Ragnit Castle
| Ragnit Castle | ||
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 Ragnit Castle |
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| Castle type : | Location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ordensburg | |
| Place: | No, sorry man | |
| Geographical location | 55 ° 2 '21 " N , 22 ° 1' 47.2" E | |
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The castle Ragnit was an important Ordensburg in Lithuania Minor , the northern part of East Prussia . With it the Teutonic Order controlled the Memel and trade with Russia. Since 1945 Ragnit has belonged as Neman to the Soviet , now Russian, Kaliningrad Oblast .
history
Peter von Dusburg reports in his Chronicle of Prussia that nine years before the arrival of the Teutonic Order, Ragnit was besieged by the Russians. In 1275 the knights of the order conquered and destroyed the Schalau castle "Raganita" (from Prussian "raganita" = little, dear witch or raga = corner, horn, point) on a peninsula on the Memel and built it in 1289 at the same time as the Tilsit Castle (since 1946 Sowetsk ) a wood and earth castle called "Landeshut"; In the end, however, the old name “Ragnit” prevailed. Also in 1289 the commander of Labiau (since 1946 Polessk ) was relocated to Ragnit, as it became an important stage for the trips to Lithuania . At least since 1336, once or twice a year, contingents of the order and crusaders moved from Königsberg (since 1946 Kaliningrad ), Tilsit or Ragnit to the Lithuanian area. Last destroyed by the Teutonic Order in 1355 during the Lithuanian Wars, the Order built a new castle “Ragnit” entirely from bricks from 1397 to 1409 west of the old castle complex . The construction was under the direction of the Rhineland master builder Nikolaus Fellenstein , who was also responsible for the expansion of the Grand Master's Palace in Marienburg . After a fire in 1445, further changes were necessary.
Between 1825 and 1838, interrupted by a fire in 1828, the castle was converted into a court with a prison. The vaults were removed above the ground floor, walls were broken and, after removing the gables, a hipped roof was put on. Essentially, the huge main walls and the slender, square turret of the outer bailey have been preserved . In 1906, valuable wall paintings from around 1408 were uncovered in a room in the courtroom.
During the Second World War , the castle burned down completely in 1944/45 and has been in ruins ever since . Parts of the outer walls were blown up in the Soviet era, but they were largely preserved up to the lower edge of the defensive floor.
literature
- Michael Antoni (edit.): Dehio-Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler West- and East Prussia. The former provinces of West and East Prussia (Deutschordensland Prussia) with Bütower and Lauenburger Land. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-422-03025-5 , pp. 504-507.
- Tomasz Torbus: The convent castles in the Teutonic Order of Prussia . Oldenbourg, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56358-0 , pp. 240-247, 595-608, doi: 10.11588 / diglit.43361 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernhart Jähnig : German Order, in: Werner Paravicini (eds.): Handbook farms and residences in late medieval kingdom - Band 15.I . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-4515-8 , p. 729 . ( adw-goe.de [PDF]).
- ↑ Jürgen Sarnowsky : The German Order . CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53628-1 , p. 48 .
- ↑ The tradition of building activity in the time of the Order was preserved to an extraordinary extent until 1944. Ernst Gall pointed this out in: Georg Dehio, Ernst Gall (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Revised by Ernst Gall. Teutonic Order of Prussia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1952 [1944], p. 470