Mörsberg Castle
| Mörsberg Castle | ||
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| Alternative name (s): | Château de Morimont, Mörsperg | |
| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | limestone | |
| Place: | Oberlarg | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 26 '44 " N , 7 ° 12' 51" E | |
| Height: | 532 m | |
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The castle Mörsberg ( French Château de Morimont ) is the ruins of a hilltop castle in southern Alsace ( Sundgau ), between the French municipalities Oberlarg and Levoncourt is located in the French-Swiss border. Since October 1, 1841 it stands as monument historique under monument protection .
The German name Mörsberg and the French variant Morimont came up around the same time shortly after the castle was built in the 12th century and are still used today.
location
The ruins of the Spornburg are located on a 532 meter high mountain spur and are about 1.5 kilometers west of Oberlarg, to whose parish they belong today. Its location on the northwestern foothills of the Jura , about 40 kilometers southwest of Mulhouse and 45 kilometers west of Basel , makes it the southernmost castle ruin in Alsace.
The ruin is accessed from Oberlarg via a field path that leads along an estate and an inn, where the location of an older castle complex is assumed, to the remains of the former gatehouse and from there directly to the castle complex.
history
The castle in the Middle Ages
The exact time when the castle was built is not known. Most likely, the castle building began in the middle of the 12th century by Adalbert von Mörsberg, a member of a local aristocratic family who served the Counts of Pfirt as ministerials and named themselves after their ancestral seat of Mörsberg. The existence of an older system, which is said to have been built in the area as early as the 8th century, is suspected, but cannot be clearly proven.
The first documented mention of the Lords of Mörsberg comes from the year 1183, when the Bishop of Basel decided a legal dispute between Lütfried von Pfirt, Ulrich von Butingen and Heinricus and Walterus de Morsberc. The castle itself is mentioned for the first time as a Pfirtisches feud in documents from 1241 and 1243 . There is another mention in the sources from the year 1271, when the rule of Pfirt was sold to the Bishop of Basel. The Lords of Morimont found new feudal lords with the death of the last Count of Pfirt in 1324, whose inheritance, including Morimont Castle, passed to the Habsburgs . This fiefdom was renewed until the 16th century.
In 1356 Mörsberg, like many other castles in the region, was badly damaged in the Basel earthquake and had to be rebuilt. Further devastating destruction was carried out by federal troops in the campaigns of 1445 and 1468 through the Sundgau, when Peter von Mörsberg turned against the Swiss on the Austrian side.
Fortress and castle from the Renaissance
From the middle of the 15th century, the Lords of Mörsberg achieved considerable financial prosperity through pledged fiefdoms and rose as Upper Austrian , later as imperial governors and through marriage policy also politically. In 1488, lord of the castle Caspar von Morimont was even made a baron by Emperor Friedrich III. raised. Presumably favored by the financial situation of the lords of the castle, extensive renovations and reconstructions have been carried out on the medieval castle complex since the beginning of the 16th century , which are exemplary of the fortress construction in the Renaissance .
In particular, the mighty rondels , which were built along the masonry in a strategically favorable location on the north, west and south sides, clearly illustrate the adaptation of the defenses to the warfare with gunpowder artillery and small arms that was prevalent in Europe at this time . The actual defense value of the facilities can, however, be questioned, since the vulnerable location of the castle on the mountain spur also proved to be a weak point from this time on.
In addition to the military expansions, the original castle was also converted into a castle-like complex, which, in addition to its military character, also served as a contemporary representation. The chronicle Miscellanea Luciscellensia from the middle of the 18th century provides information about the northern facade, which is decorated with sculptures , and the splendid furnishings .
In the second half of the 16th century the prosperity of the Mörsberger dwindled again. Probably to settle debts, they sold the castle in 1582 to the Spanish-born noble family of Ortenburg-Salamanca, from whose ranks Gabriel von Salamanca-Ortenburg , treasurer general and court chancellor of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria , came. During the Thirty Years War , the facility was occupied by French troops. In 1637 it was set on fire by them and destroyed in the process. There was no more reconstruction. In 1659, the area around the ruins was transferred by King Louis XIV to Robert de Vignacourt , who had an estate and an inn built there, which are still preserved today. Around 1670, Count Friedrich von Ahlefeldt acquired the rule. After the French Revolution , the castle was completely abandoned and parts of the masonry removed.
In 1789 the ruins and one of the associated farms passed to the Bruat family, and from them to the family of M. Meyer in Geneva, who were named as owners in 1866.
In July 1826, the Swiss Jura patriots Xavier Stockmar , Louis Quiquerez and Olivier Seuret gathered in the cellar vault of the ruin and took the “Oath of Morimont” to strive for independence for the Jura of Bern. The actual separation of the canton of Jura from Bern did not take place until more than 150 years later on January 1, 1979. This event is now indicated by a sign on the castle rock.
The recording and restoration of the castle complex began in 1864 by the Swiss local historian Auguste Quiquerez.
description
The ruin, surrounded by several moats , can be divided into an upper castle and a lower castle . As upper castle in sources and literature built on the southeastern rock head dungeon called that dominates the rest of the castle, and probably represents the oldest preserved part of the plant. From what was once around 16 meters high, only remains of the foundation walls and window holes can be seen today, which are no longer accessible to visitors.
The rest of the castle complex, known as the lower castle , is also in a dilapidated state. In addition to the war damage, this is also due to the building material, since mainly Jurassic limestone was used, which corroded over time due to the weather conditions . The ruin was also used as a quarry at times.
However, due to the restoration and maintenance work carried out since the mid-19th century until today, large parts of the original complex have been preserved, while others have been replaced by renovation work . These include the main portal with its advanced fortifications and a total of seven round towers , which encompass the castle on the southern, western and northern sides, while the eastern side was protected by the artificially smoothed rock layer. With a diameter of 18 meters and a wall thickness of about six meters, the north-east roundabout is the most powerful tower in the entire castle complex. An exception to the roundels built in the 16th century is the south-western shell tower , which was probably built in the 15th century and has an octagonal floor plan.
A special feature of the castles in Alsace is the well-preserved cellar vault, which extends over 50 meters in length and runs under the former residential buildings of the complex from the north-east to the north-west roundabout.
In the inner courtyard, in addition to the pentagonal stair tower , which served as a stairway to the southern residential wing, only a few remains of the walls of commercial and residential buildings from the 16th century have been preserved. In addition, there are the remains of a draw well and the structures of the light shafts of the cellar vault. Only in a few places, such as the underside of the inner archway, are traces of the once abundant decorations on the masonry and the roundels.
Remains of the largest roundabout on the northeast flank
The cellar vault below the ruin
Main gate with a defense system in front
Roundabout on the west side
literature
- Thomas Biller: Mörsberg / Morimont in Sundgau. The end of the castle building between symbolism and function. In: Actes du colloque international tenu a Komburg bei Schwäbisch Hall (Allemagne), août 26 - September 1st 1990. (= Château Gaillard. Etudes de castellologie médiévale. ) Center de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Médiévales, Caen 1992, ISBN 2-902685- 02-5 , pp. 33-44 ( PDF ; 1.2 MB).
- Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: Mörsberg / Morimont. The “oldest” and youngest castle in Alsace. In: Cahiers alsaciens d'archéologie, d'art et d'histoire. Vol. 32, 1989, ISSN 0575-0385 , pp. 257-284 ( PDF ; 3.2 MB).
- 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. 216-217.
- Werner Meyer : Castles from A to Z. Burgenlexikon der Regio . Klingental, Basel 1981, pp. 60-62.
- Roland Recht (Ed.): Le Guide des Châteaux de France. Haut-Rhin . Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-025-5 , pp. 104-109.
- Charles-Laurent Salch: Dictionnaire des Châteaux de l'Alsace Médiévale . Publitotal, Strasbourg 1978, pp. 213-215.
- Charles-Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace . Alsatia, Strasbourg 1991, ISBN 2-7032-0193-1 , pp. 205-210.
- Paul Stintzi: Mörsperg (Morimont). The castle and its masters . Sundgau Association Publishing House, Guebwiller 1939.
- Felix Wolff: Alsatian Castle Lexicon. Directory of castles and chateaus in Alsace . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, pp. 225-228.
Web links
- Mörsberg Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Jean-Marie Nick: Le château de Morimont. - La plus belle cave voûtée castrale alsacienne ... (French)
- Veronika Feller-Vest: Mörsberg, from. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ^ Mörsberg Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ C.-L. Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace , p. 205.
- ^ F. Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon , p. 226.
- ^ T. Biller: Mörsberg / Morimont im Sundgau , p. 35.
- ↑ Veronika Feller-Vest: Mörsberg, from. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ^ W. Meyer: Burgenlexikon der Regio , p. 60.
- ^ T. Biller, B. Metz: Mörsberg / Morimont, Burg im Elsass , p. 258.
- ^ W. Meyer: Burgenlexikon der Regio , p. 61.
- ^ Entry in the Regesta Imperii
- ^ T. Biller: Mörsberg / Morimont im Sundgau , pp. 36–37.
- ↑ T. Biller: Mörsberg / Morimont in Sundgau , pp. 37-38.
- ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: Mörsberg / Morimont, Burg im Elsass , p. 263.
- ↑ Article in Google Books , Quiquerez, Auguste: Morimont (Haut-Rhin, près d'Oberlarg) , Impr.Berger-Levrault, 1866 - 19 pages (page 5, accessed on September 3, 2016)
- ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: Mörsberg / Morimont, Burg im Elsass , pp. 263–264.
- ^ T. Biller: Mörsberg / Morimont im Sundgau , p. 35.
- ^ T. Biller, B. Metz: Mörsberg / Morimont, Burg im Elsass , pp. 263–269.