Hornberg Castle (Neckarzimmern)
| Hornberg Castle | ||
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 Hornberg Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Götzenburg Hornberg, the castles Hornberg, Duo Castra Horimberch | |
| Creation time : | before 1100 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | Ruin (upper castle) , preserved or repaired (lower castle) |
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| Standing position : | Count | |
| Construction: | Shell limestone, quarry stone | |
| Place: | Neckarzimmern | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 18 '50 " N , 9 ° 8' 45" E | |
| Height: | 228.6 m above sea level NHN | |
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According to the oldest documents, Hornberg Castle was a Gaugrafenburg and later a knight's castle at a steep 228.6 m above sea level. NHN high mountain spur above the Neckar valley above the town of Neckarzimmern between Bad Wimpfen and Mosbach . The Spornburg originally consisted of two independent castles with a common outer bailey , which were later enclosed by a wall. Götz von Berlichingen lived at Hornberg Castle for 45 years, for which he was already enthusiastic as a teenager. The winery belonging to the castle, the second oldest still existing winery in the world according to documents , operates traditional viticulture on steep terraces below the castle .
The castle was named Monument of the Month August 2013 by the Monument Foundation Baden-Württemberg .
history
Foundation and first mention
The beginnings of the castle are in the dark, but it seems to have been founded in the 11th century at the latest. The first documented mention of the castle in 1184 shows the Counts of Lauffen as owners, who were already wealthy with the town of Haßmersheim on the other side of the Neckar in 1011 and who oversaw shipping on the Neckar. In the deed of 1184, the brothers Boppo (V.) and Konrad von Lauffen agreed that Boppo would have sole ownership of Hornberg Castle in future and that his brother Konrad would receive an estate in Grensheim (also Grenzhof) as compensation. It is believed that the Lauffen territory was previously divided between Boppo (V.) and Konrad after the death of her father Boppo (IV.), With Boppo the southeastern and Konrad the northwestern areas and Hornberg Castle due to its location in the middle of the dominion had been shared. Due to its central location, Hornberg could have been the strategically most important castle in the late phase of the Counts of Lauffen. After this family died out in 1216–1219, the lords of Dürn (Walldürn) came into possession of the complex through marriage through Boppos (V.) daughter Mechthild. In 1259 the Lords of Hornberg sold the castle to the Bishop of Speyer , and in 1263 the brothers von Dürn and Count Ludwig II. Von Ziegenhain renounced their rights in favor of the Bishop of Speyer.
The two castles Hornberg
The Speyer bishopric was the owner of Hornberg Castle with the associated villages Neckarzimmern, Steinbach and Haßmersheim. The owners, which subsequently changed frequently, had to allow Speyer to lend them. As early as 1283, a new generation appeared in the area with the peacocks of Hornberg , which later called themselves Hornecke von Hornberg, but at that time there is no evidence of ownership of the castle.
In 1330, Bishop Walram von Speyer (1328 to 1336) was forced to entrust the care of his bishopric and its possessions to the Archbishop of Trier due to his heavy debt . Walram's successor, Gerhard von Ehrenberg , succeeded very quickly in clearing up the debt to Trier, so that in 1338 Hornberg Castle and all other possessions came back into the possession of the Speyer diocese , which from now on the feudal lordship over the castle as well as the belonging villages Neckarzimmern and Steinbach until 1803.
After the village of Steinbach was fortified in 1341 by one of the lords of Helmstatt , who had the castle and village as a fiefdom in the 14th and 15th centuries, and received town charter, the two castles Hornberg ( Duo Castra Horimberch ) had like them appeared in documents at that time, as a protective fortress a special meaning for the diocese of Speyer. Until the middle of the 15th century it served as the eastern bulwark of the bishopric. Around 1430 it is recorded that Count Palatine Otto owned half of Hornberg Castle and sold it to Hans von Berlichingen, who presumably sold it again later. Hornberg Castle changed hands very frequently between 1263 and 1464; up to three times a year. The reason for this was, in addition to the frequent pledging of the castle, starting with the first document about the ownership of the von Lauffen brothers, that one can read about the ownership of half the castle again and again, i.e. at times different people or families the lower castle with Steinbach and Haßmersheim and the upper castle with Neckarzimmern had as fiefs .
Hornberg Castle gate
Hornberg Castle gate
Pallas of the Upper Castle
Lattice tower
Hornberg Castle illegally owned by the Count Palatine
Finally, Speyer sold the entire Hornberg Castle (including Neckarzimmern, Steinbach and Haßmersheim) in 1464 to Lutz Schott von Schottenstein . In 1470 Schott also received the fiefdom for his new property. As early as 1474, however, Elector Palatine Frederick the Victorious conquered Hornberg Castle after a dispute with his servant Schott over the morganatic marriage of the Count Palatine. After another military conflict over the castle on September 12, 1480, Lutz Schott's son, Conz Schott von Schottenstein , succeeded in the course of the Bavarian feud in 1504, the Hornberg and the associated places with the help of 60 friendly riders (probably knights meant, as well as three to five servants for every knight) for the Schott von Schottenstein family. Two processes carried out afterwards also confirmed him as the rightful owner and sentenced the Count Palatine to pay 1,800 guilders as compensation for the time he illegally deprived the Schott family of the castle. With this money, Schott immediately started the expansion and further fortification of the two castles, for example by combining the two castles and the common outer bailey with the surrounding wall that is still in place today.
Hornberg Castle - the residence of Götz von Berlichingen
In 1517 Götz von Berlichingen , the knight with the iron hand , bought the castle with Steinbach and Haßmersheim for 6500 guilders from Conz Schott von Schottenstein and lived there, together with his family, until his death in 1562. Götz took his name since then his castle, carried the name "von Berlichingen zu Hornberg" and founded the Hornberg-Rossacher main line. The peasant uprising of 1525 Burg Hornberg was spared because Goetz was temporarily forced to be a captain in the insurgents of Berlichingen. Because of his participation in the Peasants' War, he was ordered to Augsburg in 1528 and imprisoned for two years. He was only released after he had sworn to the original feud not to leave the Hornberg district, to pay damages and not seek revenge. A prosecution before the Bundestag of the Swabian Federation ended a short time later with a conditional acquittal; the original feud was overturned in 1541 by Emperor Charles V. At the castle, the knight dictated his life story, which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used as a template for his " Götz von Berlichingen ". In 1562 the "knight with the iron hand" died at the age of 82. After Götz's death, one of his grandsons, Philipp Ernst, had the renovations and extensions that had already been started in 1573 and improvements made to the fortifications. As early as 1594, however, financial difficulties and lawsuits or lawsuits that his subjects led against him, all the way up to the imperial court, led him to sell to Hans Heinrich von Heußenstamm . She was given a fiefdom in 1602 and built the Bandhaus in the outer bailey, also known as the Wingerthaus or Weinmeisterhaus.
Götzen's letter of purchase about Hornberg Castle
With this certificate Götz von Berlichingen was enfeoffed with Hornberg Castle
Philipp Ernst von Berlichingen-Hornberg 1594. Glass painting, Archive Castle Hornberg
The Lords of Gemmingen at Hornberg Castle
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In 1612, the electoral Palatinate council in Michelfeld, Reinhard (the scholar) von Gemmingen , bought Hornberg Castle with Neckarzimmern and Steinbach. Until today, now in the twelfth generation, with Dajo Reichsfreiherr von Gemmingen-Hornberg, Hornberg Castle is owned by this family. Soon after the purchase, the family moved their residence from the mountain to the valley, where the Rentamt was built in 1615 and the New Castle (today's town hall of Neckarzimmern) in 1657 . During the Thirty Years' War the castle was occupied and looted several times (1634, 1645) and in the Palatinate War of Succession (1689) it was devastated and looted by the French. However, although the complex was no longer permanently inhabited, it was repaired as early as 1700.
From 1738 until the end of the 19th century the castle remained uninhabited and left to decay and was partly used as an estate and sheepfold. Finally, around 1780, in the absence of the lord of the castle, a castle administrator had the roofs of the upper castle, which were presumably in need of renovation, covered, thus turning this part of the castle into ruins. The castle, which has been heavily exposed to the weather since then, was partially repaired again in the course of the castle romance from 1825. The lost half-timbered essays on the towers and the stairs in the keep were rebuilt, which also received a new roof and new windows. The Romanesque tower palace of the lower castle was removed by at least one floor to its present height, then covered again and an administrator's apartment was set up on the top floor, which was initially inhabited by administrators.
Todays use
Extensive restoration work began in the first half of the 20th century. First of all, additional living space was created in the tower palas of the lower castle for the owner family, who have been living on the Hornberg again since the 1930s. After that, the former stables in the outer bailey were converted into a panorama restaurant with a wide view of the Neckar valley. Later, hotel rooms were set up in servants' rooms above the stables, so that parts of the outer bailey are also a comfortable hotel surrounded by vineyards, which is run by a branch of the castle owner family. A museum was set up in 1968 by Hans-Wolf Freiherr von Gemmingen with holdings from his own possession and new acquisitions in the tower and the former kitchen of the upper castle (it was moved to the wine shop in the outer bailey in 1998). In addition to artefacts from older epochs, weapons and armor from the Middle Ages, including Götz von Berlichingen's original armor, as well as documentation on the history of the castle are shown. In addition to the castle, the historic wine cellar can also be visited. In a sheepfold, which was built later, is now the ticket and wine sales, which mainly offers products from the castle's winery.
The upper castle is open to the public for tours; castle tours are also offered for this purpose. Occasionally it is also used for events, exhibitions and filming. 1949 about, the castle served as the backdrop for the film King children of Helmut Käutner .
investment
The castle complex is 228.6 m above sea level. NHN high narrow mountain spur and extends over a length of 170 m. It originally consisted of two separate castle complexes, each of which was able to defend itself on its own. The common outer bailey lay between them. Around 1510, Conz Schott von Schottenstein enclosed both castles including the outer bailey with a common wall as an additional fortification.
Lower castle
The lower castle consists of the oldest building in the complex, the Romanesque tower palace now inhabited by the owner family (in ancient literature, it is often wrongly assumed to be a mantle building). It probably dates from the middle of the 12th century. The building with a footprint of 12 × 25.5 meters has continuous, defensive wall thicknesses of 2.70 meters on the north side and 1.50 to 1.80 meters on the other sides. The 15 meter high building is so stable that it originally had at least one additional floor. The building was extraordinarily large for the time and its dimensions exceeded the stone house of the Kaiserpfalz Wimpfen built in the same era . The particularly thick north wall is to be understood as the attack side, to which a neck ditch that has now disappeared could have been connected, while the south side was probably protected by further fortifications. The hall had three Romanesque twin windows , which are decorated with round rods , chamfers and diamond rods and whose central columns are crowned by cube capitals with depictions of grapes and vines. Such rich architectural decorations identify the building as a representative residential tower. Due to various historical modifications, the original window and door situation can only be seen in fragments. It is not known where the original access to the building was.
So-called shield wall in the upper castle
The upper gatehouse (north gate) with the Alemannic half-timbered structure and the upper castle can be reached via the shared outer bailey via a kennel . In addition to a so-called shield wall , keep , castle chapel and palas , other residential buildings belong to the upper castle .
The “shield wall” in the north of the Upper Castle now reaches a height of 7.5 meters and was originally certainly even higher. Its wall thickness is around 7 meters in the center and around 5.5 meters on the sides. To the west, the wall ends very irregularly - possibly an indication that the wall was once continued a bit to the west. This massive wall, like the keep standing on it, represents one of the castle's greatest puzzles today, as it cannot be dated with certainty and may have stood long before the time when shield walls became common. Even very thorough castle researchers, such as Adolf Zeller , who laboriously measured and examined the castle around 1900 using the most modern means at the time, found no explanation. In 17th century chronicles, Reinhard von Gemmingen even speaks of a Roman wall; however, due to the extremely roughly hewn stones and other features, this can now be safely ruled out. No further example of this rough masonry has yet been found in the wider area around the castle. The location of the wall and its dimensions also do not want to fit into a concept, especially when you see this in the context of the surrounding area and the weapons available at that time. The owner family suspects that this could be a pre-Romanesque building, which could possibly be seen in connection with the Notburga legend or with Hungarian walls . The location and extent of the castle complex would also speak for the latter.
Keep of the upper castle
Passing the powder tower with a step at a dizzying height, you enter the upper castle. The Berlichingen Palace is still there as a ruin. The slender keep, which is semicircular towards the attack side and flattened on the back (south side), stands at the highest point and is approx. 33 m high. The substructure below the Romanesque gate has been assumed to be completely massive since the 17th century; probably because this is the first impression when entering the tower. However, no studies are known that reliably prove this or prove that this was the case from the start. And the age of the tower is also uncertain, the early castle researchers around 1900 liked to name the 10th or 11th century at the latest as the construction time, more current studies are based on the middle of the 14th century, because the wall underneath is now interpreted as a shield wall , the type of which did not emerge until the end of the 12th century, and interpret the Romanesque gate, which disturbs this view, as being used a second time. However, all of the structural features common at this time that were common in Germany with the Crusades are also missing . The type of mortar used also makes a construction time after 1200 seem very unlikely, according to Krieger. The outer oval and inner rectangular floor plan are also unexplained, because these towers usually have the same floor plan inside and outside. Wooden ceilings have been drawn into the two basement floors. The only light openings are narrow slit windows on the back. The walls of the top tower room are pierced by six windows of different sizes, which offer a view on all sides. The original entrance was at a height of just over 15 meters. The Bergfried was supplemented by a stair tower with the intention of converting the castle into a Renaissance castle . A Söller connects the upper exit of the stair tower with the entrance of the keep and enables an easy ascent to the viewing platform .
Main area of the upper castle
Behind the keep is the castle chapel from the 15th century, a rather simple building, inside of which you can get through a pointed arched portal with a coat of arms. The interior is spanned by cross vaults. The family crypt of the von Gemmingen family is located under the chapel . The kennels were added and changed in the 13th and 15th centuries. Another kennel and the large Berlichingen palace followed in the 16th century.
The most imposing building of the upper castle is the Palas with the Wendelstein. It was built by Jakob von Berlichingen in the 16th century. The rooms in the basement served as a kitchen, bakery and storage rooms. The remains of two ovens can still be seen in the bakery. The kitchen is spanned by a Gothic ribbed vault, the keystones of which are decorated with coats of arms. A large room on the upper floor is the so-called knight's hall . An old fireplace can be seen on the east wall between two double windows. The Wendelstein, a hexagonal stair tower, is the youngest part of the upper castle. It was built in 1573 by Philipp Ernst von Berlichingen. The portal is particularly artistically designed: In addition to the arched entrance, curved half-columns with rich ornamentation rise above two grimacing faces, crowned by capitals, rows of acanthus and angel heads. Over the capitals, pilasters lead up to the cornice . A gable-crowned stone slab with the coat of arms of those of Berlichingen forms the upper end. The Wendelstein leads up to the high entrance of the keep and also provides access to the museum in the Palas.
Common outer bailey
The outer bailey, which is shared by the upper and lower castle, is located between the two historical castle areas. Here were former farm buildings such as the Marstall (today's restaurant), the Wingerthaus (also known as the Bandhaus or Weingärtnerhaus), the laundry room (today's cold store) and the sheepfold built in the 18th century (today a hotel and wine shop). Both above the stables and in the Wingerthaus there were living rooms for the service personnel. Presumably these stone buildings, which were erected relatively late, were preceded by wooden buildings, which, viewed from the outside, made the castle appear as a closed complex even before the surrounding wall was erected.
Water supply
The castle's water supply has always been a problem. It was initially carried out by means of a donkey path in the east of the castle, which is still preserved today , which led to a third, somewhat smaller gate in the east wall. Two wells were mentioned in the 15th century, but their location is no longer clearly recognizable today. During an inventory of the castle around 1610 because of the imminent sale to the Lords of Gemmingen, there was talk of an old clay pipe that led to a spring above the castle. It was noted as a serious disadvantage that it could easily have been destroyed with an ax during acts of war.
Castle cemetery
Above the castle is a castle cemetery with a crypt chapel built by Eisenlohr and Weigle in 1884 . According to the architects' plans, painter Loosen from Nuremberg painted the interior of the chapel, while Karl de Bouché from Munich made the glass windows .
Hornberg Castle Winery
Even with the first mention of Hornberg Castle in 1184, there were reports of the castle's vineyards. There are many clues that already suggest viticulture in Neckarzimmern since Roman times. The former co-ownership of the vineyards below Hornberg Castle by the former Billigheim monastery suggests that viticulture began again at least very early after the Romans had withdrawn, and that there is an approximately 1500-year-old winemaking tradition. This also explains why the biphores in the Romanesque tower valley of Hornberg Castle, which was already in place at the time it was first mentioned, are richly decorated with motifs from viticulture. According to documents, the Burg Hornberg winery is now the second oldest still existing winery in the world and the oldest in Baden-Württemberg. On the Götzhalde and Wallmauer sites , a large number of wines are grown on steep terraces over an area of around 10 hours. Including historical grape varieties such as Muscat and Traminer. The sparkling wine also offered by this winery is reminiscent of the products from Champagne because of the very similar climate and soil conditions. From time immemorial to the present day, customers of the winery include various European imperial and royal courts. The winery is located in Baden on the border with Württemberg and was considered a Baden winery until the 1980s. Since then it has been listed as Württemberg because the wines are more typically Württemberg than Baden. The winery has a wine shop at Hornberg Castle.
Others
In addition to the winery, the castle also includes extensive arable and forest areas in the immediate vicinity of the castle. A gypsum mine was operated below these areas from the early 18th century until around 1925 . The Stockbrunner (also Stockbronner) Hof, located about three kilometers from the castle, was once acquired by Götz von Berlichingen as a farmyard for the castle and it still belongs to Hornberg Castle today. In this courtyard there are buried remains of a Roman villa rustica . The Roman Limes once ran over the areas belonging to the castle . Just below the castle, a Celtic grave was uncovered in a brick vault in 1829 . It was made around 400 BC. Chr. And contained the remains of several people and jewelry.
- A variant of the legend about Notburga von Hochhausen is associated with Hornberg Castle . Notburga is said to have been the daughter of a king who ruled Hornberg.
- In the novella The image of the emperor of Wilhelm Hauff occurring two castles have their model in the opposing into view over the Neckar castles Hornberg and Guttenberg .
literature
- Friedrich Krieger: Hornberg Castle on the Neckar. Description and history from documented sources . Heidelberg 1869 ( MDZ Munich ).
- Adolf Zeller: Hornberg Castle on the Neckar . Karl W. Hiersemann. Leipzig 1903
- Hans Obert: 1200 years of Neckarzimmern. Self-published by the Neckarzimmern community in 1973
- GH Bidermann: Hornberg Castle, residence of the knight Götz von Berlichingen, armaments show 1980. Journal Verlag Schwend GmbH, Schwäbisch Hall 1980
- Nicolai Knauer: Hornberg - merging of two castles . Kraichgau episode 17/2002, Eppingen 2002
Web links
- Official website of Hornberg Castle
- Entry for Hornberg, Obere Burg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Entry for Hornberg, Untere Burg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Baron of Gemmingen-Hornberg Library
- Hornberg Castle, Götzenburg at burgenarchiv.de
- Hornberg Castle near palaces and castles in Baden-Württemberg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ↑ a b c d Nicolai Knauer: The castles of the counts of Lauffen in the Neckar valley . In: Christhard Schrenk , Peter Wanner (eds.): Heilbronnica 5 . Sources and research on the history of the city of Heilbronn 20. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2013, p. 91 f . ( PDF; 2.9 MB [accessed on February 21, 2014]).
- ↑ Knauer 2002, pp. 144–147.
- ↑ Knauer 2002, pp. 147–149.
- ↑ Architectural Review 4, Issue 10, 1888, Plates 76 and 77.
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