Rotenhan Castle

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Rotenhan Castle
Rotenhan Castle - general view over the neck ditch

Rotenhan Castle - general view over the neck ditch

Creation time : First mentioned in 1190
Castle type : High castle, rocky location, hillside location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Preserved parts carved out of the rock, formerly structures made of sandstone
Place: Ebern - Eyrichshof
Geographical location 50 ° 6 '53.3 "  N , 10 ° 47' 31.6"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 6 '53.3 "  N , 10 ° 47' 31.6"  E
Height: 380  m above sea level NN
Rotenhan Castle (Bavaria)
Rotenhan Castle

The ruins of the high medieval rock castle Rotenhan Castle lies on 380  m above sea level. NN about two kilometers north of Ebern above the district Eyrichshof in the district of Haßberge in Lower Franconia . The castle complex is the ancestral seat of the Barons von Rotenhan , who still own it today.

history

The main castle with the peat rock

Surname

The name Rotenhan is likely to derive from cleared Haag , Hain. Some researchers also consider a derivation from the Rodach river and an ancestral relationship between the von Rotenhan family and the family of the Lords of Rodach as conceivable. The name certainly has nothing to do with the red rooster, which the sex uses as a crest.

Rotenhan family

In terms of their importance, the von Rotenhan family appears in the written sources unusually late: they were first mentioned in a document in 1190 with Winther von Rotenhan. At this time, the headquarters that gave the company its name must have already existed. Rotenhan Castle was certainly originally owned ( allod ) by the family.

Originally the gender seems to have been related to the nearby Banz monastery near Staffelstein . The possibly formerly noble Rotenhan were contractually bound to servants of the Bamberg diocese or the bishopric in the High Middle Ages . Some bearers of the name also appear in the following of the Langheim monastery .

Free reconstruction of the castle from the 19th century (information board at the parking lot). The drawing is one of the main arguments for the thesis of the double door system. However, the left gate appears here as the main gate, the right opening as a secondary gate or access to a storage cellar

expansion

The structures that have been preserved, such as the pointed arch portal at the staircase, suggest that the castle should be expanded in the late Romanesque-early Gothic period.

Destroyed in 1323

In 1323 the Würzburg Bishop Wolfram Wolfskeel von Grumbach allegedly besieged Rotenhan Castle for about a year under the pretext of counterfeiting and felony . The Bamberg castle, located near the Würzburg town of Ebern , was probably a thorn in the flesh of the bishopric. The conflict appeared a few years earlier. In 1319 Wolfram von Rotenhan had to give his castle to the Würzburg monastery as a fief . At the same time, he was assigned payments for a castle hat.

After the conquest, the fortress was destroyed and according to the treaty of 1324 it could never be rebuilt. The von Rotenhan family later built their new residence at Schloss Eyrichshof am Berg below the castle. The humanist Sebastian of Rotenhan examined about 200 years later, the circumstances of the destruction of the family seat of his race. The lord of the castle Wolfram had "stabbed the Stifft ettliche Leuth, took their cows and the Stifft Lehemann no longer wanted to dhinen ..." (Archive Castle Rentweinsdorf ).

With the submission to the Würzburg Monastery, the family also lost the prestigious gift office of the Bamberg Monastery. The victorious diocese of Würzburg initially tried to further damage the von Rotenhan family. However, King Ludwig the Bavarian campaigned for the Rotenhan and asked the bishop to enfeoff the former lord of the castle Wolfram with the castle stables and some associated fields . In return, Wolfram von Rotenhan had to swear to defend the Hochstift Würzburg against his enemies. He was only allowed to remain neutral in a conflict with his old employer, the Bishop of Bamberg. In 1333, the Rotenhan also got their Würzburg fiefs at Holzhausen and Mechenried back.

The loss of the castle only weakened the family for a short time. The older main line still had extensive own property on the Baunach . The possessions in the Itztal already belonged to a branch line.

Some parts of Rotenhan Castle look unfinished. It is possible that the castle was besieged during an expansion phase and then destroyed. The advance, or perhaps factual, reason for the siege of counterfeiting indicates that the lords of the castle had increased financial needs.

description

Inaccurate overview plan on the information board in front of the castle (after the inclusion in the inventory of art monuments from 1916): 1 : Halsgraben (In front of the gate in the west there is actually a step to the outer bailey , not a ditch) 2 : The alleged main gate (Zeune) 3 : That Side (Zeune) or actual main gate 4 , 5 : stairs to the upper floor of the gate building 6 : the alleged gate lane of the main gate 7 : the castle fountain 8 : the tank cistern 9 : the northwest rock with the tank cistern 10 : the northeast rock 11 : east rock with the last remains of the wall 12 : Burghof, not shown is the terrain profile with height differences of up to three meters
The gate with the staircase carved entirely from the sandstone
The northwest rock with foundation banks and the tank cistern (left)

The ruin is one of the few real rock castles in Germany . Since the complex was destroyed as early as the 14th century, only small remains of the masonry can be seen.

The castle gained its importance mainly because of the unusually extensive inclusion of the natural rock bedrock in the construction . Five (formerly possibly only four) mighty, closely spaced sandstone blocks were connected by walls.

The main gate was incorporated into the middle block on the southwest side. The well-known castle researcher Joachim Zeune only sees the side gate in this gate . He moves the main gate to the right of it in the space between the gate and the smaller southwest rock. Because of the considerable difference in level between the courtyard and this space and the shortness of the Torgasse, this is rather doubtful. A retracted cart would not have been able to turn here. In addition, the main gate would have been at the weakest point of the core castle. The spacious outer bailey makes such an elaborate double door system unnecessary. The lords of the castle are also likely to have been aware of their endangered position as Bamberg servants in the territory of the Würzburg monastery, which then led to the castle's demise. In the event of a siege , at least two additional men would have to be deployed to guard the main gate. The supposed side gate is wide and high enough to allow a loaded pack animal to pass through.

Double gate systems can be found in Central European castles from the early 14th century. Since Rotenhan Castle was destroyed as early as 1323, it could possibly be an unfinished early double gate system. However, such a facility would be rather unusual as an entrance to the main castle . Most of these driveways lead into the fortresses of the castles and palaces. A typical example from early modern times has been preserved in the valley below the ruins. Next to the main gate, a small side gate allows access to the manor district of Eyrichshof Palace .

A free reconstruction drawing from the 19th century shows a double gate system, but at that time the masonry of the rock castle had already been removed. In addition, the elaborate staircase in the gate building indicates a prominent room, perhaps the castle chapel . In many high medieval castles, the chapel was located above the main gate in order to give this weak point in the defense system additional "divine" protection. However, the final clarification of the gate situation remains reserved for a future, intensive castle-historical investigation.

In 1842, Georg Ludwig Lehnes reported in his history of the Baunach-Grund about a large cellar that could be driven into by car. This cellar could well have been in the column described next to the entrance to the outer bailey.

The staircase of the gate building was completely knocked out of the sandstone. The other boulders also show large-scale processing for foundation banks and a tank cistern . In the former castle courtyard, the brick well shaft has been preserved.

Down the slope the rock castle was evidently a spacious outer castle (wall remnants). The rubble walls indicate a stone outer wall or at least a foundation. The gate of the outer bailey seems to have been east of the crevice of the alleged main gate.

On the mountain side, the facility is surrounded by a flat neck ditch in the shape of a horseshoe . Here, on the northeastern rock, the last remains of the wall made of large, regular sandstone blocks have been preserved, but these have recently been reduced due to increasing vandalism on the rock castle.

Castle saga

The entrance to a buried cave can be seen under the southwest rock with the tank cistern. According to the castle legend, the wife of the lord of the castle found refuge here during the siege, but was buried. A hen was trapped with her, who laid an egg for the noblewoman every day and thus enabled her to survive. After their liberation, the family's new castle is said to have been built on the spot where the hen laid her first egg in freedom (Eyrichshof).

tourism

The castle ruins are a stop on the castle history educational trail in the Haßberge district. It has been identified by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment as geoscientifically particularly valuable geotope 674G001 and in 2006 it was awarded the official seal of approval “ Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes ”. The ruin was added to this list as the fifth property in Lower Franconia.

Esoteric

Because of its unusual construction and the impressive rock formations, the castle ruins are exposed to lively esoteric and occult tourism. In these circles, the complex is considered a prehistoric “world cultural site”. Similar to the neighboring castle Lichtenstein, the castle is placed on a par with facilities such as the Externstein or even Stonehenge . Rotenhan Castle is clearly a high medieval castle complex. There are no reliable indications for an earlier use of the place as a pagan place of worship and sacrifice, but of course it cannot be definitively ruled out.

documentation

The castle complex in 2006 and 2007 after the partial deforestation of the area:

  • General view from the south with the peat rock and the presumed main gate (Zeune). The height difference is clearly visible, and the doorway is said to be buried several meters high. Down the slope (left) are the remains of the wall of the former outer bailey

  • The southeast side with the gate and the alleged main gate. Today's ground level should roughly correspond to the medieval state. An eyelet has been preserved in the rock face of the northeast block, which may have been used to tie a riding animal or pack animal or as a lamp holder (about one meter above the ground)

  • The alleged double gate system, in the background the parking lot on the Kurzewind-Eyrichshof connecting road. The ground level of the outer crevice is today about two and a half meters below that of the castle courtyard

  • The gateway with the staircase from the northwest rock. On the right the gothic pointed arch gate. The elaborate staircase suggests a raised room on the upper floor, perhaps the castle chapel

  • The gateway to the southwest. In the background the outer bailey, on the right one of the two stairways. The door opening does not seem to have been completed

  • The left wall of the portal in the gateway with the channel of the locking bolt

  • Looking back to the northeast with the castle fountain under the northwest rock. Inlet channels and beam holes of the well room are worked into the rock wall

  • The staircase in the gate building

  • The gateway from the northwest from the castle courtyard

  • A row of corbels in the western wall of the gate building. According to Zeune, the alleged Torgasse is said to have been spanned by a wooden ceiling. However, the opposing rock workings do not allow any horizontal support of wooden beams or joists

  • The alleged Torgasse to the northeast with the row of corbels and the opposite cliffs

  • View into the castle fountain. The approximately 10 meter deep shaft is about half buried. In addition to the strata water, rainwater was previously discharged

  • The last remains of the wall made of regular sandstone blocks on the eastern rock. The few remaining blocks are particularly exposed to the increasing vandalism on the rock castle

  • The northwest rock with the tank cistern to the left of the staircase. On the right you can see the foundation banks of the stone building

literature

  • The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria, III, 15, District Office Ebern , Munich 1916, pp. 197–201.
  • Georg Ludwig Lehnes: History of the Baunach reason in Lower Franconia . Würzburg 1842. Reprint: Neustadt an der Aisch, 2005, ISBN 3-89557-251-9 .
  • Isolde Maierhöfer: Ebern (Historical Atlas of Bavaria, part of Franconia, issue 15). Munich 1964.
  • Alexander Tittmann: Hassfurt - The former district (Historical Atlas of Bavaria, Part Franconia, Series I, Issue 33). Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7696-9696-4 .
  • Joachim Zeune : Burgen im Eberner Land , Ebern 2003, Eberner Heimatblätter, 2 booklets.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Geotope: Rotenhan ruins (accessed on October 15, 2013; PDF; 293 kB)
  2. ↑ Rotenhan castle ruins (accessed on October 15, 2013)