Prunn Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prunn Castle seen from the south

The Prunn stands on a steep limestone rocks from the period of the Jura about four kilometers southeast of the Lower Bavarian town of Riedenburg in Kelheim .

The castle complex can be visited for a fee. From their courtyard there is a good view over the Altmühltal with the Main-Danube Canal .

history

Oldest surviving illustration of Prunn Castle; Detail from a border map of the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg

The oldest known owner was Wernherus de Prunne , who was first mentioned together with his castle in 1037. In 1147 the castle went to the Lords of Laaber from the sidelines of the Praiteneck, from whom numerous building activities began. On it the oldest preserved building remains is composed of the keep and Palas back.

In 1288 the castle was sold to Duke Ludwig II of Bavaria , who gave it back to the seller Wernherr von Praiteneck as a fief .

The mention of a Fraunberger zu Prunn house in 1311 suggests that Prunn Castle changed hands in the early 14th century. In 1338 the facility was sold to the Fraunberger von Haag family . She had the still visible "Coo coat of arms" attached to the southern facade facing the valley. Hans VI. von Fraunberg had the complex extended in the late Gothic period from 1426 to 1476. When Wolf Fraunberger joined the Löwlerbund , the Bavarian Duke Albrecht IV is said to have taken this as an opportunity to storm the castle by his troops in December 1491. If the storm actually took place, it must have taken place without damaging or even razing the castle, because no news of a subsequent reconstruction have been passed down.

In the 15th century, Prunn Castle was temporarily owned by the von Gumppenberg family , but returned to the property of the Fraunbergers. When the Fraunberg von Haag zu Prunn family went out, the castle fell back to the Bavarian duke, who sold it to Karl Köckh zu Mauerstetten and Bodenmais for 18,000 guilders as early as 1570 .

In 1567 or 1569, Wiguleus Hund , humanist and historian Duke Albrechts V of Bavaria , found a parchment manuscript of the Nibelungenlied and the Lament , the so-called Prunner Codex , in the castle and gave it to his employer in 1575. The manuscript (BSB-Hss Cgm 31) is in the Bavarian State Library in Munich .

The first surviving image of the castle complex dates from around 1600. Its south side can be seen on a border map of the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg . The Köckhs zu Mauerstetten expanded the castle in the period from 1604 with a new castle-like extension that connected the palace with the keep. The Romanesque curtain wall was used as the eastern outer wall of the new building.

Further repair work followed in 1631 in the Renaissance style , with less emphasis on authenticity than on comfort. An inscription and the alliance coat of arms of Christoph von Köckhs zu Prunn and his wife Maria on the Gothic residential building testify to this work, which was mainly carried out inside. During this time, Prunn Castle increasingly assumed the character of a castle. This is why the name Schloss Prunn is often used today , although the complex is clearly a castle due to its medieval origins and the original structure.

The Thirty Years' War put an end to the financial prosperity of the Köckh family, and in 1646 the indebted Hofmark passed into the possession of Lieutenant Field Marshal Georg von Truckmiller, who had the damaged buildings repaired.

Prunn Castle on an engraving by Michael Wening around 1700

Another change of ownership took place as early as 1672: The Jesuits from Ingolstadt bought “Schloss und Hofmark”. The order carried out further redesigns and extensions to the existing building. After dissolution of the Jesuit Order in 1773 Prunn was the Knights of St. John left. However, their coming was dissolved in 1822, so that the castle fell back to the crown of Bavaria once more .

In 1827 King Ludwig I of Bavaria campaigned for the preservation of the castle complex as a historical monument during the Romantic era by having security work carried out. Further repair work was carried out at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, the system was neglected.

In 1919 a boy scout meeting took place, which was shaped by the Prunner vow of the new scouts for the entire scout movement in Germany.

In 1946 the castle came into the possession of the Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes . In 1950/51 she had restoration work carried out. Late Gothic features were restored and numerous building elements from the 19th century were removed. Sporadic traces of plaster with simulated wall joints were discovered.

In the period from 2007 to May 2010, the Bavarian state refurbished the facility for around 2.7 million euros .

description

Prunn Castle from the southeast

The hilltop castle stands on a rock plateau, which is separated from the mountain on the north side by a 20 meter wide and 9 meter deep neck ditch . On the opposite side there used to be a bailey . The Romanesque keep from the 13th century served as protection against attacks from the elevated mountain side in the north of the complex . It rises on a square floor plan with an edge length of six meters and is 31 meters high. Its floors are of one with shingles covered tent roof completed, which was added to the tower later and the former battlements replaced. The humpback square walls made of limestone have a thickness of three meters in the lower area and taper to 2.5 meters at the top. The former high entrance of the keep can still be seen on the west side on the second floor .

The layout of the other buildings in the castle is determined by the layout of the narrow rock plateau and is therefore very irregular. To the west of the keep is an archway with a guard room on the ground floor and a bower and the so-called women's kitchen on the upper floor. To the east of the keep is a small building with the so-called drinking room on the upper floor. Just like the gate, it has a small oriel tower at the corner with window and door frames made of green sandstone and a curved hood as a roof.

The courtyard of the castle, with its rock-hewn draw well is completed in the West by a wall that used to be considerably higher and was demolished in the 19th century. In the north-western corner of the courtyard there is a polygonal stair tower from the early 17th century. Its stone spiral staircase inside provides access to the upper floor of the Köckh gate building. The coats of arms of the von Köckh and von Lerchenfeld families can be found in the lintel .

Floor plans of the castle complex

On its south-eastern side, the originally Romanesque hall with a large Gothic hall on the ground floor borders the courtyard. Another guardroom is located in a tower-like building protruding from the outer wall, in which fragments of frescoes and oxblood paintings on the ceiling beams from the 14th century can be seen. In the northern part of the palace is the Prunner Castle Chapel , which the Order of the Jesuits had redesigned in the Rococo style around 1700 . It probably goes back to a Romansh predecessor in the same place. This is believed to be in the vault under today's chapel. The eastern outer wall of the rectangular room is formed by the former curtain wall. There, flanked by two high arched windows, stands the altar, the baroque structure of which is decorated with lavish carvings of acanthus ornaments. In addition to two carved figures of St. James and St. Christopher , the predella of the altar has six small relief figures from around 1500. They probably come from the altar of the previous chapel. Today's room has a stuccoed flat ceiling and a gallery on the narrow western side.

Inner courtyard, panoramic view, August 2014

Others

You can climb on the rock below the castle. There are twelve routes in the rock, some with somewhat more demanding protection up to difficulty level 9 (UIAA). Because of bird breeding the rock is closed from February 1st to June 30th every year.

The youth film TKKG - Drachenauge was shot at the castle in 1992 . In the film, the castle served as the backdrop for the terror castle of the knight Albrecht von Zehrenstein.

The castle is located in the Prunn Castle nature reserve designated by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment .

literature

  • Bavarian State Ministry of Finance, Press Office (Ed.): Schlösserland Bayern. State palaces, residences, castles and fortresses with maps from the Bavarian Land Surveying Office . Bavarian State Ministry of Finance, Munich [1989], pp. 90–91.
  • Luisa Hager: Prunn Castle. Official leader . 8th edition. Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, Munich 1996.
  • Uwe A. Oster: Castles in Germany . Primus, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-89678-561-3 , pp. 174-175.
  • Michael Weithmann: Castles and palaces in Bavaria. Upper and Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Swabia . NP Verlag, St. Pölten [et al.] 2003, ISBN 3-85326-175-2 , pp. 218-219.

Web links

Commons : Burg Prunn  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b M. Weithmann: Castles and Palaces in Bavaria , p. 218.
  2. a b M. Weithmann: Castles and Palaces in Bavaria , p. 219.
  3. See L. Hager: Burg Prunn , pp. 10–11.
  4. Munich, Staatsbibl., Cgm 31 in the manuscript census
  5. L. Hager: Burg Prunn , p. 12.
  6. Cornelia Oelwein: Architectural monuments endangered - architectural monuments saved. Bavaria. In: Castles and Palaces . Vol. 51, No. 2, 2010, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 124.
  7. a b Bayer. State Ministry d. Finances: Schlösserland Bayern , p. 91.

Coordinates: 48 ° 57 ′ 1 ″  N , 11 ° 44 ′ 22.5 ″  E