Lichtenberg Castle (Salzgitter)
| Lichtenberg Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Ruined castle with dungeon , left ditch, right Torfundamente |
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| Alternative name (s): | Heinrichsburg | |
| Creation time : | around 1180 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | duke | |
| Place: | Salzgitter-Lichtenberg | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 7 '17 " N , 10 ° 17' 19" E | |
| Height: | 241 m above sea level NN | |
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The Lichtenberg Castle , also known as "Henry Castle", the ruins of a hilltop castle from the 12th century in the light mountains (northwestern part of the Salzgitter Höhenzugs ) in Salzgitter in Lower Saxony . Their remains are to the south or above Salzgitter-Lichtenberg on the steep hilltop of the Burgberg (241 m).
The strategically extremely favorable complex shows the ideal-typical floor plan of a high medieval hill castle. The builder of the most important Guelph fortress was Duke Heinrich the Lion (1129–1195). The castle was built against the Hildesheim monastery and the Hohenstaufen neighbors in Goslar . Despite numerous armed conflicts during this time, it was not destroyed until 1552 by cannons of a mercenary army.
Building the castle
The castle consists of the upper main castle at 241 m above sea level. NN and an underlying outer bailey . The upper castle lies on an oval plateau of 45 × 80 m. On it, surrounded by a 1.6 m thick curtain wall , there were various residential and farm buildings as well as towers and the castle fountain . In a 10 × 8.5 m residential building, a kemenate , an earlier warm air heating system was discovered during excavations. Slightly below the core Burg there is a 32 x 8 m large Palas with adjacent tower and dungeon .
The first phase of construction of the castle is dated to the beginning of the 12th century, its expansion probably took place between 1170 and 1180. The extensive outer bailey belongs to a more recent construction phase. It was enclosed by a wall / ditch system and a circular wall with 13 open semicircular towers. Parts of the gate walls and the associated moat have been preserved. Traces of earlier buildings are only present as individual foundation fragments.
history
Lichtenberg Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1180. Heinrich the Lion used it as a bulwark against the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich I (Barbarossa) . The castle was on the border of the Guelph principality and threatened the neighboring, non-Guelph areas of the Hildesheim Monastery and the Goslar estate. As part of the Imperial War against Heinrich, Barbarossa took the castle in 1180 after a brief siege. She received the "lion" only after the peace agreement with the Hohenstaufen emperor Heinrich VI. 1194 back. Heinrich the Lion died a year later.
The Staufer faction in the empire elected Philip of Swabia as king in 1198 , while the Guelph party raised Otto IV , the 16-year-old son of Henry the Lion, to the rival king. Otto IV used the power emanating from Lichtenberg Castle to damage the imperial city of Goslar, which was loyal to the Hohenstaufen. In order to secure their imperial estate Goslar, the Hohenstaufen let their imperial bailiff of Goslar, Count Hermann von Wöltingerode , move against the castle in 1206 . Surprisingly, he succeeded in conquering the castle. At the beginning of June 1206, Count Gunzelin von Wolfenbüttel unsuccessfully besieged Lichtenberg Castle after Count Hermann had conquered it and from there undertook raids and raids in the foreland, including the Peiner area, Gunzelins county.
When Otto IV was recognized as the sole king in 1208 after the murder of his adversary, the castle fell back to the Guelphs. After Otto's death in 1218, the inheritance passed to Otto the child , Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg. After his death, his son, Duke Johann zu Braunschweig and Lüneburg , inherited his goods and became lord of the Lichtenberg castle. At times the castle was pledged to the city of Braunschweig , but was released again in 1365 by the Lords of Saldern . They operated from the castle as robber barons, about whose raids the Braunschweiger Feud Book reported in the years 1379-1382. The noble von Saldern family was ousted from the castle in the 15th century. In documents from this time, Rudolf von Garßenbüttel and Herwig von Uetze are named as bailiffs.
- Pictures of Lichtenberg Castle
Merian engraving around 1650 from Lichtenberg, the castle ruins on the left on the mountain
Detail of the castle ruins in the Merian engraving around 1650
Floor plan of the castle
View from the south of Lichtenberg Castle, in the background Lichtenberg
The keep built around 1900
The keep in winter
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destruction
On October 22, 1552, units of Count Vollrad von Mansfeld from the Schmalkaldic League moved up in front of the castle. He had raided the Duchy of Braunschweig with around 5,400 soldiers and 2,100 horsemen and had already devastated cities in the Harz foreland. The troops shelled the castle with heavy artillery, including large-caliber Fürmösers , and took it after eight days. In the same year, Mansfeld appeared in the same way in front of Neuhaus Castle in Wolfsburg . Since then, Lichtenberg Castle has been in ruins, its use as a quarry to build the Lichtenberg domain did the rest.
reconstruction
In the 19th century, the castle ruins attracted public interest. Responsible was the increased awareness of history and the slowly awakening nationalist ideas of the Bismarck era after the establishment of the German Empire in 1871.
Since 1892 there was a "Beautification Association of Lichtenberg Castle", which in 1995 was named "Lichtenberg Castle Association e. V. ”(200 members). The dungeon was in 1861 occurred as a dilapidated wall stump of 15 meters and was demolished. In 1892/93, the Beautification Association built a new keep on the old foundations with the same hexagonal floor plan, which today has a height of around 25 m with a wooden viewing platform . It allows a wide view of the Harz foreland up to the Brocken . Investigations of the castle well showed that it is around 60 m deep and was excavated by hand. A replica of a Blide , a medieval sling machine , has stood on the castle ruins since 2005 . The castle hotel , a restaurant for excursions, is located on the grounds of the outer bailey .
In March 2019, a new viewing platform was installed on the tower after the wooden structure was destroyed by a fire on September 2, 2016.
Excavations
The first archaeological excavations took place in 1893. Further individual examinations followed in the late 1950s and again from 2004. The excavations exposed the foundations of all stone buildings. In 2004 the "Salzgitter Archaeological Working Group" excavated a gate system that was attributed to the time of Henry the Lion. Until then, only remains from the 14th to 16th centuries had been found in the castle. The ruts of the carts are still visible in the exposed paving. An interesting detail of the older castle complex is underfloor heating based on the Roman model. A fire is held in a walled cellar, which heats the stones and air in the masonry above. The air flow could be regulated through nine openings with plugs. A separate chimney served as a smoke outlet.
Gaussstein
The "Gaußstein", a surveying pillar that the mathematician and geodesist Carl Friedrich Gauß had erected around 1820, stands on the mountain top above the castle ruins . It stands in the elevated center of a medieval tower hill castle . It is the Lichtenberg station of the Gauß'schen Landesaufnahme , with which Gauß measured the Kingdom of Hanover on behalf of King George IV . The other stations targeted from Lichtenberg are Brocken , Hils , Deister , Falkenberg and Garssen . The memorial plaque from the 20th century was supplied by the Schreitel brothers .
literature
- Hans Adolf Schultz : Castles and palaces of the Braunschweiger Land. Braunschweig 1980, Die Burg Lichtenberg , pp. 142–145, ISBN 3-87884-012-8 .
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The castle ruins Lichtenberg . In: If stones could talk. Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1998, pp. 135-136, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5 .
- Margret Zimmermann, Hans Kensche: Castles and palaces in Hildesheimer Land . Hildesheim, 2001, pp. 91-92
- Michael Geschwinde , Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Andreas Wolff: Lichtenberg Castle: October 29, 1552 . In: Archeology in Lower Saxony , 2003, pp. 72–77
Web links
- Entry by Gudrun Pischke and Stefan Eismann zu Lichtenberg near Salzgitter in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Lichtenberg Castle in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
- Friends of the castle
- Castle near Braunschweig-Ostfalen region
- Description at burgenwelt.de
- Lichtenberg Castle on braunschweig-touren.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The new platform for the tower of Lichtenberg Castle is finally here. Salzgitter-Zeitung of March 7, 2019
- ^ Gauss CD. In: webdoc.sub.gwdg.de. Retrieved March 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Surveying - Gauss stones - GAUSS-GESELLSCHAFT eV Göttingen. In: hs.uni-hamburg.de. Retrieved March 25, 2016 .