Ochsenstein Castle

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Ochsenstein Castle
South wall of the outer bailey of Groß-Ochsenstein

South wall of the outer bailey of Groß-Ochsenstein

Castle type : Rock castle
Geographical location 48 ° 40 '58.4 "  N , 7 ° 17' 59.1"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 40 '58.4 "  N , 7 ° 17' 59.1"  E
Ochsenstein Castle (Bas-Rhin department)
Ochsenstein Castle

The Ochsenstein Castle ( French Château d'Ochsenstein ) is an Alsatian rock castle , which is located in the municipality of Reinhardsmunster . It consists of the three individual, directly adjacent plants Groß-Ochsenstein (also Great Castle , French Grand Ochsenstein ), Klein-Ochsenstein (also Small Castle , French Petit Ochsenstein ) and Wachelheim ( French Château de Wachelheim ). The castle was the ancestral seat of the Alsatian noble family of the same name , who founded the Ochsenstein rule in the Middle Ages .

The Ochsensteiners built their castle on three typical regional rocks made of red sandstone . The upper castle of Groß-Ochsenstein dates from the first half of the 13th century, while Klein-Ochsenstein could possibly have existed as the seat of the bailiffs of Wasselnheim as early as the second half of the 12th century. In the course of its history, it was partially destroyed twice during sieges and then rebuilt. A fire in the 16th century damaged the castle so badly that it was not rebuilt. The entire complex is now in ruins and has been under monument protection as a monument historique since December 6, 1898 . It is free and freely accessible to visitors.

location

The castle is located in the municipality of Reinhardsmunster in the northern Vosges and is there at the southern end of the 584 meter high Schlossberg . In contrast to most of the other hilltop castles in the Vosges, it is not located on the eastern edge of the mountains, but about one kilometer further to the west. From there the view extends as far as the Lorraine plain and the Dagsburg castle hill . The Ochsenstein facility was probably on a much-used route to Dagsburg, about 5.5 kilometers away, which was one of the most important high aristocratic castles in the Vosges.

history

Ochsensteiner

The castle hill was already settled in prehistoric times, but it was not until 1186 that the name "Ochsenstein" appeared in writing for the first time with Otto I. von Ochsenstein, Otto von Geroldseck's son . Because the family name is mentioned, it can be assumed that Ochsenstein Castle already existed at that time and was built by the von Geroldseck family. When Otto I fell ill in 1217, he settled his estate and divided the property between his three sons. The corresponding document proves that there was already more than one complex on the castle hill at that time. Otto's eldest, Otto II, received the southern rock and the large ox stone on it. The son Eberhard was awarded the castle house ( domus ) of the bailiffs of Wasselnheim, which was probably located on the middle rock. However, Eberhard never used this as a residence, but moved into Greifenstein Castle , which is six kilometers further north near Saverne , after the likely early death of his youngest brother Conrad .

When Otto II. In 1240 Kunigunde von Habsburg , the sister of the late King Rudolf I , married, the rise of ox Steiner began one of the most important noble families of the Lower Rhine . Otto II. And Kunigundes firstborn son Otto III. accompanied his royal uncle on military expeditions and ventures, especially in Bohemia . In gratitude for his loyalty and loyalty, Rudolf I appointed him governor ( French bailli provincial ) in Alsace and Breisgau .

In 1284 part of the castle was besieged, captured and destroyed. Certainly it was Klein-Ochsenstein and possibly also the northern part of the complex. In fact, it was probably the case that Klein-Ochsenstein was in the possession of the Vögte von Wasselnheim, the followers of Friedrich III. , Duke of Lorraine . This was in conflict with the Strasbourg bishop Konrad III. von Lichtenberg , with Otto III. von Ochsenstein was related and allied. Otto III left the destroyed buildings. then rebuild.

After the death of Rudolph I, he was confirmed as governor by his successor, Adolf von Nassau . Otto IV von Ochsenstein also held this office from 1315. At his death in 1327 he was inherited by Otto V. His three children fought over the inheritance after his death. A court of arbitration finally gave Ochsenstein to the Otto VI brothers. and Rudolph too. Her sister had to give up the claims she had made on Ochsenstein. Otto VI. entrusted his castle to the bishop of Metz in 1378 as a fief . His family no longer used the complex as a residence at that time, which is why it was only inhabited by Burgmanns . In the period that followed, it was used as a pledge on several occasions, and the maintenance of the buildings was severely neglected. In 1382 Klein-Ochsenstein was destroyed again in its history. Rudolph II von Ochsenstein was in dispute with the city of Strasbourg, whose troops besieged Klein-Ochsenstein, took it and let it drag . It was rebuilt by 1393 at the latest, because a truce was concluded for it in that year .

In 1391 the Ochsensteiners sold a quarter of their castle to the Count Palatine Ruprecht II. With that they began to open the complex piece by piece to strangers or to sell it to them. One reason for this was probably the gradual, social decline of the Lords of Ochsenstein since the House of Habsburg no longer provided the German kings. As a result, the family came under the protectorate of the Electors of the Palatinate during the 15th century . In a dispute between Friedrich von Ochsenstein, a son of Rudolph II, and the margrave of Baden , Bernhard I , the latter took Ochsenstein Castle. He received a 1407 Erb opening right and Friedrich von Ochsenstein joined Bernard and his son James I half of the castle for life, and entered into a truce with them. 1410 pledged Otto VI. part of the Ochsenstein castle for 1000  guilders to the Strasbourg bishop Wilhelm II of Diest . In 1411 Friedrich's brother, Volmar, confirmed the truce with the Margrave of Baden and at the same time granted Ludwig IV von Lichteneck the right to open his castle.

After his death in 1426, the property came from Volmar von Ochsenstein to his then underage son Georg, who died as the last male Ochsensteiner in 1485.

Zweibrücken-Bitsch

The castle then passed on to Georg's nephew Heinrich II von Zweibrücken-Bitsch as heir to Georg's sister Kunigunde, who married Heinrich I von Zweibrücken-Bitsch .

His son Georg pledged the meanwhile run-down facility to Ulrich von Rathsamhausen in 1527 for 2,800 guilders . He had construction work carried out on the facility until 1553. Under him, for example, an old tower was torn down and replaced by a new building, and renovations were made to the castle gate and stables. Ulrich invested a total of over 4,000 guilders. Through his daughter Anne, Ochsenstein Castle came to the family of her husband, Sebastian von Landsberg . Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch redeemed the facility from him and had Groß-Ochsenstein rebuilt by 1559. However, the complex burned down in the winter of 1559 and has been in ruins ever since .

Hanau-Lichtenberg

In 1570 there was another inheritance that brought Ochsenstein Castle to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg : Count Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1510; † 1570) and his brother Simon V. Wecker , who died in 1540, each left only one daughter as heir. Count Jakob's daughter, Margarethe (* 1540; † 1569), was married to Philipp V von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1541; † 1599). The inheritance resulting from this constellation also included the rule and castle Ochsenstein. In the administrative structure of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg, Ochsenstein Castle was added to the Westhofen office .

During the Thirty Years War the castle was completely destroyed by Swedish troops in 1632. At the beginning of the 18th century, the ruins served as a quarry, from which, among other things, the material for building a nearby hunting lodge was extracted. This building collapsed in the 19th century. With the reunion policy of France under King Louis XIV , the Westhofen office came under French sovereignty.

Hessen-Darmstadt and successor

After the death of the last Hanau count, Johann Reinhard III. , the inheritance - and with it Ochsenstein Castle - fell in 1736 to the son of his only daughter, Charlotte , the Hereditary Prince and later Landgrave Ludwig (IX.) of Hesse-Darmstadt . In the Hesse-Darmstadt time, the castle - now completely ruined - is no longer listed as part of the Westhofen office.

With the upheaval started by the French Revolution , the Westhofen office became part of France and was dissolved in the ensuing administrative reforms.

The preserved castle ruins have been restored several times since the 1890s, but a scientifically supported excavation is still missing to this day.

description

Gross-Ochsenstein's rough schematic floor plan

The surviving remains of Ochsenstein Castle lie on three built-up rocks, which form a rock platform in north-south direction. The middle of the three rocks is inaccessible, while the other two can be accessed via stairs cut into the rock. The lowest level of the north rock can only be reached by an iron ladder. Each of the three individual plants had a slightly lower bailey . The building material used was the red sandstone on the castle hill, which was built as a humpback or hammer-straight block. Since there are no clear remnants of building stock from the time before 1200, it is possible that the wooden structure that existed there from the 1180s onwards was only replaced by stone structures in the 13th century. Structural findings at least show that all three rocks were rebuilt in that century.

Today's forester 's house Haberacker, which stands about 500 meters south of the ruins , also belonged to the castle complex. It has been reliably occupied since 1567 and was probably the castle's farm yard.

Groß-Ochsenstein

Ruin of the castle chapel

Most of the 50 meter long Groß-Ochsenstein Castle has been preserved. As is so often the case with Alsatian castles, their layout was dictated by the shape of the rock. Access to it is provided by a staircase coming from the east, which was only constructed in 1893/1904. It leads into a former guard room, which presumably also served as an entrance in the Middle Ages. It was roughly in the middle of an elongated building with a series of rooms one behind the other. To the north, the guard room was followed by a kitchen, which can be seen from the still-preserved pouring stone. It had a pantry designed as a rock cellar. To the north of the kitchen was the so-called north building . To the south of the guard room was the south building , to which the castle chapel was attached to the west, on the highest point of the castle rock . Its remains have a pentagonal floor plan and at the widest points are 3.20 deep and 4.80 meters wide. On the east side it had a polygonal finish with two windows, some of which have still been opened. The entrance was in the southwest corner. A wall ledge served as an altar. The small building was completed by a low ribbed vault , the keystone of which was about three meters high.

At the southern tip of Groß-Ochsenstein there was a polygonal residential building with walls made of humpback blocks. Inside was an oval filter cistern that is still comparatively well preserved. From there, the collected and filtered rainwater was channeled into the central castle well. How many storeys the buildings of the complex once had can no longer be determined today because of the few remains of the wall. The northern end of Groß-Ochsenstein is formed by the ruins of the square keep with a trapezoidal floor plan. Its point was facing the attack side in the north and thus Klein-Ochsenstein. The remnants of its two meter thick outer walls made of bossed ashlars are only three meters high, which is why its original height can no longer be determined today.

From the large outer bailey of Groß-Ochsenstein, which was about nine meters lower than the inner bailey, only a few remains of walls and rubble walls have survived. In the south there is still a piece of the high curtain wall that connected to the core castle rock. A round arched gate, which served as an exit gate , can be found above a raised base . In addition, the remains of a lavatory dungeon and the parapet with a key notch can be seen. The only clearly visible remnant of the long eastern curtain wall is a semicircular shell tower with walls made of smooth ashlars in the approximate center. The rudimentary remains of the wall show that the east wall was once joined by a 9.50 meter deep building on the inside. The northern part of the outer bailey was built later than the southern parts. Presumably the latter were built shortly after or at the same time as the main castle and then added to around 1300. It is even conceivable that the expansion of the outer bailey continued into the 16th century.

Klein-Ochsenstein and Wachelheim

The middle castle rock with remains of Klein-Ochsenstein
Remains of the northern castle

Along the northern side of the outer bailey of Groß-Ochsenstein there is a ditch as protection against the middle castle rock, only 30 meters away. The north rock is only another 30 meters away.

The platform of the middle rock is only 15 to 20 meters long, so that there was only space for a single building, the ground plan of which was based on the edges of the rock. Since 1454 this middle castle was called Klein-Ochsenstein. In the east there is still a twelve-layer high wall remnant made of humpback blocks. Some other parts are also preserved in the west. With the shape of its lintel, the entrance provides an indication that the building could have existed as early as the second half of the 12th century, i.e. well before 1200. Only very small remains of the Klein-Ochsenstein outer bailey have survived.

There is no demarcation between the central and northern cliffs, which can be interpreted as an indication that the central and northern buildings could have been just one castle, or that these two small structures merged into one over the course of time. However, there is still no reliable evidence for this assumption, just as the owner of the north castle has not yet been determined. The name Wachelheim, which is common today for the northern castle, results from a reading error in the document from 1217, in which Otto I. von Ochsenstein had settled his estate. The name Wazelheim used in it is the old spelling of the place Wasselnheim.

The north structure is similar to that of the middle rock. There are still small remains of the outer wall of a polygonal , rock-shaped building, the entrance to which is eight meters high. Its outer bailey, which was located at the foot of the rock on its east and south side, is only very rudimentary.

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. 369–382.
  • Dagobert Fischer: Ochsenstein, les châteaux et la seigneurie. Etude historique . R. Schultz & Cie., 1878.
  • Walter Hotz : Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine . 3. Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-422-00345-2 , p. 188.
  • René Kill: La citerne à filtration du château de Grand-Ochsenstein . In: Etudes médiévales . Vol. 3, 1985, ISSN  0758-3362 , pp. 125-143.
  • Friedrich Knöpp: Territorial holdings of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Hesse-Darmstadt . [typewritten] Darmstadt 1962 [available in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt , signature: N 282/6].
  • 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. 233-234.
  • Charles-Laurent Salch: Dictionnaire des châteaux de l'Alsace médiévale . Publitotal, Strasbourg 1978, pp. 227-228.
  • Bernadette Schnitzler: Reinhardsmunster. Château d'Ochsenstein . In: Roland Recht (ed.): Le guide des châteaux de France. 67 Bas-Rhin . Hermé, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-86665-024-7 , pp. 135-137.
  • Guy Trendel, Christophe Carmona: Les châteaux des Vosges . Volume 3: Les châteaux near the Saverne . Pierron, Sarreguemines 1999.
  • Jean Wirth: Les châteaux forts alsaciens du XIIème au XIVème siècle . Volume 1. Center d'archéologie médiévale de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 1975, pp. 63-64.
  • Felix Wolff: Alsatian Castle Lexicon. Directory of castles and chateaus in Alsace . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1008-2 , pp. 248-250.

Web links

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

Footnotes

  1. ↑ According to B. Schnitzler: Reinhardsmunster. Château d'Ochsenstein . S. 137. However, in their publication, Biller and Metz state that the middle castle rock - sometimes together with the north rock - is sometimes also referred to as Wachelheim. See T. Biller and B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200–1250) . P. 377.
  2. ↑ a b c d T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 373.
  3. ↑ a b c T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 379.
  4. ↑ Marie-Philippe Scheurer, Jérôme Raimbault: Château fort d'Ochsenstein in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  5. ↑ a b c T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 372.
  6. ↑ B. Schnitzler: Reinhardsmunster. Château d'Ochsenstein . P. 136.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Full history on the Châteaux Fort d'Alsace site , accessed July 11th
  8. ↑ a b c T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 369.
  9. ↑ Older publications state that Ochsenstein was besieged by Friedrich von Hohenstein . Friedrich von Hohenstein was with Otto III. been enemies. However, this information is based on a wrong reading of the name handed down in the Colmar annals . The chronicler of this event names troops of the Strasbourg bishop and the bailiff of Alsace with the name "von Hostenstein", which was often interpreted as "von Hohenstein". However, at that time Otto III. von Ochsenstein himself held the post of Alsatian governor. Cf. T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 371.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 371.
  11. ↑ Knöpp, p. 18.
  12. ^ Ochsenstein Castle in Kastel Alsace , accessed on July 24, 2012.
  13. ↑ According to other information, 1560.
  14. ↑ Knöpp, p. 18.
  15. ↑ Knöpp, p. 17f.
  16. ↑ a b c d e f g T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 377.
  17. ↑ a b T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 374.
  18. ^ F. Wolff: Elsässisches Burgen-Lexikon . P. 250.
  19. ↑ T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 375.
  20. ↑ a b c T. Biller, B. Metz: The late Romanesque castle building in Alsace (1200-1250) . P. 378.