Kropfsberg Castle
| Kropfsberg Castle | ||
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 Kropfsberg Castle around 1700 |
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| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | St. Gertraudi in the Inn Valley | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 24 '26 " N , 11 ° 50' 48" E | |
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The castle ruin Kropfsberg is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the municipality of Reith im Alpbachtal on a towering ridge in the Inn Valley above the village of St. Gertraudi .
history
The Salzburg archbishops received large parts of the Zillertal . Under Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg , the first castle was built at the entrance to the Zillertal valley in the first half of the 12th century. It was probably just a tower surrounded by walls. The castle was used by the archbishops as the seat of the Salzburg court and administration. Kropfsberg was first mentioned in a document in 1286.
Archbishop Eberhard II von Regensberg had the castle expanded. The castle owes its present appearance to these expansion measures. Above the old tower, the main castle was built , which contained two powerful keep .
In the 15th century, Kropfsberg Castle was the venue for important negotiations. In 1412, a dispute between Tyrol and Bavaria was settled on the “Fürstentag” . In 1416 there was a reconciliation between Duke Friedrich IV and his brother Duke Ernst of Austria , which Friedrich secured the further possession of Tyrol.
In the course of time, Kropfsberg was expanded twice in Romanesque style, but there were no major construction activities in the Gothic period. Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach had the complex re-fortified around 1500. 40 years later, having emerged loopholes provided, 900 m long, 8 m high and 3 m thick curtain wall and the semi-circular bastions .
In the following century Kropfsberg was one of the largest castles in Tyrol. It was protected by a double curtain wall. With this expansion one wanted to further illustrate the sovereign power and strength. The area extended to an area of 26,000 m², but it only had accommodation for 60 to 80 people.
In 1592, the seat of the court was moved from Kropfsberg to Zell am Ziller , which led to the decline of the castle complex. Because the castle was only inhabited by people and no longer maintained, the first buildings collapsed as early as 1673. During the " Bavarian hype " in 1703, the castle was drawn into the fighting because Bavarian soldiers had established themselves there. The Tyrolean riflemen drove away the intruders.
When Tyrol came to Bavaria in 1809, the castle complex shared the same fate as many others. The castle, which has now become a ruin, was auctioned. In 1850 the gate tower was renovated to make it habitable again. In 1905, the material of the still-preserved curtain wall was used for building the Inn.
In 1940 Sepp Auffinger from Merano bought the property. He had the gate tower renovated again. In the last year of World War II , the western palace wall collapsed due to bombing in the neighborhood . The castle ruins have been conserved and restored since 1985. Therefore, the remains of the cistern and the Gothic castle chapel are still preserved today. Today the castle is privately owned by Hanno Vogl-Fernheim.
Castle ruins
A prehistoric hilltop settlement with flat walls and small terraces was largely destroyed by the overbuilding of the medieval castle. The castle with its three towers of almost the same height is unique in Tyrol. From the first castle, only the freestanding tower that has been moved to the west remains today. The Romanesque stronghold built around a hexagonal courtyard comes from the second building, of which only the two keep still exist. The middle tower only has light slits in the lower area. The residential floors with their large windows and different masonry were put on by Archbishop Leonhard. The keep was converted into a lookout point after the Second World War. In addition, the ruins of the St. Rupert's Chapel from the 16th century still exist. The 47 m deep cistern is in the middle of the courtyard. The outer curtain wall including the bastions is still partially preserved.
Web links
- Entry via Burg Kropfsberg to Burgen-Austria
- Kropfsberg Castle at burgenkunde.at
- Legend of Kropfsberg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dehio Tirol 1980 , p. 637f.