Mole Castle

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Mole Castle
Part of the west wall of the residential tower (uncovered during the archaeological excavation in 2008)

Part of the west wall of the residential tower (uncovered during the archaeological excavation in 2008)

Alternative name (s): Mule, Mulen, Molen, Mole Castle; also hell tower, hell castle
Creation time : High medieval
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Burgstall, foundation walls
Standing position : Lower nobility
Construction: Sandstone
Place: Heimbuchenthal
Geographical location 49 ° 52 '12.8 "  N , 9 ° 17' 19.9"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 52 '12.8 "  N , 9 ° 17' 19.9"  E
Height: 205  m above sea level NHN
Mole Castle (Bavaria)
Mole Castle
Foundation for a latrine built on the inside of the northern curtain wall (uncovered during the archaeological excavation in 2008)

The castle Mole , also Molen called, is a Outbound high medieval moated castle of the type of tower castle or a celebrations house in Elsavatal south of Heimbuchenthal in the district of Aschaffenburg in Bavaria .

The Burgstall is a ground monument according to the Bavarian Monument List , which was created on the basis of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act of October 1, 1973.

location

The Burgstall "Mole" is located in the southwestern part of the Spessart , in the Elsava Valley between the village of Heimbuchenthal and Hobbach . The castle grounds are located immediately north of the former iron hammer "Höllhammer". The Postal is on the municipal area of the municipality Heimbuchenthal, east of the Bavarian State Road 2308, and the Elsava was built near the west side of the valley. From 1910 to 1968 the Spessart Railway passed the Burgstelle on the Heimbuchenthal - Obernburg route .

geology

The Postal is located in the clay Auengrund the north-south running Elsava which a sandy here alluvial fan of coming from the western slope cherry trench is superimposed. The relatively narrow valley is constrained by the sandstone heights (east the church height at 355.4 m above sea level, northwest the Eichelsberg at 425.6 m above sea level and southwest of the Höllenberg at 411 m above sea level) of the Spessart. A few hundred meters south of the former Höllenhammer , the Dammbach flows from the east into the Elsava, which flows from here in a now wider valley floor to the southwest towards Eschau , where the Sommerau moated castle can still be seen, a moated castle similar to the past.

history

Mole Castle is probably the Hell Tower, which was demolished in 1851 and the stone material of which was used for road construction. 2008–2009 two excavation campaigns took place through a joint project of the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Heimbuchenthal , the community Heimbuchenthal and the Archaeological Spessart project with significant funding from the Lower Franconia administrative district .

Ceramics, which are assigned to a predecessor wooden castle in front of the residential tower, can be assigned to the end of the 13th century in analogy to the old castle in Kleinwallstadt , which is associated with a document from Archbishop of Mainz Werner von Eppstein in Heimbuchenthal from August 16, 1282, in which this decides in a legal dispute between a Frankfurt mayor Heinrich and the Stiftskapitel von Frankfurt, and from which it is deduced that the archbishop stayed on the "Mole" during his visit to Heimbuchenthal and that the certificate was made here.

The "Mole" castle itself is mentioned for the first time in a sales deed of May 10, 1363, in which the owner of the "Mole", Rudolph von der Mulen , sold the castle complex to Gerhusin Frischenbeckin . On February 22nd, 1383, the Aschaffenburg Vice-Cathedral Eberhard von Fechenbach acquired the “pier” along with all of its surrounding properties. Between 1383 and 1423 the castle came into the possession of the forester Henne von Gelnhausen , because he sold it on August 23, 1423 to the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad III. from Dhaun . His successor, Archbishop Dietrich Schenk von Erbach , enfeoffed Hans von Hettersdorf with the castle on December 29, 1434 . It is possible that he already had it from his predecessor Konrad III in 1430. got from Dhaun. In return, Hans von Hettersdorf had to undertake to serve the archbishop with three horses. On February 28, 1438 the loan was renewed. This new loan ended disputes between the Archbishop and Lord von Hettersdorf, during which the Mainz team had the house on the "Mole" almost completely demolished and brought to Steinheim near Hanau (presumably to expand Steinheim Castle ) that only a few years earlier 1425 his predecessor Archbishop Konrad III. from Dhaun. Finds of a niche tiled stove , the remains of which are dated to around 1400 and resemble those found on Tannenberg Castle near Seeheim-Jugenheim an der Bergstrasse , which was destroyed in 1399 , as well as remains of a figure of a saint (around 1430 in the Lake Constance area, probably from Constance), prove that the Plant was inhabited until the 15th century.

Hell's hammer to the south

An archaeological stroke of luck was the way the inventory and castle were relocated at the turn of 1437/38. Before the beams were removed, the tiled roof and the compartments filled with clay were thrown into the courtyard, where the medieval rubble piled up to a height of half a meter as the youngest layer during the excavation in 2009 and was excavated.

In 1443 the castle, now only known as the "Mole" location, changed hands again. Andreas von Karbach bought the castle or its remains on October 23 from Hans von Hettersdorf. His widow Else von Aulenbach married Leonhard Kottwitz von Aulenbach for the second time and the "Mole" passed into his possession. He sold the system to Hamann Echter von Mespelbrunn around 1459 . The so-called Mole remained in the possession of this family until the end of the 17th century and, after it died out in the male line in 1655, with its successors, the Counts of Ingelheim called Echter von und zu Mespelbrunn .

However, it is already marked on the Spessart map by Paul Pfinzing in 1562 (template) / 1594 (publication) between the mill to the south and the northern Hainbüchetal as " old Broken Castle " and ruin .

In 1686, Maria Ottilie Freifrau von Ingelheim called Echter von und zu Mespelbrunn, sold the "ruined castle seat, which is called Altmühl, not other than an old, derelict, ... situated in the valley is" again to her relative, the Archbishop of Mainz Anselm Franz von Ingelheim , in exchange for a property in Wintersbach . Since 1702, the Eisenhammer Höllenhammer , located south of the castle complex , was built, a hammer driven by a water wheel for forging simple iron parts, which was acquired by Johann Ludwig Rexroth on December 6, 1794 , can be assumed that also stones for the last foundation walls for the expansion of the iron hammer were used. Representations from 1820 to 1835 show that there were still ruins of the castle with a pond to the north.

A more extensive account of the “Mole” dates from 1833: “ Not far from the Hellhammer to the north, in the middle of the valley, there is an old, partly dilapidated, square wall 130 feet in circumference, with walls 5 feet thick, 3 stories high, which is from a walled courtyard and a moat , the width of which can no longer be specified, was included. “ Assuming the dimensions of Aschaffenburg , these data can be used to calculate a circumference of 37.765 m for the ruin of the residential tower, which is in very good agreement with the excavated foundations of around 35.2 m. Walls 5 feet thick would correspond to 1.452 m and fit very well with the found approximately 1.3 m thick foundations. The knowledge of the Burgstall seems to have already completely died out in the region. The author adds that “ nothing specific can be given about the actual purpose of these buildings (…) .” The complex was placed in Roman times and interpreted as a supply base for the Roman troops in the Odenwald . There are illegal excavations mentioned, however, except for " some (s) bundle (s) Arrows (s) and many (n) human bones of unusual size were" without further discoveries.

With the expansion of the road network in the Elsavatal (route from Heimbuchenthal to Obernburg am Main ) in 1851, the last remains of the "pier" on private property were removed. The last remains of the moat were filled in, the ground leveled and used as pastureland . Finally, in the 1990s, the sediments of the neighboring pond to the south were spread over the castle stables and the ground level was raised another 1.50 m above the remains of the foundation wall. Until then, the foundations of the residential tower were only just below the top of the humus and could still be recognized in summer by changed vegetation .

description

Overview of the excavations in summer 2008 in the narrow Elsava valley

The description of the complex is essentially based on the findings of the excavations in 2008 and 2009. Nine time periods can be divided, whereby periods two to six can be directly assigned to the castle:

  1. An Iron Age pre-settlement of the alluvial fan of the "Kirchgraben" moat directly north of the castle site
  2. For the first time there is a high medieval , wooden front building, which can only be assumed to be a moth , from around 1260 to around 1290 and the demolition of the same proved by an excavated layer of fire
  3. The establishment of the late medieval castle as a simple almost square Wasserburg with a special drainage system for drainage and consolidation of the ground, stone foundations, an upstream protection wall and the installation of the residential tower from around 1330/1340
  4. An expansion and renovation phase, characterized by the construction of a supporting vault in front of the western curtain wall , a reinforcement in front of the northeast corner of the circular wall and the installation of a circumferential, peripheral internal development with latrine and paved stable around 1400
  5. Abandonment of the moat soon after 1400
  6. The systematic abandonment of the castle, along with the removal of the wooden upper floors and inventory of the residential tower in 1437/1438
  7. The demolition of the curtain wall in the course of the expansion and construction of the “Höllhammer” towards the end of the 17th century
  8. The remaining landscape mark of the ruin of the residential tower is completely removed around 1851
  9. The sediments of the pond adjoining it to the south were deposited up to around 1995 at a height of plus 1.50 to the original level of the river floodplain of the Elsava valley
The Feste Haus Ransbach in Hessenpark, an example of the residential tower on the pier

On the 410 m 2 castle site there was a 9.30 m by 8.30 m residential tower in the foundation walls and at least the first floor made of sandstone on the half-timbered floors, surrounded by a wall . Today only underground foundation walls are preserved, which are up to 1.30 m thick. The foundations of the tower itself were sunk about half a meter into the alluvial land and filled with a one meter thick layer of sandstone as drainage. Around 1400 a clay pack interspersed with bricks and hollow bricks was put in to dry out the foundation walls . No humpback cubes were found on the tower, and tower installations could no longer be detected. The discovery of a roughly hewn corbel refers to supports for higher floors. The Feste Haus from Ransbach , as it has been preserved in Hessenpark , gives a good comparison . However, no remains of vaults were found in the pier. The peculiarity of the viscous alluvial clay points to the fact that there was not much more than one more storey made of sandstone , as confirmed by the remains of images on a preserved pipe bowl by Mole and Höllhammer from around 1820 to 1830. The sandstones could be assigned to nearby quarries on the heights to the left and right of the Elsava valley. Found mortar shows that the tower was largely plastered.

The surrounding curtain wall, which was founded 1.50 m deeper than the tower foundation, has interesting aspects. During the renovations around 1400 at the latest, it was stabilized at the corners by expanded supports or cantilevers and reinforced in the wall area of ​​the slightly longer north-south sides by several supporting pillars, which were partly added when the circular wall was built and partly later for reinforcement. Tower and wall are slightly twisted to each other. A rectangular well-like shaft in the middle of the northern castle wall, referred to as a latrine, is part of the expansion. In the southeast corner, the foundations of a building named as a stable ( horseshoe finds ) could be excavated, which was laid out with stone slabs and had a size of five by four meters.

To the south of the castle wall was a wide dam, which is thought to be the entrance to the castle via the moat to the south. At the south-western end of the dam, a dyke line was found that could be closed by a so-called “monk” and that regulated the water level in the moat. The bottom of the moat could be detected at a depth of about 2.30 m.

High-quality finds, such as the remains of a niche tiled stove, remains of glass, remains of an engobed Dieburger jug with a slim foot, remains of a Siegburg funnel cup, belt trimmings, remains of ceramic tiles and saints figurines and, last but not least , remains of cinder from iron smelting show the lifestyle in the castle towards the end of the 14th century. The end of the first boom of lawn iron ore and glass smelting in the Spessart, known severe weather events that hit the Spessart hard in the middle of the 14th century due to almost complete deforestation and led to the sinking of the castle complex in the alluvial valley of the Elsava , which could not be prevented despite renovation measures Century to a complete abandonment and dismantling of the castle, which in terms of fortification in the Elsava part can only be regarded as a dam and customs office in Mainz .

Todays use

The area was backfilled after the excavations, is on private property and cannot be entered. As part of the European Heimbuchenthal cultural trail "Between Heaven & Hell" of around eleven kilometers in two loops (five or six kilometers), the Burgstall is also explained on panel 6 in the south loop.

Say

Three legends from the Spessart are associated with Mole Castle, sometimes also called Hell Tower or Hell Castle . The owners are mostly seen as robber barons or evil knights, who are said to have been competitors of the Spessart lords, the Counts of Rieneck . In addition, relationships with the moated castle Oberaulenbach (underground passage) and the Rieneck castle Wildenstein are named.

literature

  • Manfred Aulbach: From the beginnings to the High Middle Ages, In: Karlheinz Bachmann (ed.): Heimbuchenthaler Geschichtsbuch 1282-1982 , Goldbach 1982, pp. 18–50
  • Harald Rosmanitz: The Burgstall Mole in Heimbuchenthal , In: The archaeological year in Bavaria (2008), pp. 161-163
  • Harald Rosmanitz: The Niederungsburg "Mole" near Heimbuchenthal in Spessart , In: Georg Ulrich Großmann (Hrsg.): The castle at the time of the Renaissance, research on castles and palaces , Volume 13, Berlin, Munich 2010, pp. 227-240 ( Revised and supplemented in 2015)
  • Friedrich Schunder: The Rexroth Story. Hammering, casting, moving 1795-1995 , Lohr am Main 1995,
  • Technical article in the online journal for medieval research VZG - Concilium medii aevi : (Volume 14, 2011): Harald Rosmanitz: The castle project in the Spessart - scientists an volunteers explore a cultural landscape (PDF format 1.724 MB), Papers by the International conference “Lordship and Castle Landscapes - Franconian and international studies in comparison”

Older literature

  • Adalbert von Herrlein: The Hell Tower. In: Aschaffenburg and its surroundings - A manual for foreigners , Aschaffenburg 1857, p. 99 f.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heimbuchenthal monument list of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation , No. D-6-6121-0094, underground components of the fortified early modern manor "Höllengut" with the medieval castle "Zur Mole" as a predecessor , re-qualified (as of August 13, 2016)
  2. ↑ The pier near Heimbuchenthal. A moated castle in the middle of the Spessart on www.spessartprojekt.de ; accessed again on April 18, 2018
  3. ↑ a b M. Aulbach: in Heimbuchenthaler Geschichtsbuch 1282-1982 , p. 32/33
  4. ^ Wolfgang Voss: Dietrich von Erbach, Archbishop of Mainz (1434-1459). Studies on imperial, church and state politics as well as on the archbishop's councils. Sources and treatises on the Middle Rhine church history . Vol. 112, Mainz 2004, p. 30
  5. ↑ a b Mole and Höllhammer Castle - From Aristocratic Seats to Early Industrialization , Spessart Kulturweg Heimbuchenthal, panel 6, accessed on November 14, 2016
  6. ↑ a b Friedrich Schunder: The Rexroth story. Hammern, Gießen, Bewegen 1795-1995 , Lohr am Main 1995, pp. 19-21
  7. ↑ a b c Mangold: Brief topographical description of the Hellhammer and its immediate surroundings , archive of the historical association for the Untermainkreis, Volume 1/3, Aschaffenburg 1833, p. 143 f.
  8. ↑ Harald Rosmanitz: The Burgstall Mole in Heimbuchenthal
  9. ^ Entry on Mole Castle in the private database "Alle Burgen".
  10. ^ The history of the Niederungsburg “Mole” near Heimbuchenthal , ASP webpage, accessed on November 14, 2016
  11. ↑ “Between Heaven & Hell” website on the European cultural path at www.spessartprojekt.de , accessed on November 16
  12. ↑ The pier. Legends : The Höllenturm in Spessart , The Schellenberg and Höllenturm and Himmeltal with comments on real history, at www.spessartprojekt.de ; Retrieved November 9, 2016, retrieved April 18, 2018