Kemnat Castle
| Kemnat Castle | ||
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 South view of Kemnat Castle in 1804 |
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| Creation time : | around 1185 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | only the keep and parts of the curtain wall remain | |
| Standing position : | Gentry | |
| Construction: | Nagelfluh (conglomerate rock) | |
| Place: | Kaufbeuren - large kemnat | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 52 '59.6 " N , 10 ° 35' 6.6" E | |
| Height: | 801 m above sea level NHN | |
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The castle Kemnat is the ruin of a Spur castle and was the seat of the medieval rule of United Kemnat. Of what was once an important hilltop castle , the only thing that remains today is the keep , which is incorrectly referred to as the “Roman Tower” and is shown on maps as a watch tower . It is located in Großkemnat, a district of the Ostallgäu town of Kaufbeuren about four kilometers outside the center . The name of the castle is derived from the Latin caminata , which stands for heatable room or building (→ kemenate ).
history
The history of the castle is closely linked to the history of the localities Groß- and Kleinkemnat .
The latest ceramic finds show that a settlement of an unknown shape already existed in the late La Tène period on the castle grounds.
The castle was built around 1185 by Volkmar and Markward von Apfeltrang. These were servants of the Counts of Ronsberg . Soon they called themselves the Lords of Kemnat after their new castle. The most important lord of the castle and man of his family was Volkmar II von Kemnat, who was nicknamed “the wise”. He was the city governor of Constance and the founder of the Cistercian convent in Oberschönenfeld . In its day Kemnat Castle was a scene of high medieval art and culture such as Minnesang . As a close confidante of King Conrad IV , Volkmar II von Kemnat rose to the status of imperial ministeriality in 1246 . From 1263 he also dealt with the education of Konradin , the last male heir to the imperial family of the Hohenstaufen .
Volkmar II is mentioned for the last time in 1282. In 1284 his son Markward takes over the castle. Around 1300, Kemnat Castle passed to the von Ramschwag family by inheritance , and almost 100 years later it came into the possession of the von Benzenau family. During the Peasants' War in 1525, the castle was one of the few in the Allgäu that was not captured. Simprecht von Benzenau sold the castle with the municipalities and Vogtrecht to the Kempten monastery in 1551 , which set up a nursing office there and also built an office building.
In the course of secularization in 1804, after the castle had been sold to a private person, all buildings except the keep, the castle tavern and the administrative building were demolished, including a chapel in the northeast of the castle courtyard.
In 1838 the Historical Society of Swabia acquired the tower and had it repaired in 1851. Further renovations took place in 1884, 1925 and 1957. The dilapidated Burgschänke in the west corner of the courtyard was demolished in 1978. In 1984 the tower became the property of the city of Kaufbeuren, which had a viewing platform with a roof installed. Furthermore, the remaining keep, the office building and the rest of the castle grounds were renovated. In 1985 the 800th anniversary of the castle was celebrated. Today, a castle association and the city of Kaufbeuren take care of the facility.
description
The fortress is typologically classified as a tongue castle. The almost triangular plateau of the main castle lies on a hill spur jutting out to the east , from whose steep slopes mighty Nagelfluh banks emerge. The main castle is cut off from the plateau by a neck ditch up to eight meters deep and 20 meters wide . The high medieval parts of the castle consist mostly of the conglomerate rock extracted from the trench , which was processed into large blocks.
The castle complex is protected by steep slopes in the north and east. In the north and south-west and some fragments of the curtain wall have been preserved. These remains of the wall form the outer walls of the preserved office building and the former Burgschänke, which was demolished in 1978. In the south and east, a shallow ditch with a rampart runs around the castle hill. In the south-west, a footpath runs up out of the valley, which flows into the plateau of the main castle between the keep and the fountain.
The well , which was originally located in the middle of the courtyard, is 20 meters east of the tower and is 26 meters deep. To the west of the office building, which is now privately inhabited and serves as a castle tavern, is the artificially created neck moat.
Today's village Großkemnat goes back to the farm or building yard or a spacious outer bailey. Due to the modern overbuilding, however, apart from small remains of the wall, no clear features of the terrain can be recognized. At house no. 24 a plaque attached around 1933/34 reminds of the former building yard of the castle.
A larger stone tablet is set in above the level entrance of the keep. Such panels can be found on most of the castle ruins and stables in the region. Most of them go back to the initiative of the former Lord Mayor of Kempten (Allgäu) and passionate castle researcher Otto Merkt . The inscriptions on these memorial stones are not always historically accurate.
The grounds of Kemnat Castle are used for open-air theater performances, and the “Theaterstadl” of an association is also located there. There is a recreational area nearby.
The Kemptische Amtsburg
In the High Middle Ages, the keep stood free in front of the curtain wall. Due to the rebuilding from the middle of the 16th century, the exact location of the medieval castle buildings can no longer be reconstructed.
The official castle of the 16th century is well documented by three location plans in the chronicle of the Blöcktach pastor Guggemos. The drawings were made shortly after the demolition.
The keep was included in the five-story south wing of the new building and broken open on the northwest side. In the north-west, there was a three-story building wing. The north-east building is also said to have had three floors. The St. Anna Chapel was on its first floor. Probably stood on the site before the palace of the castle. To the south, a wall bordered the narrow courtyard, in the center of which the fountain was located. The high south wall had no battlements and was covered with bricks.
The representative rooms were on the second floor of the south wing. A "table room" and a "prince's room" have been handed down. The keep was increased during the renovation. The upper floor is said to have been made of tuff stone.
The state of construction shortly before the demolition in the early 19th century is shown in a reconstruction model by the carpenter Marzell Schwarz in the local museum in Kaufbeuren. The terrain profile of the former outer bailey is also shown here.
The defensive character of the facility was greatly reduced by the renovation. In the early modern period, the castle served more as the administrative center of Abbey-Kemptic rule. Even the mighty keep was no longer used for defense, but only rose up as a symbol of law and power on the Burgplatz.
In front of the actual official palace, two outbuildings flanked the driveway to the west of the main castle. The preserved office building was renovated in 1984. The dilapidated old castle tavern in the northwest was demolished as early as 1978. Since then, the remains of the high medieval curtain wall made of large Nagelfluh blocks have stood free on the slope edge (children's playground).
The keep
The incorrect designation "Roman tower" for the keep comes from the 19th century and is still common today. It is square with a side length of 9.3 meters and consists of large hunched Nagelfluh blocks. Four additional floors sit on the approximately three meter thick base, which are closed off by a modern viewing platform with a tent roof. The keep, which is around 23 meters high with a roof, is now used as a lookout tower and is freely accessible during the day. To the south, the platform at a height of 16.5 meters offers a panorama of the Wetterstein Mountains over the Tannheimer and Lechtal Mountains to the Allgäu High Alps .
The large main tower was torn open on the north side in the 16th century and included in the construction of a new extension. At that time, the large window niches were knocked into the walls, creating today's level access. The former high entrance originally opened in the middle of the north-west wall into an uncambered shaft.
The keep was completely covered with large humpback blocks with a wide edge. The north-western front, which was opened up in the early modern period, was closed with brickwork in 1851 and served for a few years as a dwelling for a poor widow. The municipality of Kleinkemnat actually wanted to sell the tower for demolition in the 19th century. Since the large humpback square towers of the High Middle Ages were generally dated to Roman times at that time , the Historical Association of Swabia finally decided to purchase the historical monument.
The mighty main tower of Kemnat Castle is reminiscent of the keep of the Helmishofen castle ruins to the east of Osterzell . This large Nagelfluhturm is also known as the “Roman” or “waiting tower” and is used as a lookout tower and is freely accessible.
literature
- Tilman Breuer: City and district of Kaufbeuren (short inventory) (= Bavarian art monuments 9). German art publisher, Munich 1960.
- Helmut Rischert: The castle ruins of the historical association for Swabians . In: Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia . 68, 1974, ISSN 0342-3131 , pp. 168-187.
- Toni Nessler: Castles in the Allgäu, Volume 2: Castle ruins in the West Allgäu and in the neighboring Vorarlberg, in the Württemberg Allgäu, in the northern Allgäu around Memmingen, in the northeast Allgäu around Kaufbeuren and Obergünzburg as well as in the eastern Allgäu and in the adjacent Tyrol . 1st edition. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1985, ISBN 3-88006-115-7 , pp. 178-197.
- Klaus Wankmiller: Kemnat Castle near Kaufbeuren. A bastion in Allgäu history. In: Das Schöne Allgäu 82 (2019), issue 6, pp. 129-131.
