Maienfels Castle

Maienfels Castle
General view of Maienfels Castle from the mountain side (2006)
Creation time :	1302
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Received or received substantial parts
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Place:	Maienfels
Geographical location	49 ° 7 '12 "  N , 9 ° 30' 43"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '12 "  N , 9 ° 30' 43"  E

The main entrance to the castle, once a suspension bridge

The Maienfels Castle is a hilltop castle on a promontory above the Brettachtal . It is located in the Maienfels suburb of the same name in the Wüstenrot municipality in the Heilbronn district in Baden-Württemberg .

history

Component finds suggest that the construction of Maienfels Castle began between 1230 and 1250. The castle complex appears for the first time in 1302 as the seat of a sideline of the Lords of Neudeck , who later called themselves von Maienfels. The members of this Ministerialengeschlecht were in the service of Hohenlohe and maintained close relations with the Swabians . At the end of the 14th century, the Neudecks sold the castle to Hohenlohe.

By 1426 negotiated truce agreement, the castle became the Ganerbenbesitz and Kunkellehen the Lords of Urbach, of Venningen , Sickingen and hamlets. The castle owners were seen as opponents of the surrounding imperial cities , and there were repeated conflicts with them. The imperial cities united under the leadership of Hall therefore besieged the castle for over three months in 1441 and razed a considerable part of the complex. After Weinsberg came to the Palatinate, the new families of Schott von Schottenstein , Rauch von Winnenden, von Validlingen , von Remchingen , von Freyberg and von Vellberg , some of whom came into the inheritance possession through the female lines of the previous castle owners, rebuilt the castle. In 1464 they gave the castle to the Count Palatine in order to be protected against the imperial cities. All six families lived in the castle, so that extensions within the castle walls were necessary in order to use it as an inheritance castle . This feudal lordship came to Württemberg in 1504 after Ulrich von Württemberg had conquered Weinsberg .

Eberhard von Gemmingen († 1501) married Magdalena von Adelsheim († 1516) in 1492, who after the death of her brothers acquired possession of a third of the Maienfels inheritance. The lords of Gemmingen received another third from the marriage of Eberhard's great-grandson Bernolph († 1609) to Anna von Grumbach († 1607). The last third was in the possession of the Lords of Weiler until the Gemmingen were able to acquire it in the 18th century. The Gemmingen-Maienfels sub-branch died out with Karl August Wilhelm von Gemmingen (1740–1799) in the male line and the castle went to the Gemmingen-Hornberg line, which no longer used the castle for residential purposes. Hans Dieter von Gemmingen (1902–1944) and his wife Martha (1902–1980) only inhabited the castle again after it was renovated in 1930 . Martha lived in the castle until the end of her life and her urn was also buried there.

On February 6, 1961, a rock slide occurred in which parts of the Burgberg massif slid onto the village of Maienfels below and caused some damage.

After Martha's death, Maienfels Castle was passed on to her brother-in-law Weiprecht von Gemmingen (1916–1987), who lived in the Kreuzle forester's lodge founded in Maienfels in 1811 . Since 1985 his son Udo von Gemmingen (* 1941) has been lord of the castle on Maienfels. In 1997 he founded the Maienfels Castle Foundation to preserve the building. Since then, the Hohenstaufen castle wall and the half-timbered tower have been restored, various buildings have been re-covered, and the outer bailey and stables have been refurbished. Since then, concerts have occasionally been held in the courtyard of the castle, and the Marstall provides the backdrop for wedding celebrations. The castle was named Monument of the Month for November 2007 by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation. In 2011, Udo von Gemmingen received the medal of honor from the municipality of Wüstenrot on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

investment

Maienfels Castle is a section castle where only one side has to be protected, the other sides are secured by steep slopes. A main building, the fortifications and a tower have been preserved from the castle. From the original substance from the High Middle Ages , the battlements and a discarder on the circular wall above the gate to the church have been preserved.

The castle is still in the family of the Lords of Gemmingen, who founded the non-profit Maienfels Castle Foundation in 1997 to maintain the complex, which is still used for residential purposes. The castle is a popular destination and can be visited by appointment.

Below the castle walls is the Protestant parish church of Maienfels, the place arose as a castle hamlet. Residential houses and a narrow street press against the castle walls, the former moat is now partially built over by residential buildings.

The corner tower of the castle is provided with a half-timbered tower. For a long time, the bells of the Protestant church below were located in it, which only received its current tower around 1920.

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  The Gemmingen'sche Palas

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  The inner courtyard of the main castle

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  Grave side from the gate to the north corner, residential building (Gemmingen'scher Palas)

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  Maienfels, seen from equals

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  View to Brettach from Maienfels Castle

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker: Family chronicle of the barons of Gemmingen. Heidelberg 1895, pp. 170-172.
2. ^ Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker: Family Chronicle of the Barons of Gemmingen, Heidelberg 1895, pp. 181-184.
3. ↑ Maienfels must live with the rock , in: Heilbronner Voice of November 21, 1961.
4. ↑ Heitland 1991, pp. 209-214.
5. ↑ Medal of Honor for the lord of the castle in Heilbronn's voice from May 14, 2011.

literature

• Monument Foundation Baden-Württemberg : humpback cuboid and half-timbered houses. Maienfels Castle in Wüstenrot. In: Monument Foundation Baden-Württemberg. No. 3, 2008, ZDB -ID 1127689-7 , pp. 1-2.
• Reinhold Bührlen: History of the family v. Gemmingen and its possessions. sn, Neckarzimmern 1977.
• Walther-Gerd Fleck: Maienfels Castle ( publications of the German Castle Association. Series D: European Castles and Palaces. Issue 5). European Castle Institute, Braubach 2004, ISBN 3-927558-22-2 .
• Maria Heitland: Family chronicle of the barons of Gemmingen. Continuation of the chronicles from 1895 and 1925/26 , Elztal 1991.

Web links

Commons : Maienfels Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files