Montfort Castle (Palatinate)

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Montfort Castle
Montfort2.jpg
Creation time : around 1240
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Place: Hallgarten
Geographical location 49 ° 45 '55.5 "  N , 7 ° 46' 2.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 45 '55.5 "  N , 7 ° 46' 2.5"  E
Height: 280  m above sea level NN
Montfort Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Montfort Castle

The Montfort Castle is the ruin of a Spur castle three kilometers northwest of the community Hallgarten in the district of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate . The ruin lies between Hallgarten and Duchroth at 280  m above sea level. NN high knoll in the middle of a forest.

history

The castle was built around 1240 to monitor a nearby military road by the Counts of Veldenz , who appointed Eberhard von Lautern as a lieutenant .

Until 1432 the castle remained in the possession of the von Lautern family, who from 1247 had been called "von Montfort".

In the 15th century, the residents of the Ganerbeburg temporarily acted as robber barons . In 1456 the troops of Mainz Archbishop Diether von Mainz and Elector Friedrich I of the Palatinate captured the castle complex and destroyed it.

In 1480, Simon Boos von Waldeck received the castle as an inheritance, with permission to rebuild it. The Boos von Waldeck family, from the Waldeck Castle of the same name in the Hunsrück region, had been part of Montfort Castle since the end of the 14th century.

Although there are some signs of a reconstruction of one of the residential towers , Montfort remained as a ruin for many centuries. For many years the ruin was divided between four private forest owners and local residents. According to certain safety-related requirements of the supervisory authority, the Bad Kreuznach district took over the ruins in 1969, had them secured and renovated.

Today you can visit the castle ruins of Montfort free of charge.

investment

Floor plan sketch

Thanks to extensive renovation work, today's castle complex essentially shows the state after the destruction and provides a clear picture of a medieval castle, the image of which was not changed in later times by modernization or reinforcement structures.

Remains of the walls of the outer bailey , the kennel , the gatehouse outer bailey, as well as the gate of the upper castle , the Bering , the hull of the keep (accessible), the two residential towers up to the level of the third floor, the foundation walls of the fountain house, the kemenaten are still standing from the ruins and the stables.

The castle museum shows the remains of architectural parts of the medieval building and a reconstruction model of Montfort Castle in a lapidarium . The museum also presents archaeological finds from the castle ruins, such as ceramics , glass and iron .

The approximately 9 m high hull of the keep is secured at the top with a metal parapet and is accessible as a lookout point . Access is within the residential and defense tower via a 34-step metal spiral staircase and via the outer wall of the core castle to the keep. From here you have a good view of the castle complex and the surrounding area.

literature

  • Alexander Thon: ... umb sunderlichen peace, pious and need of the land. Siege and fall of Palatinate-Alsatian castles in the Middle Ages . In: Olaf Wagner, Heiko Laß (Hrsg.): ... threw down stones / grôze and niht small ... sieges and siege systems in the Middle Ages . Supplements to Mediaevistik, No. 7. Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2006, pp. 241-268, here pp. 81-88. ISBN 3-631-55467-2 .
  • Alexander Thon (Ed.): How swallow nests glued to the rock. Castles in the Northern Palatinate . 1st edition Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2005, pp. 100-105, ISBN 3-7954-1674-4 .

Web links

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