Niedeck Castle
| Niedeck Castle | ||
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 View from the north of the Alten Niedeck castle hill |
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| Alternative name (s): | Old Niedeck | |
| State : | Germany (DE) | |
| Location: | Benniehausen | |
| Creation time : | 13th Century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Parts of the fortification | |
| Standing position : | Nobility, duchy | |
| Geographical location: | 51 ° 30 ' N , 10 ° 4' E | |
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The castle Niedeck , even old Niedeck called, is a high medieval hilltop castle site in the north of the district Kronenberg Benniehausen the community peers in Lower Saxony Göttingen district . It is located in the district of Groß Lengden .
story
The origins of the castle on the "Alten Niedeck" are not entirely clear. Possibly it was created by the noble family of the Zähringer from southern Baden . According to the not always reliable chronicle of Johannes Letzner from 1601, an illegitimate son of the last Duke of Zähringen, Berthold V, named Otto , fled to the Count Palatine Heinrich , the son of Henry the Lion . Out of pity, he assigned him a place near Göttingen, where Niedeck Castle is said to have been founded around 1220. The Lords of Niedeck then descended from this Otto. Allegedly due to raids going out from the castle, it was conquered in 1318 by an army of the city of Göttingen and numerous allied cities. The Lords of Niedeck had to flee and their fiefdom was confiscated by the Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Around 1320, the castle is said to have been pledged to the Lords of Kerstlingerode by Duke Ernst I of Braunschweig-Göttingen . With a brief interruption, this family remained in lien ownership of the castle until 1592. However, shares in the castle were often pledged to other owners. The castle was also the seat of a bailiwick and a court. In 1592, the Lords of Veltheim became the last pledge owners of the castle. In 1616 the already dilapidated castle was abandoned and on the site of the deserted Rode underneath the castle an existing Vorwerk was expanded into the new official seat ("Neue Niedeck").
description
The castle is located on the very steep southern tip of the Kronenberg. The castle area forms a plateau of around 45 m × 30 m. The access road comes from the north up the eastern slope and turns at the southeast corner through the former gate onto the castle area. Except in the east there is a wall on the hilltop, which is only recognizable as a ledge in the west and south. On the less steep slopes in the north-west and north, the wall has an interior ditch . An inner wall with a shallow ditch can also be seen on the north side. Only the very restless relief in the interior bears witness to the former development .
In the east there is an elongated terrace on which the buildings of the outer bailey apparently stood. The fortifications of the outer bailey, which are only partially preserved, consist of ramparts and ditches and extend about 100 m from the eastern slope of the main bailey to the south. In the north it also secures the castle against the mountain saddle.
literature
- Heinrich Lücke: Castles, official seats and manors around Göttingen. Clausthal-Zellerfeld 1969², pp. 266-273.
- Wolfgang Ollrog: The residents of the castle and the Niedeck court yard over the centuries. In: Göttinger Jahrbuch. Volume 11, 1963, pp. 145-186.
- Helge bei der Wieden : Niedeck Castle near Göttingen as the foundation of a Zähringer. In: Göttinger Jahrbuch. Volume 13, 1965, pp. 77-83.
- Hans-Wilhelm Heine : The "Alte Niedeck" ... not in Alsace: a hidden castle in the Göttingen district. In: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony. Volume 27, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 72-74.
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann zu Niedeck near Groß-Lengden in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute, accessed on July 29, 2021.
- "Alte Niedeck" , data sheet in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas