Landsberg Castle (Alsace)

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Landsberg Castle (Alsace)
Main castle of Landsberg Castle, east view

Main castle of Landsberg Castle, east view

Castle type : Spurburg
Conservation status: ruin
Geographical location 48 ° 25 '14 "  N , 7 ° 25' 21"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 25 '14 "  N , 7 ° 25' 21"  E
Landsberg Castle (Bas-Rhin department)
Landsberg Castle

The ruins of Landsberg Castle ( French Château de Landsberg ) in Alsace stand on a southern foothill of the Odilienberg massif around 30 kilometers southwest of Strasbourg . Lying on a mountain spur at an altitude of 580 meters above sea ​​level , it dominates the village of Heiligenstein in the Bas-Rhin department .

The Spornburg was also referred to as Landsberch , Landesperg and Landsperg in the course of history and was the ancestral castle of the Knights of Landsberg. In the view of castle research the system is realized for the first time because of, thus leading conception as a front tower castle with diagonally gestelltem, square dungeon and behind it erecting the protection residential buildings significantly. It served as a model for other Alsatian castles such as Bernstein , Ortenberg and Birkenfels . The complex has been under monument protection as a Monument historique since October 25, 1965 .

A botanical peculiarity is the occurrence of the winterling (dialect: Schlossbliemele ). The Mediterranean species was cultivated as an ornamental plant in the castle courtyard in the Middle Ages and has grown wild from there.

history

Residents and owners

The castle was first mentioned in writing in a document dated June 23, 1200, with which the abbess of the Niedermünster monastery gave the knight Conrad von Vienhege (also Finhey, Vigenhegen and Vienhenne) a piece of land on which his castle was located. The lord of the castle called himself "von Landsberg" after his new property. The assertion, often to be read in older publications, that the Lords of Landsberg were named in a document as early as 1144, is now just as disproved as the assumption that the abbess Herrad von Landsberg , who became known through the Hortus Deliciarum , was a member of this noble family .

Burg Landsberg was to secure Staufer possessions to Barr, Andlau and under staufischem standing guard Klosters Hohenburg whose ministerials were Landsberger, but already in 1232 they changed their lord and fought on the side of the Strasbourg bishop , whose troops below the regional Staufer Goods threatened. The mayor of Hagenau , Wölfelin, began after the records of the chroniclers Richer of Senones therefore at that time near Andlau the construction of a castle called Landeshaoite . One hypothesis is that Landeshaoite could have been the Landsberg Castle, which Wolfelin could have acquired and then extensively expanded and rebuilt, so that there was talk of a new building. In 1237, however, Wolfelin fell out of favor with Emperor Friedrich II , and the castle may have reverted to the Lords of Landsberg. At least it was mentioned in 1322 as the open house of the Strasbourg bishop, and in 1412 Otteman von Landsberg transferred half of the complex to the Count Palatine near the Rhine , Ludwig the Bearded , who was also governor of Alsace. Two years later, the other half of the castle came from Johann (Jean) von Landsberg to the Count Palatine, who pledged it several times in the 15th century. Subsequently, the Landsbergers came back into possession of at least half of the castle complex, the remaining part was confiscated by Emperor Maximilian I and then given as a fief to his Chancellor Nikolaus Ziegler. However, the Lords of Landsberg succeeded in bringing the entire complex back into their sole possession by the middle of the 16th century, but the use of the core castle for residential purposes was given up in the same century. The last documentary evidence of the residential use of the castle buildings is a truce agreement from 1525.

In the 18th century, the meanwhile run-down buildings were first used for agriculture before they were used exclusively as a forester's house from the 1780s. After the complex was confiscated during the French Revolution in 1789 , it was sold as a national property to Baron Friedrich von Türkheim in 1790 . His family is still the owner of the ruin today.

Building history

The castle before its destruction, reconstruction by A. Stuber

The wording of the document in which Landsberg Castle is mentioned in writing for the first time suggests that it was only erected shortly before and that its construction may not have been completed. The start of construction on the Landsberg complex can therefore be dated between 1197 and 1200. So far there are no archaeological finds that could confirm a possible predecessor site. The first, simple castle of Conrad von Landsberg consisted of a square keep and a residential building, which was expanded in the first quarter of the 13th century in the south-east to include a bailey with a curtain wall . In 1235 in the northwest was the main castle , a second, independent castle complex consisting of two residential buildings and a high curtain wall, had the round corner towers. Only in the course of the following time were the buildings connected to the core and outer bailey, which had existed for some time.

In the first half of the 15th century, a development of the eastern bailey what the shape of the still preserved carried loopholes is occupied. But as early as 1461 the facility was called "ettwas buwefellig and buwes notturfftig". Excavation findings suggest that the south-western wall of the main castle collapsed in the 16th century. The dilapidation meant that Landsberg Castle had to be renovated in the third quarter of the 15th century. At the same time, the defensive elements were adapted to modern firearms. However, this did not help to prevent the capture of the facility during the Thirty Years War ; between 1632 and 1634 they were probably destroyed by Swedish troops under the command of General Gustaf Horn .

The remains of the former main gate were laid down in 1780 in order to use the stones obtained during the demolition for the new construction of the forester's house to the northeast of the castle . In 1868/69 the Société pour la Conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace carried out the first conservation measures on the upper part of the keep, of which the south side was also renewed. At that time, the remains of the battlements, which have now completely disappeared, still existed on his defensive plate . Further restoration measures followed from the beginning of the 21st century.

description

Floor plan of the castle

Burgenland Mountain consists of a late Romanesque main castle , one east of it lying bailey and a Western-lying part of the castle, which was built in the second quarter of the 13th century as an independent construction, initially with no connection to the main castle. The facility stands on a mountain spur that slopes steeply on three sides and was therefore naturally well protected against attacks. A wide neck trench served as protection for the north-western side facing the mountain . Granite from the castle rock was used as building material, especially in the lower part of the main castle . For the higher parts, humpback blocks made of red sandstone were used, which are located near the castle. The other buildings were built from smooth ashlars, which are also made of sandstone.

Core castle

The main castle has a heptagonal floor plan. On its north-west side, at the highest point of the mountain spur, there is the rectangular keep . Built around the year 1200, it measures 9.30 × 9.00 meters on the outside and has four floors with beamed ceilings. With the exception of the ground floor, all of its floors have narrow arched windows. The 2.30 meter thick walls are still around 22.5 meters high. On the second floor there is still a toilet and, at a height of seven meters, the pointed arched high entrance , which was previously accessible via the northern residential building of the main castle. On the north and south sides, the keep on the top floor once had hurdles , the corbels of which were still preserved in 1860.

The rest of the inner castle area to the east of the keep is occupied by the ruins of several residential buildings, which today still have richly structured outer walls. In the late phase of the complex, the main castle was hopeless and completely built over. The outer walls of the two-story buildings have - like the keep - the remains of Hurden on their top floors. The north wing has six narrow arched windows on the ground floor. On the upper floor, four biforias in the 1.6 meter thick walls point to the hall behind . Two of its central supports were only reconstructed in 2003.

South-east side of the lower castle with the chapel bay

In the eastern part of the main castle, the residential building there housed a gate hall with a pointed arched entrance gate and a cistern on the ground floor . On the upper floor, two double arches have been preserved on the outside, between which the chapel bay emerges from the building. The only 12 cm thick chapel walls are on the outside by pilasters divided into four fields up of an arched frieze be completed. In each wall field there is a small window that was previously glazed. Inside the chapel, which was dedicated to St. Anthony , a holy water font and a closet have been preserved in the walls.

Lower castle

To the east of the core castle is the lower castle, whose origins can be traced back to the 13th century. Its curtain wall is 15 meters high on the southeast corner. The remains of two toilets can be found on the outside of the northeast corner on the two upper floors. The southern part of the wall was reinforced on the inside to 1.65 meters thick in the 15th century and at the same time increased by four meters. The expansion due to the existing loopholes are dated because they represent a transitional form of slot charters to fire weapons-grade key loopholes.

Western castle

The western castle with one of the round towers

To the northwest of the main castle are the remains of the so-called western castle. It comprised a large residential building with an L-shaped floor plan and high, seven-meter-thick round towers at its northwest and southwest corner. Together, the towers have a total of eleven 1.5 meter high slits. All that remains of the residential building are the three outer walls, all of whose openings are walled up. Thomas Biller therefore supports the thesis that the western castle was systematically demolished in the 15th century and converted into a kennel . The material obtained during the demolition could have been used in the expansion of the eastern lower castle.

The round arched main gate of the castle complex used to be located in the north wall between the western castle and the core castle, which was protected by an upstream kennel with a rectangular tower. Another, narrower gate, which was located east of the core castle in the north wall, led directly into the lower castle.

literature

  • Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Vol. 2). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06635-9 , pp. 302-316.
  • Rüdiger Bernges: The keep of Burg Landsberg in Alsace . 2003 ( PDF , 27 kB).
  • Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1962, p. 95.
  • Guy Bronner: Heiligenstein. Château de Landsberg . In: Alain Morley (ed.): Le Guide des châteaux de France. Bas-Rhin . Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-024-7 , pp. 63-67.
  • Guy Bronner: Nouvelles observations sur le chateau du Landsberg à l'occasion des travaux réalisés en 2008. In: Cahiers alsaciens d'archéologie, d'art et d'histoire. Volume 55. Société pour la conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace, Strasbourg 2012, ISSN  1160-4360 , pp. 51-68.
  • Guy Bronner, Bernhard Metz, Bernadette Schnitzler: Un château double au XIIIe siècle. Le Landsberg à la lumière des travaux récents. In: Cahiers alsaciens d'archéologie, d'art et d'histoire. Volume 24. Société pour la conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace, Strasbourg 1981, ISSN  1160-4360 , 1981, pp. 71-94 ( digitized version ).
  • Walter Hotz: Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-422-00345-2 , p. 109.
  • Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales d′Alsace. Dictionnaire d′histoire et d′architecture . La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 2013, ISBN 978-2-7165-0828-5 , pp. 190–192.
  • Felix Wolff: Alsatian Castle Lexicon. Directory of castles and chateaus in Alsace . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1008-2 , pp. 198-202.

Web links

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

References and comments

  1. ^ Felix Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon , p. 198.
  2. ↑ Burg Landsberg on burgenwelt.org , accessed on December 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 308.
  4. ↑ a b c Burg Landsberg in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on April 20, 2011.
  5. ^ Guy Bronner, Bernhard Metz, B. Schnitzler: Un château double au XIIIe siècle: le Landsberg à la lumière des travaux récents . In: Cahiers alsaciens d'archéologie, d'art et d'historie . No. 24, 1981, p. 71, note 1.
  6. ↑ a b c d G. Bronner: Heiligenstein. Château de Landsberg , p. 63.
  7. ↑ Cf. T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , pp. 311-312.
  8. ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 312.
  9. ↑ G. Bronner: Heiligenstein. Château de Landsberg , p. 65.
  10. ↑ According to F. Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon , p. 200. Bronner gives a point in time around 1560 in his contribution. See G. Bronner: Heiligenstein. Château de Landsberg , p. 65.
  11. ↑ a b c d T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 302.
  12. ↑ a b Description and history of Landsberg Castle , accessed on April 20, 2010.
  13. ↑ a b c Cf. T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) , p. 310.
  14. ↑ In the literature you can find the years 1632, 1633 and 1634.
  15. ^ Felix Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon , p. 200.
  16. ↑ a b c d Felix Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon , p. 202.
  17. ^ R. Bernges: The keep of Burg Landsberg in Alsace , p. 1.
  18. ^ R. Bernges: The keep of Burg Landsberg in Alsace , p. 3.
  19. ↑ a b T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 306.
  20. ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 307.
  21. ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) , p. 313.