Kohren Castle
| Kohren Castle | ||
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| Alternative name (s): | Chorun, Sahlis | |
| Creation time : | around 1000 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Standing position : | Clericals, nobles | |
| Place: | Kohren-Sahlis | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 1 '9.6 " N , 12 ° 36' 1.6" E | |
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The kohren castle , also Chorun or Sahlis called, is an imposing ruins of a hilltop castle on Castle Hill in Kohren-Sahlis in the district of Leipzig in Saxony .
history
The origin of Kohren can be found in the time of the Slavic settlement in the early Middle Ages . In 974, Emperor Otto II gave the forest between Saale and Mulde to the Bishop of Merseburg . Kohren has not yet been mentioned here. However, almost 40 years later, Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg reported in his chronicle written around 1010 that Chorin was also one of the goods that were given away at the time. Thietmar stayed in 1018 even in Kohren and " firmte all who homed". He himself wrote of a ten-day stay. This presupposes the presence of a fortified property or a castle center.
In 1190 the noble lords of Kohren appear as imperial free owners of the castle. In the course of the German expansion to the east, they established their rule in Kohren in the second half of the 12th century.
In 1216 the Lords of Kohren took sides with the city of Leipzig in their disputes over supremacy with Margrave Dietrich von Meißen . After initial successes, Leipzig and the allied Pleißenland Imperial Knighthood were defeated. Dietrich then ordered the destruction of Kohren Castle in 1220. In 1240 the castle was probably rebuilt. The building structure visible today comes from this construction phase. The west tower was built first. About 50 years later extended the castle and built a second castle keep . The reasons for the expansion are obscure.
The imperial rule of the Lords of Kohren came to an end at the beginning of the 14th century. They were last mentioned in a document in 1303. Various families, such as those of Schönburg , Leisnig or the bailiffs of Plauen , owned the castle in the years that followed.
In 1357 a Friedrich von Schönburg left Geithain and Kohren to the Lords of Reuss .
It is said that Kunz von Kaufungen stayed in the castle the night before the robbery of the Wettin princes (July 1455). After the execution of Kaufungen, the castle is said to have been razed to erase all memories of the robber.
It is certain that the Lords of Einsiedel owned the castle in the second half of the 15th century (see parents of Melchior von Meckau ). They moved their residence to Gnandstein and Kohren Castle was given up as a residence. In 1602 the Einsiedel sold the Kohren and Sahlis estates. As is common practice, the buildings were gradually demolished for the extraction of building materials. The Kohren deacon Scheubner reports that in 1604 and 1605 stones were broken in the old castle over a length of 40 meters and driven to the church wall.
During the Thirty Years' War , the castle was once again briefly put into a defensible state. The extent to which construction work took place is unknown. After the war, a few houses were built on the castle grounds. The housing situation was obviously so unfavorable that it was gradually given up again. The last castle house was torn down in 1900.
In 1928 excavations were carried out by the local castle association. Further excavations took place in 1965 by the State Museum for Prehistory Dresden .
Current status (2020)
Only the two tower ruins of the keep with high entrances and parts of the enclosing walls have been preserved from the castle and still shape the city skyline today.
literature
- Heinz-Joachim Vogt: Investigations on the castle in Kohren-Sahlis, Kr. Geithain. Preliminary report . Excavations and Funde 12, 1967, pp. 101-103.
- Heinz-Joachim Vogt: Medieval finds from the Kohren-Sahlis district, Kr. Geithain. Work and research reports on Saxon soil monument preservation 18, 1968, 389–433.
- Gerhard Cheap , Heinz Müller: Castles. Witnesses of Saxon history. Degener, Neustadt / Aisch 1998. ISBN 3768641910 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reiner Groß: Schönburgische Geschichte. A timetable . Editors: Britta Günther, Michael Wetzel, Tommy Schmucker, Chemnitz 2005, p. 8