Löwenstein Castle (Württemberg)

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Löwenstein Castle
Löwenstein Castle from the south (2007)

Löwenstein Castle from the south (2007)

Creation time : 1080 to 1090
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Construction: Humpback cuboid
Place: Lion's Arch
Geographical location 49 ° 5 '34.6 "  N , 9 ° 22' 58.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 5 '34.6 "  N , 9 ° 22' 58.8"  E
Height: 427  m above sea level NN
Löwenstein Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Löwenstein Castle

The Castle Lowenstein is the ruins of a medieval Spur castle above the city Lowenstein in the district of Heilbronn . The name is derived from the heraldic animal of the original builder, the Counts of Calw , and was then carried over to the neighboring village.

location

The castle ruin Löwenstein rises about 13 kilometers east-southeast of Heilbronn at 427  m above sea level. NN . Approximately 150 meters to the southeast of 42 meters below the city center of Lowenstein she wakes in a promising position on the spur Keuper edge of the natural area Swabian-Franconian Forest about 230 meters below the valley of the Sulm . With the construction of a neck ditch that is still around nine meters deep today, the lords of the castle separated the spur of the castle grounds from the narrow foothills of the Löwenstein Mountains, which rise only slightly to the east and which are almost 550  m above sea level in the back of the castle a few kilometers away . Reach NN .

history

The Counts of Calw probably built a first castle here in the late 11th century (around 1080 to 1090, under Adalbert II. Von Calw ) on the descent of the salt road from Schwäbisch Hall to Heilbronn from the plateau of the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains. Already in 1133 the castle was due to inheritance disputes by Welf VI. attacked and partially destroyed, but later restored and expanded in the 12th century.

After the Calwern, the castle and the County of Löwenstein became the property of the Habsburgs. During the visit of King Rudolf I in 1287, the neighboring village of Löwenstein received city rights. In the first half of the 14th century, the castle was probably expanded to include the first castle walls , and the city wall of Löwenstein was built, the wing walls of which reached up to the castle.

In the late 14th century the castle and town of Löwenstein came under the influence of the Electoral Palatinate . Half of the town and castle were pledged to Elector Ruprecht I in 1382 , and in 1394 and 1399 the Counts of Löwenstein concluded a truce with Ruprecht's successors. The resulting political tensions with the Lords of Weinsberg and the House of Württemberg , whose territories were adjacent, gave rise to construction work in the early 15th century. In 1441 the Electoral Palatinate finally acquired the entire County of Löwenstein including the castle. The Count Palatine, who at that time pursued an aggressive policy towards Württemberg, then continued the massive expansion of the facility in the late 15th century. The Palatinate Elector Friedrich I handed over the castle and the office of Löwenstein in 1488 to his morganatic son Ludwig von Bayern (1463–1524), who then called himself Count Ludwig I von Löwenstein and founded the Princely House of Löwenstein-Wertheim , which still exists today .

The ongoing disputes between the people of the Palatinate and Württemberg finally led to the castle being conquered by the Württemberg Duke Ulrich in 1504. Parts of the castle were destroyed in a fire in 1512; from the late 16th century it fell into disrepair.

Building material from the remains of the castle was then used to build a new palace complex in Löwenstein, for the city and cemetery walls and in the city church from 1760.

The first extensive safety and restoration work began in the 1970s.

investment

reconstructed floor plan
The gatehouse
The stair tower, connected to the left is the remains of the keep, behind it the remains of the shield wall.
Aerial view of the Löwenstein ruin

The core castle , built at the end of the 11th century, covers an area of ​​around 500 m² and its original shape corresponds to the type of polygonal round shape . Against the attack side, the circular wall in the east is flattened and reinforced to form a shield wall . The walls are made of local sandstone blocks, in the southern part of the curtain wall they are still attributed to the Salian period. The resulting hump square the shield wall of the keep and the palace are Hohenstaufen . Whether the castle complex was structurally expanded for the first time after the partial destruction in 1133 or only restored can not be concluded with certainty from the findings . At the end of the 15th century, the castle was expanded to include a kennel with a gatehouse and casemate tower.

Salisch-Staufer core castle

Attacks on the castle were most likely from the narrow ridge in the east. Here, parallel to the neck ditch, the dead straight shield wall of humpback cuboid masonry, 1.84 meters thick and at least 24 meters long , rose up to 10.20 meters . It is best preserved today in the area of ​​the stair tower , which is connected to it by butt joints .

The 24-meter-high stair tower is the only building in the castle that has been almost completely preserved. It is divided into an upright cuboid around 13 meters high, on which an approximately eleven meter high and significantly slimmer segment "extremely idiosyncratic in shape and character ... about three-quarters round" (Dähn) sits. Five meters above the level of the bailey is located on the south side of the stair tower whose gothic trained high input . The stair tower has openings on all sides at different heights, on the north side there were originally transitions to the keep. On the first floor of the stair tower there is a dungeon with its own entrance and fear hole .

The stair tower opened up the keep built to the north, the east wall of which was also part of the shield wall. All walls of the keep are preserved at the level of the dungeon and are consistently just as thick as on the side of the shield wall. Outside it measures 5.98 meters (east-west) by 5.92 meters (north-south), inside that is 2.30 meters by 2.24 meters.

The exact location of the other buildings in the first phase is not completely certain. Based on the illustration of Gadner's forest map from 1594, which shows a large residential building, Dähn assumes that the former palace was in the south of the main castle; he estimates its external dimensions to be a modest 18 meters by 7 meters.

Remnants of the inner, old castle gate on the non-threatened west side of the castle have not been preserved. Dähn derives its position from what was later the castle kennel and a partially preserved casemate tower .

Kurpfalz burger extension

In the late 15th century, the lords of the castle took the developments in weapon technology into account and strengthened the castle all around with a largely still preserved kennel, which brought it to a total area of ​​around 3500 m². A heavily fortified two-storey gatehouse with a shooting chamber, flanking tower and postern was also built in the western area of ​​the kennel . A new building based on the Renaissance style was built on top of the ruins of the gatehouse ; Instead of the original saddle roof , a walled terrace was set up on the ceiling of the upper floor.

Traces of other buildings were excavated in the north-eastern part of the castle, they were probably smaller residential and farm buildings ( box ).

Todays use

From the beginning of March to the end of October the tower with great views is open on weekends and public holidays. From his pulpit, with good visibility, you can see the striking points of the Katzenbuckels in the Odenwald , the Königstuhl on Bergstrasse and Steinsberg Castle in Kraichgau . On the opening days there are free short tours through the castle grounds, the snack bar at the castle is then open.

In the Burgwald, works of art create a romantic ambience along the hiking trails. The castle is also a magnet for fans of the LARP scene.

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Dähn : Löwenstein Castle. In: Karl-Heinz Dähn (Red.): 700 years of the city of Löwenstein. 1287-1987. City of Löwenstein, Löwenstein 1987, pp. 333–368.

Web links

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