Kaltenburg Castle

Kaltenburg Castle
Kaltenburg Castle (2019)
Creation time :	1150 to 1180
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Giengen an der Brenz -Hürben
Geographical location	48 ° 34 '53 "  N , 10 ° 12' 42"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 34 '53 "  N , 10 ° 12' 42"  E
Height:	510  m above sea level NN

The Romanesque shield wall in the northwest (field side)

The ruins of Kaltenburg Castle are located in the Lone Valley between the towns of Hürben and Burgberg in the Heidenheim district in Baden-Württemberg . Even larger remains of the wall have been preserved from the high medieval fortifications.

The Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation named the castle Monument of the Month in March 2017 .

Geographical location

Southwest building

The southwest shield wall (inside)

Gate area with south-west building and second shield wall

The ruins of the hilltop castle are at 510  m above sea level. NN about 60  meters above the confluence of the Hürbe and Lone on the Taleck.

About 500 meters north of the Kaltenburg is the entrance to the Charlottenhöhle , one of the longest show caves in the Swabian Alb .

history

The name of the castle is said to refer to the alleged castle founder Heinrich von Kalden (Pappenheim), who held the office of Imperial Court Marshal under Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa . The fortress is believed to have been built between 1150 and 1180.

Under the Hohenstaufen the rule was imperial and probably occupied by service men. In 1240 a Dietmar and in 1265 an Otto von Kaltenburg appear in the documents. In 1332 the castle was owned by the Counts of Helfenstein . At that time, Heinz Vetzer was the count's bailiff at the fortress.

From 1357 the Lords of Riedheim sat on the Kaltenburg. The Riedheimers held the castle temporarily as a fiefdom of the Duchy of Bavaria or were appointed bailiffs of the imperial city of Ulm . From the 15th century onwards, other noble families also owned shares in the castle, such as the von Grafeneck and Stadion families .

In 1435 the Kaltenburg was besieged and damaged by the troops of the imperial city of Nuremberg . Another destruction took place in 1632/34 during the Thirty Years War . It was not rebuilt until 1677 by the Riedheimers.

In 1764 the south-west building collapsed. The rubble was removed for the construction of the new manor in Reuendorf .

After the complex was described as dilapidated in 1800, the castle chapel was demolished in 1804 . In 1806, however, a partial repair took place, in 1820 five families lived in the castle. That year the Counts of Maldeghem took over the property. In 1837 30 residents are mentioned. In 1897 only the gatehouse seems to have been intact and inhabited.

In 1938 and 1940, the first securing work began on the ruins, which was continued from 1980 to 1983. In the course of these measures, the two square towers on the valley side were also renovated and expanded.

description

The fortress was expanded in four sections, which can still be clearly distinguished. The 12th century castle actually only consisted of a tower house on the castle rock. In the 13./14. In the 19th century, the facility was expanded to its present size and expanded again from 1450 to 1560. After the destruction in the Thirty Years' War (1632–34), reconstruction began in 1677, adding the two preserved square towers to the existing building.

The irregular pentagon of the outer or Zwingermauer was reinforced by two square and three - possibly four - round, protruding towers. The attack side was protected by an angled neck ditch about 5 meters deep and 10 to 16 meters wide . The gate was in the south near the steep drop.

In the north-west there is still a section of the neck ditch of the Hohenstaufen castle complex behind the Zwingermauer , above which the rock of the inner castle rises. On the plateau, the remainder of the first castle is a 4 meter high and 16 meter long piece of the shield wall . Of the other buildings of the first and second castle, only individual cuboids remained in the vicinity of the almost square rock, which towers up to 13 meters. The approximately 3.4 meter thick shield wall was obviously the east wall of a rectangular tower house of the first castle (remains of the wall). The palace of the successor building probably rose to the west of it on the lower rock edge.

From the curtain wall of the 13th / 14th centuries Century only the south side with the gate building is partially preserved. The shield wall of the tower house of the second castle rises above the moat at the southwest corner. The structure is almost 10 meters long and 7 to 8 meters high, the wall thickness is approx. 2.2 meters. The remains of a vaulted corridor at a height of 5 meters and six openings on the field side indicate a curtained wooden battle house or a hurdle gallery. The extension of the Lords of Riedheim later rose underneath (the surrounding walls were partially preserved).

The kennels with the stumps of the round towers have been heavily restored and supplemented on the mountain side, but are likely to be in their current form on the 15th and 16th centuries. Century. The valley side with the two high square towers was built around 1677. These plastered towers crowned by pyramid roofs are the landmark of the castle and shape the view from the valley.

After a wall collapsed, the facility is cordoned off with a site fence and only partially accessible (as of August 11, 2011).

literature

• Hans Andreas Klaiber, Reinhard Wortmann: The art monuments of the former Oberamt Ulm . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-422-00553-6 .
• Günter Schmitt : Castle Guide Swabian Alb. Volume 6 Eastern Alb. Hiking and discovering between Ulm, Aalen and Donauwörth . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1995, ISBN 3-924489-74-2 , pp. 335-344.

Web links

Commons : Burg Kaltenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files