Hohnstein Castle (Harz)
| Hohnstein Castle | ||
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 Ruins of Hohnstein Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Honstone | |
| Creation time : | around 1120 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Neustadt | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 34 '12 " N , 10 ° 50' 15" E | |
| Height: | 402.9 m above sea level NN | |
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The Castle Hohnstein (also honing stone ) is the ruins of a hilltop castle in Neustadt / Harz in the district of Nordhausen in Thuringia .
Geographical location
Hohnstein Castle is located in the Südharz Nature Park on the southern edge of the Harz Mountains . It is 1.1 km north of Neustadt and 1.5 km east-northeast of the Osterode district of the Harztor rural community on the wooded, rocky Schloßberg ( 402.9 m above sea level ).
history
According to older research, Hohnstein Castle was built around 1120. However, the latest research on the Romanesque building stock of the castle seems to indicate that the construction of the original complex was to be set in the middle of the 12th century at the earliest. Its founding was always attributed to a Count Konrad von Sangerhausen, a nephew of the Thuringian Landgrave Ludwig der Springer . However, a connection between Konrad and the Count of Honstein, who appeared from 1182 onwards, cannot be proven. These are the Counts of Ilfeld, who obtained the castle, not a county, from the Guelphs in the mid-1170s . Its roots can be traced back to the last third of the 11th century. As Counts of Hohnstein (contemporary: Honstein ), the Counts of Ilfeld quickly took over dominance in the southern Harz region. The newly founded dynasty of the Honstein-Ilfeld Counts carried the lead name Elger , and they chose Honstein Castle as their ancestral seat ; the modest Ilburg in nearby Ilfeld was probably already given up at this point. It is known that under the reign of Elger III. († 1219) was looped . Hohnstein Castle was first mentioned in 1202. As successfully as the Thuringian Landgraves , the Honsteiners quickly built up a considerable territory, to which they also gained areas around Arnstadt and Gotha in the Thuringian Basin . After the first flowering of the family in the 13th century, the division of the estate in 1315 resulted in a loss of importance in several lines. Hohnstein Castle was also soon out of date militarily. It was conquered for the first time in 1380 and again in 1412 in a family dispute that degenerated into the so-called Flegler War , as a result of which the Hohnstein Counts lost their ancestral castle.
During the Peasants' War , Hohnstein was still considered a safe fortress and was therefore visited by the abbot of Ilfeld Monastery to save himself and the monastery treasure. While the Counts of Hohnstein sealed the end of their rule at Lohra Castle (they died out in 1593), Hohnstein Castle came into the possession of the Counts of Stolberg through purchase in the 1st quarter of the 15th century , who took the complex militarily and structurally at great expense modernized (artillery tower) and expanded under Count Heinrich zu Stolberg to a representative Renaissance castle. During this time it became one of the largest castles in the Harz Mountains.
It was destroyed in 1627. An imperial troop under Lieutenant Colonel Christian Vitzthum von Eckstedt set fire to the castle, which they had already largely plundered, and the associated Vorwerk on July 10 and 20 (depending on the calendar ) 1627. Only a few usable remains could be recovered from the fire ruins after the Vitzthum troops left, including the bell of the castle chapel and the altar of the castle chapel.
In the course of the following centuries the castle ruins fell into disrepair. An inn was built beneath the ruins in 1908. After 1990, security and restoration work began on the castle ruins. The castle has been in operation again since Easter 2001.
tourism
The ruins of Hohnstein Castle can be visited without a guide. From a tower ruin, to which an iron staircase leads, the view falls into the Harz landscape and over to the Kyffhäuser . The castle ruin is included as No. 98 in the system of stamping points of the Harz hiking pin.
literature
- Karl Meyer: The Hohnstein Castle. According to documented sources (= history of the castles and palaces of the Harz. Vol. 2, ZDB -ID 985355-8 ). B. Franke, Leipzig 1897.
- Adolf Zeller: Hohnstein Castle in the Harz Mountains . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , Vol. 70, 1920, Sp. 409–414 (digitized version of the Central and State Library Berlin ).
- Kurt Wenke, Johann Erhard: The Hohnstein castle ruins . 2nd Edition. Municipal administration Neustadt / Südharz, Nordhausen 1979.
- Horst Klempt: A few things about Hohnstein Castle. In: Contributions to local history from the city and district of Nordhausen. Vol. 18, 1993, ZDB -ID 982697-x , pp. 106-120.
- Uwe Mosebach: Where the Counts of Hohnstein once lived. About the history of the county and the Hohnstein castle ruins (near Nordhausen) . Pieper, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 1993, ISBN 3-923605-49-8 .
- Uwe Mosebach: Hohnstein. On the history of the castle ruins and the county (near Neustadt am Südharz) . Iffland, Nordhausen-Salza 2008, ISBN 978-3-939357-05-6 .
- Gerhard Möller: Some remarks on the destruction of Hohnstein Castle in July 1627. In: Contributions to the history of the city and district of Nordhausen. Volume 36, Nordhausen 2011, pp. 187-200.
- Benjamin Rudolph: On the Romanesque stock of the Hohnstein castle ruins near Neustadt in the Lower Harz (Thuringia). In: Castles and Palaces. Journal for Castle Research and Monument Preservation. 53rd volume, issue 2/2012, ISSN 0007-6201 , pp. 73-83.
Web links
- Burggasthof Hohnstein , on burghohnstein.de
- Burg Hohnstein ( memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), at the interest group Burg Hohnstein - Neustädter Geschichtsverein e. V. , from burg-hohnstein.de
- On the history of the castle and the floor plan of the castle ( memento from April 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) etc., at the Hohnsteiner Medieval Association , from hohnsteiner-mittelalterverein-ev.de
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . Jenzig-Verlag Köhler, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , p. 146: Ilburg .
- ↑ Harzer Wanderadel: stamp point 98 / Hohnstein ruins , on harzer-wandernadel.de