Limmer Castle
The castle Limmer was a high medieval lowland castle of the 12th-13th Century of the type of a moth that was located near Hanover in the Leineaue between Limmer and Herrenhausen . Remnants of the complex have not been preserved, as the earth of the castle hill was removed in 1717 before a canal was built.
history
Limmer Castle is only mentioned once in historical sources, when Heinrich VI. In 1189 the city of Hanover burned down during a campaign . He then attacked Limmer Castle and was repulsed. From 1194 to 1250 a branch of the Counts of Roden named themselves after their seat in Limmer, without the castle being named.
Historical descriptions
Although the exact location of the castle is no longer known and there are no remains, historical descriptions allow conclusions to be drawn about the complex. The mayor of Hanover, Christian Ulrich Grupen , drew a mound of earth on a map in his work Origines et antiqvitates Hanoverenses , published in 1740 , which was later identified as the castle stables of Limmer Castle. The hill marked on the map as Walberg within the Ernst-August Canal was in the Leinemasch, a lowland area of the Leine downstream from Hanover. There he was to the west of the southwest corner of the Herrenhausen Gardens and northeast of the village of Limmer.
The chronicler Johannes Letzner described Limmer Castle in the 16th century using inscriptions on heraldic shields in Marienwerder Abbey . Accordingly, it was the residence of Count Konrad von Roden and was on a small hill near Limmer. It is said to have consisted of a tower and a small house, which suggests an earlier moth . Similar facilities existed in the wider area with the Heeßel Castle , the Wölpe Castle and the Luccaburg .
examination
According to the description of Christian Ulrich Grupen, the mound of earth was excavated in front of the Ernst-August Canal in 1717 and examined more closely. The approximately one kilometer long body of water cut off an arm of the river Leine and served as a water supply for the water art in the Herrenhausen Gardens. The square mound had a side length of about 12 meters and was about 1.5 meters high. Originally, the elevation was probably higher and was eroded by floods from the Leine. When the mound was excavated, there were remains of masonry and a blackened plaster floor. Findings were crossbow bolts , bones, skulls , deer antlers, arrowheads , an ax and a grindstone. The most important finds were two ceramic vessels, by means of which the castle complex could be dated much later.
Research history
Christian Ulrich Grupen, who had described the mound of earth examined in 1717 with the finds in the ground in 1740, did not consider it to be the former castle of the Counts of Limmer, but rather a windmill hill . At that time, castles could only be imagined on mountains. Grupen held the found ceramic vessels for urns from cremation burials from prehistoric times. Only today did the drawing of a ball pot found in 1717 and almost 30 cm high allow a closer dating of Limmer Castle, according to which the vessel is considered to be medieval from around 1200. Also old were field names and names considered for the mound. Hesteberg, Walberg and Wallberg, similar to the Wallberg of the nearby Gernandesburg, have been handed down . These names were previously a widely used name for an artificial hill or a castle stable .
At the beginning of the 20th century, local researchers developed the thesis that the mound of earth examined in 1717 was merely a bailey . In their opinion, the main castle of the Counts of Rodenberg existed about 400 meters further in Limmer. There is an elevation on the edge of the Leineaue, on which the St. Nikolai Church can be found. Archaeological evidence for this assumption is not available. Under the influence of the prehistorian Carl Schuchhardt , local researchers in the 1930s ruled out a connection between the former mound in the Leineaue and the Counts of Limmer and saw it as a Saxon castle complex.
today
According to the theory set up at the beginning of the 20th century, there is a memorial stone at the St. Nikolai Church, which designates the site as the location of Limmer Castle of the Counts of Roden and reminds of the unsuccessful siege of 1189. On the other hand, the castle site is seen today in the mound of earth that was removed when the canal was built in 1717. This point is in the area of the Ernst-August-Kanal at the level of the alternative event location Musiktheater Bad . Before that, the Hanoverian swimming club from 1892 operated the HSV-Bad there , during the construction of which in 1937 the remains of the castle and a possible outer castle were possibly removed.
literature
- Christian Ulrich Grupen : Origines et antiqvitates Hanoverenses or complicated treatise on the origins and antiquities of the city of Hanover, in which with documents, seals and coppers the state of the city and the counties and rulers lying around, as well as monasteries, as well as many noble families to the Light is put and the German rights are explained. , Pp. 6, 7, ( online )
- Hans-Wilhelm Heine : The Limmer Castle. On the rediscovery of a high medieval castle in the Leinemasch (city of Hanover) In: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 3/1982, pp. 98-100
- Hans-Wilhelm Heine: The Limmer Castle - a high medieval low castle in the Leinemasch (City of Hanover) in News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory , 1981, Volume 50, pp. 185-198
- Helmut Knocke : Burg Limmer In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 100.
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann about Limmer Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Multi-part series of articles on the castle complex and its history
- Human skeletons, old vaulted cellars and magnificent castles: in the city of Hanover, six castles at myheimat once stood guard on November 4, 2011