausen Castle , with which Diezer allies threatened Nassau-Weilburg; possibly the construction of Hohlenfels Castle was intended as an answer to this approach. After the completion of Hohlenfels, it was finally agreed in 1363 to leave the castle itself as a Nassau fiefdom , but to grant the Diez counts the right to open Hohlenfels. The surrounding castle peace district and the Mühlrecht received the castle lord Daniel von Langenau as a fief of the Counts of Diez.
After the death of Daniel's son Hildeger von Langenau in 1412, both fiefdoms were initially divided between the husbands of his two daughters, and subsequently between their descendants and relatives, so that Hohenfels Castle was a classic Ganerbeburg in the middle of the 15th century . Their joint administration was regulated from 1464 onwards by a comprehensive castle peace treaty of all parties involved, which continued to grant both the Nassau-Saarbrücker and the Diez counts the right to open. From 1464 there is also evidence of a chapel at the castle.
In the course of the 16th century, numerous shares of the castle fiefs gradually fell through inheritance and pledging to the Lords of Mudersbach , who finally came into the sole possession of the castle. After Daniel von Mudersbach's death in 1600, the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken enfeoffed his son-in-law Hartmut von Kronberg († 1608) with the castle and village of Hohlenfels in 1604.
During the Thirty Years War , Hohlenfels was temporarily abandoned and partially destroyed. While the village, with the exception of the manor, was devastated , Johann Nikolaus von Kronberg († 1704) took possession of the castle again in 1685. After his childless death, the Nassau fief fell to his relative Hugo Friedrich Waldecker von Kempt († 1753), who had the main building of the castle rebuilt from 1712 to 1716, which is still habitable today.
In 1753 the castle loan fell back to the princes of Nassau-Usingen and was no longer reassigned, but placed under the Burgschwalbach office of Nassau and the supervision of the bailiff von Kirberg . Parts of the old wooden structures were demolished as early as 1768; in the following years large parts of the castle fell into disrepair. In the course of the romanticism of the Rhine , the castle, which was already largely in ruins, served several times as a motif for painters and draftsmen.
Occupied several times by the French in the Napoleonic Wars in 1802 and 1807/08, the castle, which housed a district forester's house from 1800 to 1885, and the estate at the foot of the castle rock, which had been expanded in the meantime, fell to Prussia in 1866 as a state domain . 1885 Castle Hohle Fels a Gastwirtschafts- and pension operation was opened, which had until 1955 existence and since 1901 as well via the nearby Castle Station Hohle Fels of Nassau Light Railway was achieved and until 1953 by Nastätten was served from passenger trains.
When Prussia was dissolved in 1947, the castle and estate came into the possession of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate . After the end of the catering business in 1955, the castle stood empty until 1963; until 1978 it was owned by the Nerother Wandervogel . The castle has been privately owned again since 1978.
Due to its poor state of construction, the listed complex was classified as endangered in its existence at the end of the 1970s and closed to the public. At Easter 1979, parts of the almost 20 meter high shield wall and the eastern Zwinger tower collapsed . In the period that followed, extensive safety measures were carried out, which also included stabilizing the fissured rock ("hollow rock"). After further renovation work, the castle has been open to the public again on a few days each summer since summer 2005 .
From 1973 to 2012, a youth meeting place ("Domain Hohlenfels") was housed in the former estate at the foot of the Burgfelsen.
investment
Of the extensive polygonal -scale medieval mounting - and residential developments are only the pentagonal keep the parts and curtain wall and a residential tower scale Palas present, where further renovation and rehabilitation measures take place. The new building from the 18th century, however, has now been completely renovated.
The fortress plateau was secured to the south-west by a twelve-meter-deep neck ditch , while the steeply sloping rock served as security on the other sides. Access was provided by a driveway that led into a gate in the southwest of the trench and a narrower path to the southeast side of the trench secured. A total of six gates secured the courtyard. Access to the core of the complex was also secured by kennels, from which the gates could be fired at; the kennels themselves were open to fire from the rest of the complex. In addition to the north-east and north-west, the castle was protected by another upstream kennel. The originally 20 meter high shield wall was comparatively thin with a thickness of two meters and had a battlement and two small towers on the sides.
The keep is a particularly large specimen with a side length of up to 9.5 meters. It is 23 meters high and also stands on a boulder that towers over the surroundings by five meters. The entrance, located at a height of eleven meters, could probably be reached via a wooden walkway from the attic of the residential tower next to it. A second entrance at a height of 13 meters was subsequently bricked up. The entrance at ground level today was opened later. Four weir bay windows were attached to the tower, which were removed in 1768.
A four-storey residential tower (with a basement) rises to the northwest of the keep. Its floor plan is square with a side length of around seven meters. The uppermost room, used as a chapel, was created after 1753 by inserting a false ceiling.
In the late Middle Ages , a more modern residential building was added to the western part of the curtain wall . Today only the outer walls of the three-story building are left. A third residential building, in which a late medieval round tower was included, was built between 1712 and 1716. The building with Baroque stylistic features is located on the northeast side of the entire complex.
There was an underground cistern on the east side of the courtyard .
literature
- Jens Friedhoff : Hohlenfels Castle (Gem. Mudershausen). Property and building history as reflected in the archival records. In: Nassau Annals . Volume 116, 2005, pp. 1-38.
- Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff: "Decided with strong iron chains and bolts ...". Castles on the Lahn . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2000-0 , pp. 72-77.
Web links
- Entry by Reinhard Friedrich and Jens Friedhoff about Hohlenfels Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Association for the Preservation of Hohlenfels Castle e. V.