Nideck Castle
| Nideck Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Unter-Nideck keep as seen from the waterfall |
||
| Alternative name (s): | Château du Nideck | |
| Creation time : | 13th Century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Oberhaslach | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 34 '48 " N , 7 ° 16' 59" E | |
| Height: | 550 m | |
|
||
The castle Nideck (French Château du Nideck ) is the ruin of a medieval hilltop castle in the Alsatian Vosges . It belongs to the municipality of Oberhaslach in the Bas-Rhin department .
location
The castle is located five kilometers northwest of Oberhaslach at an altitude of 550 meters on the slope of the Bärenberg on a steep rhyolite rock above the Hasel valley. Immediately below is the 25 meter high Nidecker waterfall (Cascade du Nideck) . The ruins can be reached via hiking trails from the Auberge Moosberg or from the Forsthaus Nideck (both on the D 218 Oberhaslach- Wangenbourg ).
history
Nideck is first mentioned on the seals of Burgrave Günther, a follower of the Bishop of Strasbourg , from the year 1262 (Purcravii Guntheri de Nideke) . A document from 1264 names a gentleman "Burchardi de Nidecke". In the first half of the 14th century, the Counts of Leiningen had a share in the castle, towards the end of the 14th century it was the inheritance of several Strasbourg nobility. In 1454, Nideck was conquered by Ludwig von Lichtenberg as the robber barons nest . After that, the castle disappears from the springs, presumably it was abandoned in the 15th century because of its remoteness.
investment
The complex consists of the two castles Ober- and Unter-Nideck. According to the building report, Ober-Nideck was built around 1200. Remains of the shield wall made of humpback ashlars , a residential tower and the surrounding walls have been preserved . After 1260, the burgraves built the early Gothic lower castle with the still preserved 20-meter-high square keep .
Fiction
Burg Nideck is best known in the German-speaking world for the legend of the giant toy handed down by the Brothers Grimm in 1816 , which inspired Adelbert von Chamisso to write the poem Das Riesenspielzeug : "Burg Niedeck is well-known to the legend in Alsace ..." A plaque placed above the tower entrance Vosges clubs reminds of the poet.
literature
- Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Vol. 2). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06635-9 , pp. 360–368.
- 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. 224-225.
