Rückerode Castle

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Rückerode Castle
Draft by the Hessian Landgrave Moritz 1627, presumably largely representing the original at the time

Draft by the Hessian Landgrave Moritz 1627, presumably largely representing the original at the time

Alternative name (s): Ruckerode, Ruckerodt Castle, Ruckenrode Castle (all old names)
Creation time : around 1100
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Ruins
Standing position : Lehen, Niederadel
(from 1623 Landgraves)
Construction: Dolomite rock, half-timbered
Place: Witzenhausen - Hundelshausen - Weiler Rückerode
Geographical location 51 ° 17 '57.5 "  N , 9 ° 52' 1"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 17 '57.5 "  N , 9 ° 52' 1"  E
Height: 290  m above sea level NHN
Rückerode Castle (Hesse)
Rückerode Castle

The castle Rückerode is the ruin of a late medieval Spur castle in Weiler Rückerode northeast of Hundelshausen , a district of the town Witzenhausen in Werra-Meissner in northeastern Hesse (Germany).

location

The remains of the castle lie on a 290  m high rock ledge made of dolomite a few meters east of the Rückerode estate, which is located northeast of Hundelshausen in a basin of the Wechselgrund creek that flows to the northeast over the Flachsbach to the Werra . Rückerode is on the Hundelshausen district . The source valley is surrounded by forest and is crossed in north-south direction by the county road 63. To the south of the hamlet and castle ruins, the place of the old court is located at the foot of the Roggenberg in the southwest in the forest at the intersection of the high path Meißner-Witzenhausen and the connection Hundelshausen- Elkenrod .

history

The castle was probably as bailiwick seat in 1100 by the Count of Bilstein built that Gaugrafen the former Germaramark were. As a Hessian fiefdom (documented 1327) the property came from 1301 to 1372 to the lords of Rengelrode , later to the lords of Hundelshausen , and in 1428 to the lords of Berge . After their extinction in 1622, the property fell to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel and became a state domain .

Landgrave Moritz transferred the house and Vogtei Rückerode to his second wife Juliane von Nassau-Dillenburg as Wittum by entitlement of March 1621 and then by decree of December 20, 1623 . In 1627, with the formation of the partially sovereign Landgraviate of Hessen-Rotenburg ("Rotenburger Quart"), the Bailiwick became part of it. In 1657 Landgrave Ernst I of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg sold the Vogtei Rückerode to Landgrave Wilhelm VI. from Hessen-Kassel . In the same year, Landgrave Wilhelm pledged the house and Vogtei Rückerode to Wilhelm von Polhelm.

Another time and ownership is mentioned in the overview of Hessen-Kassel from 1780 by Conrad Wilhelm Ledderhose : After that, the possession of the bailiwick only came after the extinction of the Lords of Berg (e) in 1633 with Hans von Berge to Juliane von Nassau-Dillenburg In 1637, however, Landgrave Wilhelm V allegedly bought the domain and bailiwick in the year of his death. It is also reported that on February 18, 1678, Landgrave Wilhelm VI's wife, Hedwig Sophie von Brandenburg , exchanged the Vogteil from her son and incumbent Landgrave Carl von Hessen-Kassel and, in her will of October 16 of the following year, to her son Philipp von Hessen-Philippsthal bequeathed it, where it came back to the main building in Hessen-Kassel as a result of a further exchange agreement of January 17, 1733.

When it was passed on as Wittum, the estate was only used for agriculture. It is not known whether the castle was destroyed or fell into disrepair.

description

Rückerode castle ruins, remains of the wall
Drafts by Landgrave Moritz von Hessen from 1627 depicting the manor and castle Rückerode, with explanations of well-known buildings

From the small castle, only wall sections can be seen on a rock ledge east of the hamlet. A ditch in the neck is no longer recognizable. A plaster cave was developed as a cellar. The material for the high defensive wall , which today surrounds the rock mound at a height of around three meters, and a defensive or residential tower on the top of the rock were probably used from the rock material obtained .

An exact description of the building is not known, nor has the ruin been archaeologically examined.

However, architectural drawings from 1627 have been preserved that show how Landgrave Moritz wanted to renovate and expand the estate and castle, including a fortification wall around the entire area with four corner towers. However, this was never fully implemented as such. It has not been verified whether the drawings for the remains of the castle to be rebuilt are based on the old walls. After this, the entrance to the castle was roughly where it is today and was secured by a tower. About a half-timbered gatehouse that with the single stone, bower called, construction was connected, you came into the courtyard , the U-shape of three buildings, two-storey timber-framed buildings with pitched roofs were on stone foundations, stood.

The remodeling of the estate was only carried out in the main and was changed several times over the following centuries.

The current buildings of the manor are from the middle or the end of the 19th century, only one half-timbered barn is older.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse - 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites. 3rd edition, Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 . P.56.
  • Waldemar Küther: Historical local lexicon of the district of Witzenhausen , issue 1 in: Historical local lexicon of the State of Hesse (ed.) Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies, Elwert Verlag, Marburg 1973, ISBN 3-7708-0496-1 . P. 114 f.
  • Conrad Wilhelm Ledderhose: Contributions to the description of the church state of the Hessen-Casselische Lande, Cassel 1780, p. 197 f.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of March 21, 1621, HStAM , Best.Durk. 51 No. 30
  2. ↑ Hessen-Rotenburg was a partially sovereign principality under the sovereignty of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel.
  3. ↑ everything according to Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse or information about the Hesse historical local dictionary (see web links Lagis)
  4. ^ Conrad Wilhelm Ledderhose: Contributions to the description of the church state of the Hessen-Casselische Lande , Cassel 1780, p. 197 f.
  5. ↑ See the drawing by Landgrave Moritz with today's signature number 2 ° Ms. Hass. 107 [297] : Rückerode, former castle and estate of the University Library of Kassel
  6. ^ Peer Zietz: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Werra-Meißner-Kreis III: Altkreis Witzenhausen , published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse, Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig-Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-528-06228-2 . P. 653