Koenigsberg Castle (Bavaria)

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Koenigsberg Castle
Koenigsberg Castle - south view

Koenigsberg Castle - south view

Creation time : around 1200 / 13th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: restored ruin
Standing position : former Reichsburg
Place: Koenigsberg in Bavaria
Geographical location 50 ° 4 '47.6 "  N , 10 ° 34' 27.5"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 4 '47.6 "  N , 10 ° 34' 27.5"  E
Height: 355  m above sea level NN
Koenigsberg Castle (Bavaria)
Koenigsberg Castle
Inner courtyard with a well house and modern tower
Memorial plaque to the Reichsgraf von Seckendorff, who was born here

The castle Konigsberg is the ruin of a former high medieval kingdom castle above the city of Königsberg in Bavaria , located in the Lower Franconian district of Haßberge in Bavaria . The facility has been fundamentally renovated and partially rebuilt since the 20th century. The castle ruins of the Spornburg can be visited.

Geographical location

The ruins of the Spornburg are located in the Haßberge Nature Park in Franconia on the 355-meter-high Schlossberg in the spur east high above the historic old town of Königsberg, about seven kilometers northeast of the city of Hassfurt .

Nearby are the Bramberg ruins and the Bettenburg Castle .

description

The castle was connected to the city ​​fortifications by side walls. The southern wall line down to the Catholic Church of St. Joseph is still clearly visible.

The castle is protected from the eastern plateau by an approx. Eight meter deep, walled neck moat . The trench then only runs up to two meters deep around the entire curtain wall .

The masonry of the oval ring wall was largely re-faced and bricked up. The stumps of the two gun rondelles on the south side show more of the original substance. The high tower with the half-timbered tower in the west is, apart from the base, a completely new building from the last decades of the 20th century.

On the castle plateau, only a few remains of the wall and the castle fountain tell of the former interior construction. The fountain is equipped with a spotlight so that you can see the bottom. Today it only carries water after very heavy rainfall. The well was measured after its cleaning in the 1920s and 1930s and found to be 80 meters deep. Today, after some rubble has collected again, the number should be lower. The relatively large diameter of the well and the precision of the execution are remarkable.

The small observation tower and the restaurant are additions to the 19th and 20th centuries. Century.

From today's point of view, the renovation of the important castle ruins by the active castle association is viewed rather critically by the scientific castle lore . In the course of the expansion of the Haßberge castle educational trail , some of the neighboring castle ruins were archaeologically examined according to the most modern scientific criteria and carefully renovated. In doing so, additions and historicizing additions were deliberately avoided, which today particularly shape the image of Königsberg Castle.

  • The condition of the castle ruins in March 2008

  • View from the east (war memorial)

  • View over the neck ditch to the castle restaurant with the observation tower

  • Bridge and neck ditch

  • The eastern neck ditch with the bridge to the north

  • The curtain wall (partially rebuilt)

  • The southern curtain wall. The handcrafted additions to the masonry are clearly recognizable from today's perspective

  • The south-eastern roundabout

  • The south-eastern roundabout from the north

  • The castle ruins in summer 2010

  • Part of the former curtain wall

  • Blooming climbing roses in the moat

  • View from the bridge into the moat

  • Southern moat with powder tower in the foreground

  • View from outside into the southern moat

  • "Graefenberg", former princely vineyard on the southern slope of the Schlossberg

  • Overgrown vines in the "Graefenberg"

  • Terrace wall in the "Graefenberg". After the castle was abandoned, its stones were used to repair these vineyard walls.

tourism

West view of the ruin with restaurant and rebuilt watch tower
Moat and bridge in autumn
The castle complex today (2010)

The castle is easy to reach on foot and by car and has parking spaces and a restaurant with home-style cuisine. When the weather is nice, the visitor has a wonderful view down into the city and into the Haßgau.

The observation tower and the castle fountain can be visited, the association only asks for a voluntary donation.

Since the site is relatively easy to walk on, more and more events have been taking place there for several years. For example, the rose and garden fair attracts hundreds of visitors to Königsberg once a year.

As part of the LEADER project Deutscher Burgenwinkel , the ruins in the northern district of Haßberge are to be upgraded for tourism. Since autumn 2012, a notice board developed by the castle researcher Joachim Zeune has been in the immediate vicinity of the castle.

history

Foundation and first owner

The exact time of construction of the castle is in the dark. For a long time it was assumed that it was built on the orders of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa after Bramberg Castle was destroyed in 1168 . However, there is no evidence for this, not even for the enfeoffment of the Andechs-Meranians with the high medieval core castle, which is said to have taken place at the same time as the elevation to the ducal estate around 1180. Early documented mentions of Königsberg Castle all turned out to be confusion with other places (e.g. the Hohkönigsburg in Alsace, Königsberg an der Eger or the Imperial Castle Kyffhausen). An imperial mayor was first mentioned in Königsberg in 1234. From this it can be concluded that Königsberg was an imperial castle at that time. The subsequent changes of ownership are well documented: In 1243, Emperor Friedrich II awarded the castles of Königsberg and Bettenburg to Bishop Heinrich von Bamberg . He pledged it in 1249 to Count Hermann I von Henneberg . After the pledge was not released, the castle and office of Königsberg remained in the possession of the Hennebergers. They had no male descendants and so in the 14th century Burgrave Albrecht von Nürnberg, who married Sophie von Henneberg, became the owner. He was followed by Duke Swantibor of Pomerania through his marriage to their daughter Anna. In 1394 Swantibor sold Königsberg to the Bishop of Würzburg, who in 1400 sold Königsberg to Balthasar von Thuringia. This struck the office to the Franconian local countries. From then on, Königsberg remained in the possession of the Wettins, with a few exceptions.

Various noble families are documented for the 14th century, which were probably connected with Königsberg Castle. Among other things, knight Johannes Flieger is named as the owner of a castle property. In 1318 Otto von Aufseß received the castle fief of Königsberg from Count Berthold von Henneberg. In the following centuries, many local noble families held the post of bailiff or bailiff to Königsberg, such as von Lichtenstein (1394-1400), Truchsess von Wetzhausen (1423-1437), von Selbitz (1481-1494, 1552-1569), from Haßberg (1498–1523), von der Thann (1542–1546), from Stein zu Altenstein (1548–1551).

Medieval extensions

Part of the high medieval curtain wall with light loop (before restoration)
The deep well in the castle courtyard (formerly about 80 meters deep)

The main castle consisted of a Romanesque curtain wall , an approaching gerückten of this wall near the gate keep, various outbuildings, a 1317 first mentioned bower and probably a hall building (palace). The basements and foundation walls of the last two buildings still exist.

In the first decades of the 15th century - perhaps at the time of the Hussite Wars - a second, high ring wall was built so that kennels were built. A stone that has disappeared today dated this fence wall to the year 1442.

The still existing deep castle well (approx. 60 m) could also have been excavated in the 15th century. A pedal bike was used to pump the water.

The ditch, which was provided with lining walls from 1498 to 1511, is expressly referred to in the archives as "dry" and - contrary to an older notice board - probably never carried water. Around 1500 further alterations were made to the kennel wall. It is possible that some of the flanking towers ("Rondelle") were built back then.

16th Century

Unlike many other castles, Königsberg was spared the peasant war. Königsberg had been Protestant since 1523.

Most of the flanking towers were added to the large Zwing wall in the 16th century.

While the three-story high hall or the “high kemenate”, as the building is called in archives, has been at the site of today's restaurant since the 15th century at the latest, the smaller “old kemenate” stood where the open-air theater is today ". It was an almost square building with a vaulted upper floor. The castle kitchen was located behind the old bower. In the years that followed, horse and cow stables were set up behind it. These buildings used the high medieval curtain wall as an outer wall, the stables towards the inner courtyard were made of wood.

In 1547, Albrecht Alcibiades von Brandenburg-Kulmbach captured the castle and town of Königsberg in the course of the Schmalkaldic War . In 1549 he was enfeoffed, but pledged it to Wilhelm von Grumbach . From this, the castle and town came to Elector Moritz in 1551 , who sold them to Würzburg the following year.

The Würzburg bailiffs built a new bailiff's apartment with an office room and kitchen in the northwestern kennel. This building included two Rundelle. In the more easterly, today called Seckendorffturm, Friedrich Heinrich Reichsgraf von Seckendorff was born on July 5, 1673 .

In 1569 Königsberg came back into Saxon possession. In the period that followed, the castle complex became dilapidated, so that extensive renovation and renovation work became necessary from 1595. For example, instead of a dilapidated roundabout in the west, a square guard tower with a half-timbered upper floor was built.

17th century: expansion into a castle

Colored view of the castle in the 17th century

The beginning of the 17th century was mainly characterized by renovation and conversion work.

In 1611 the old bower, which had been under construction since 1596, was demolished and a new five-story building with an archive, chambers and parlors was built by 1614. In the years that followed, the princely rulers lived in the apartments when they visited Konigsberg.

Since 1613 an approx. Two kilometer long wooden dike line has supplied the “Bergschloss” with running water. At around the same time, the hexagonal stair tower was added to the "high bower". Of the stone steps, the lower ones are still there.

From 1615 to 1621, on the initiative of Duchess Dorothea Maria von Sachsen-Weimar, the old castle church and the dining room in the former high bower were renovated. As early as the 16th century there was a chapel dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the castle, but it was probably smaller if it did not consist only of a chapel bay.

On January 27, 1625, Duke Wilhelm IV of Saxe-Weimar , who had recently been released from captivity, celebrated the Lord's Supper in the castle church that his mother had renovated for the first time since his release. As a souvenir, he donates a sermon of thanks and a castle festival. This event of the Thirty Years' War is still commemorated today as part of the so-called Herzog Wilhelm chain celebration, but no longer in the castle, but in the evangelical community hall in the city.

During the Thirty Years War the castle was conquered and plundered several times and parts of the interior were destroyed.

Then the access to the castle was relocated. Previously, one had reached the gate between the two inhabited roundabouts with the bailiff's apartment, then into the kennel area and from there into the courtyard. The bridge has been in its current location since 1640. The stone pillars with yokes were rebuilt in 1666. The gate was protected by a drawbridge. To the left of the gate a triangular bastion protrudes into the moat. The building located there was initially a guard room, later the bathing room was moved there from the core of the castle.

There was another entrance for pedestrians in the west. From the upper gate of the city fortifications, a staircase led to the "Black Gate" secured with a drawbridge. It was located next to the watch tower, roughly where a staircase leads into the moat today. This access is already occupied around 1500.

From 1653 to 1660, the tube well made of tree trunks, which was destroyed in the war in 1634, was repaired .

The upper floor of the stair tower received a striking clock in 1657.

In the 17th century lightning struck the high keep several times , so that in 1664 and 1684 the upper floors had to be removed. There was a silver chamber on the first floor, with prisons above it.

Sale and Expiry

Engraving from 1717; left: "New building", formerly "old bower"; Middle: keep, right: castle church with ballroom, formerly "high bower"; in front: roundabout with bailiff's apartment, right back: guard tower

At the beginning of the 18th century, the princely rule no longer lived in the castle when they visited, but in the city. In 1757 the bailiff also moved out of his apartment.

From 1764 onwards, materials from the heavily dilapidated buildings were sold, for example a number of loads of sandstone from which the buildings were built, as well as wood and bricks. The first roofs began to collapse. In 1773, the old guard's widow had to move out of the guard tower because of the risk of collapse. Both the keep and the watch tower were partly demolished by masons. The building materials came into the possession of the Königsberg citizens through auctioning. After 1780 the area was a free quarry. In 1790 the last roof collapsed. At the beginning of the 19th century there was practically nothing left of the former facility.

From now on the Schlossberg was discovered as a romantic setting for walks and celebrations. A Königsberg landlord ran a summer tavern with a bowling alley and target shooting on the site.

In 1854 the state government of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha sold the Schlossberg to the privateer and later mayor of Königsberg, Franz Ronge. He had arbours laid out on the area and in 1860/61 built a lookout tower on the remains of the former stair tower, which is named after him Rongeturm. It can be viewed against a voluntary donation to the Schlossberg community.

20th century

The western moat before its renovation in the 1970s with partially rebuilt watch tower and footpath to the restaurant

After the death of Franz Ronge, the brother of Johannes Ronge , the Schlossberg belonged to the Sattler family. One of their workers rediscovered the castle well, which was closed with a stone slab in 1716 and then buried. It has been opened and can be viewed against a voluntary donation to the association.

In 1904 the city ​​of Königsberg bought the Schlossberg. However, she did not have the means to maintain the badly dilapidated walls. In 1921 a citizens' initiative, the Schlossberggemeinde, was formed, which from then on took care of the maintenance and reconstruction of the castle complex. This association exposed the cellars in the twenties and had parts of the still preserved wall sections in the castle courtyard renovated by the Coburg architect Leopold Oelenheinz and the fountain house built in 1925. The old bridge piers from 1666 were also renewed and a new wooden bridge was built. In the 1930s, the open-air stage was used for folkloric performances on the site of the former old bower and the later new building. A wooden hall was built in the 1930s on the vaulted cellar, which formerly supported the castle church, also according to the plans of Oelenheinz (home of the Hitler Youth). Instead of the war-damaged building, the restaurant was built in 1949/50, which is now owned and leased by the city of Königsberg.

The Schloßberggemeinde Königsberg e. V. is an active non-profit association. Above all, he takes care of the maintenance of the old building fabric and keeping the viewing aisles clear. The Schlossberg community is financed through donations, membership fees and income from club celebrations. All members work on a voluntary basis .

The owners at a glance

  • Around 1200: the castle was built as an imperial castle. Possibly fiefdom of the Dukes of Andechs-Meran
  • 1234: First indirect documentary mention
  • 1243–1249: Diocese of Bamberg
  • 1249–1353: Counts of Henneberg
  • 1353–1374: Burgrave Albrecht of Nuremberg
  • 1374–1394: Duke Swantibor of Pomerania
  • 1394–1400: Diocese of Würzburg
  • 1400–1440: Balthasar of Thuringia, Friedrich the simple-minded
  • 1445–1447: Duke Wilhelm III. of Saxony
  • 1447-1451: Apel Vitzthum
  • from 1485: Ernestiner
  • 1542–1547: Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Coburg
  • 1547–1551: Margrave Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, then Wilhelm von Grumbach
  • 1551–1552: Elector Moritz of Saxony
  • 1552–1569: Diocese of Würzburg
  • 1569–1634: Duchy of Saxony-Weimar
  • 1634–1675: Duchy of Saxony-Gotha
  • 1675–1683: Duchy of Saxony-Römhild
  • 1683–1826: Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen
  • 1826–1854: Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
  • 1854–1904: Franz Ronge and heirs
  • since 1904: City of Königsberg

Found objects

  • Reading findings: tile shards from the castle area

  • Probably the top of a combination oven, first half of the 17th century

  • Lower edge of a leaf tile with Christ standing, last third of the 16th century

  • Writing utensils with melon-like attachments, shortly before 1600

  • Polychrome faience tiles, Nuremberg, mid-16th century

  • Polychrome faience tiles, Nuremberg, mid-16th century

  • Cornice tile, woman's head with wheel hood, around 1600

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Elsen: The development of Königsberg up to the time of Regiomontanus. In: The Bayerland . 14, 1936, p. 443.
  2. ^ R. Mett: The Königsberg in Haßgau. Origin and development of the city of Königsberg in Franconia up to the 14th century. Verlag Josef Holl, Hofheim / Unterfranken 1980, p. 133.
  3. ↑ Max Planck Institute for History (ed.): The German King Palaces. Repertory of the Palatinate, royal courts and other places of residence of kings in the German Empire in the Middle Ages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, pp. 613–614.
  4. ^ Regesta Imperii V, 1.2 n.4363.
  5. ↑ a b A. von Schultes: Coburg regional history of the middle age with a document book. Sinner, Coburg 1814, p. 37.
  6. ↑ a b c Leopold Oelenheinz : Frankenspiegel. Splinters and sketches. Hugo Bonsack publishing house, Coburg 1919, p. 78.
  7. ↑ JW Krauß: Contributions to the explanation of the Hochfürstl. Saxony-Hildburghäusischen church, school and state history. Fourth part: From the city and Dioeces Königsberg, Sonnenfeld, Behringen and Schalckau. Johann Gottfried Hanisch, 1754.
  8. ↑ a b c d e StA Co, Königsberg official archive.

literature

  • Johann Werner Krauss: Additions to the explanation of the High Princely Saxony-Hildburghäusischen church, school and state history . Volume 4: From the city and Dioeces Königsberg, Sonnenfeld, Behringen and Schalckau . Johann Gottfried Hanisch, Hildburghausen 1754.
  • Rudolf Mett: The Königsberg in Hassgau. Origin and development of the city of Königsberg in Franconia up to the 14th century. A contribution to the history of the Franconian settlement . Publishing house J. Holl, Hofheim Ufr. 1980.
  • Karl Eisentraut: “O you my Königsberg!” Declarations of love . (= Königsberger Heimatbogen. 24). Gunzenheimer publishing house, Ostheim vd Rhön 1981.
  • Georg Paul Hönn: Sachsen-Coburgische Historia. Coburg 1700.
  • Paul Lehfeldt, Georg Voss: Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia . Volume VIII: Duchy of Saxony Coburg and Gotha. District court districts Neustadt, Rodach, Sonnefeld, Koenigsberg, Coburg. The city of Coburg. The fortress Coburg. Fischer, Jena 1907.
  • Ursula Pfistermeister : Defensive Franconia . Volume 3: Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg . Hans Carl Verlag, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-418-00387-7 , pp. 71-72.

Web links

Commons : Königsberg Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files