Ramstein Castle (Alsace)
| Ramstein Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 The ruins of Ramstein Castle |
||
| Creation time : | 1293 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone, smooth cuboid, humpback cuboid | |
| Place: | Scherwiller | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 17 ′ 40 ″ N , 7 ° 23 ′ 19 ″ E | |
| Height: | 384 m | |
|
||
The Ramstein Castle (French Château de Ramstein ) is a medieval castle ruin northwest of the Alsatian town of Scherwiller in the Bas-Rhin department . It stands at a height of 384 meters, around 300 meters southwest of the neighboring Ortenberg Castle, on a rocky hill in the Vosges Mountains and thus belongs to the hill castle type .
The ruin was placed under monument protection on July 1, 1924 as Monument historique . Since it is in acute danger of collapsing, access has been prohibited since 1983 because of the danger of collapse.
description
From the castle complex of the late 13th century, parts of a mighty residential tower and remains of the lower castle have been preserved. From the original three-story, flat- gabled roof covered tower palas nor the north and east walls are partially upright. The south wall, which had completely disappeared, was richly windowed, as is shown by a depiction by Hans Baldung from 1514. For the masonry came rubble and smooth ashlar and corners hump square of granite used. The individual floors can still be read on the preserved insides, and the approach of a chimney can also be seen. From the lower castle west of the residential tower, parts of the northern circular wall made of smooth ashlars have been preserved; it is currently (2008) being restored. The entire complex was surrounded in the 15th century with a castle wall made of rubble stones, which was reinforced with at least four semicircular shell towers. Furthermore, a deep neck ditch, blocked by a gate system, and the former cistern can be seen .
history
The castle was built in 1293 by Otto III. Built by Ochsenstein , the bailiff of Lower Alsace , according to popular belief as a stronghold against the neighboring Ortenberg castle. The Roman-German King Rudolf von Habsburg transferred the bailiwick of this Habsburg possession to the Ochsensteiner in 1280. After Rudolf's death in 1291, his son Albrecht Ortenberg, who had initially fallen to Adolf von Nassau , was returned in March 1293 from the hands of the governor. Why the ox Steiner, the castle still little later besiege left and developing Ramstein as fortified took Base, is unsettled. It is possible that Otto had changed sides in the throne dispute and, with the siege, was pursuing his own power-political interests.
In the course of his deposition as king, Adolf von Nassau finally had to leave the tower to his successor Albrecht von Habsburg in 1298, who gave it to the von Reichenberg family as a fief in 1307. It was followed as a tenant in 1361 by the Zorn von Bulach and in 1422 by the von Uttenheim . After the complex had already been besieged and damaged in 1303, a second siege took place during the Dachstein War in 1421, this time by troops from the city of Strasbourg . They could take the castle and devastate it. The system was rebuilt immediately.
In 1470, Peter von Hagenbach used the castle as a base for another siege of the Ortenburg. It suffered again during the German Peasants 'War in 1525, before being finally destroyed by Swedish troops in 1633 during the Thirty Years' War .
In the 19th century the ruins belonged to Baron Mathieu de Favier (s), who also owned the Ortenberg Castle. Today it is owned by the community of Scherwiller.
literature
- Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The early Gothic castle building in Alsace (1250-1300) (= The castles of Alsace. Architecture and history. Vol. 3). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-422-06132-0 , pp. 211-215.
- Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace. According to old templates . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1965, pp. 103-104.
- Walter Hotz : Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine . 2nd edition, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1970, p. 184.
- 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. 256-257.
- Olaf Wagener: Ramstein / Scherwiller - Exemple type d'un château de siège ou interprétation abusive? In: Châteaux forts d'Alsace . No. 9, 2008, ISSN 1281-8526 , pp. 39-54.
- Felix Wolff: Alsatian Castle Lexicon. Directory of castles and chateaus in Alsace . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1008-2 .
Web links
- Marie-Philippe Scheurer: Ramstein Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Ramstein Castle on burgenwelt.org
- Brief history and photos (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b W. Hotz: Handbook of Art Monuments in Alsace and Lorraine , p. 184.
- ↑ kastel.elsass.free.fr , as of November 12, 2008.
- ↑ Wagener, pp. 43–44, considers this interpretation, which goes back to Bodo Ebhardt , to be by no means certain, so that the building of the castle could also be due to other political circumstances.
- ↑ Biller, Metz: The Castles of Alsace , p. 211.