Schnellenberg Castle

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Schnellenberg Castle
Overall system

Overall system

Creation time : around 1222
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Receive
Standing position : Nobles
Place: Attendorn
Geographical location 51 ° 7 '24 "  N , 7 ° 55' 35"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '24 "  N , 7 ° 55' 35"  E
Schnellenberg Castle (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Schnellenberg Castle

The Burg Schnellenberg is a hilltop castle above the Biggetal near the town of Attendorn in Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Entrance area

history

Founded in 1222 as a protective castle in Cologne for Attendorn

After the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert von Berg, fortified Attendorn in 1222 , he built Schnellenberg Castle at the same time. This is documented in an agreement with the Count von der Mark, to whom two castle fiefs were given at the castle. The purpose of building the castle was to secure the Heidenstrasse .

Expansion after 1291 under Johann von Plettenberg

In 1288, after the fateful battle of Worringen for the Archdiocese of Cologne, the Cologne castle Waldenburg , located just three kilometers to the south-west, had to be ceded to the Count von der Mark in 1289 as pledge. To compensate for this, Johann I von Plettenberg , the marshal of the Duchy of Westphalia, had Schnellenberg Castle fortified with the active help of the citizens of Attendorn. In 1294 the Archbishop of Cologne, Siegfried von Westerburg , promised the citizens of Attendorn, who helped him with the construction of the Castrum Snellenberch , that they would never be harmed by it.

However, the importance of the castle Schnellenberg fell rapidly again after the pledged Waldenburg in 1300 by Archbishop Wigbold Holte could be redeemed and he, Johann von Plettenberg, from whom he had received a loan of 700 marks for Drosten of the far-flung ministry Waldenburg ordered .

After Johannes von Plettenberg's death, his son Heidenreich returned the castle to Archbishop Walram von Jülich from Cologne . In the document of July 12, 1339 it says: “To all who will see or hear the document at the moment, we tell Heidenrich von Plettenberg, son of the deceased knight, Mr. Johannes von Plettenberg, and his wife Pyronetta, and we confess through the content of the present document , that we for ourselves and our heirs, purely and simply, of our own accord and of our own free will, through this document, into the hands of our venerable gentlemen, Mr. Walrams, Archbishop of Cologne and his Church of Cologne because of the special affection that we show them, and the evidences of favor that have been bestowed upon us by our Lord himself, the Schnellenberg Castle built by my, Heidenrichs, deceased father and the jurisdiction over the town of Attendorn and all its accessories, which was once acquired by the same with his own money, and that we have committed renounce all rights that we or our said heirs or any of them have to said heirs Castle and jurisdiction and their accessories is or could be due ... ".

Property of the feudal men Vogt von Elspe and von Schnellenberg after 1339

View from the Kutschenberg to the castle

The archbishop then installed the bailiffs of Elspe as castle men on Schnellenberg.

In 1337 Goswin and Hermann von Schnellenberg also lived at the castle, which they apparently shared with the governors of Elspe.

In 1411, Archbishop Friedrich von Köln allowed Grete, widow of Wilhelm Vogt von Elspe and her children, to build a house in Schnellenberg Castle in order to inhabit it and thereby improve their fiefdom.

In 1441 the brothers Johann, Heinrich, Wilhelm and Dietrich Vogt von Elspe and a Johann von Schnellenberg zu Schnellenberg separated. Johann kept his house with the tower in Schnellenberg and the house on the lower side of the portals, called “the governor's old house”, as well as three quarters of the fields and meadows belonging to the castle. In the event of a feud, the von Schnellenberg and the Vögte zu Elspe should stand by each other.

In 1471, the cousins ​​Hermann and Ailf von Schnellenberg sold their "Stätte und Burggesäß" in Schnellenberg on the castle next to the tower and the courtyard with the old walls with the consent of the liege Archbishop Ruprecht to Heinrich Vogt von Elspe.

In 1483 Catharina, widow of Hermann Grevenstein, sold her castle bottoms at Schnellenberg to Johann, Heinrich, Wilhelm and Dietrich Vogt. She was probably one of Schnellenberg's, perhaps Catharina, who in 1439 is called the wife of Cordt Vogt von Elspe and sister of Johann von Schnellenberg.

In 1512 Johann von Schnellenberg was enfeoffed by Archbishop Philip II with the castle butts of Schnellenberg. He was a son of Johann, was named Anna with his wife in 1519 and was the last of his name here. The small fief and the other goods on and near the Schnellenberg passed to Jasper von Schungel von Berninchusen, who had Johann's daughter Margaretha as his wife.

In 1590 the last loan letter was issued to the von Schnellenberg family.

The von Fürstenberg family bought the castle in 1594

Imperial eagle from 1695

In 1594 sales contracts were made between Drosten Caspar von Fürstenberg zu Bilstein and Bernhard Vogt von Elspe zu Borghausen and Hennecke Schungel for their shares in the Schnellenberg family. When the castle was purchased, the first discussions arose that the castle had been an imperial castle. After Caspar von Fürstenberg was accepted into the imperial knighthood in 1595, he applied for imperial immediacy for the castle as well. In the following years the family had the castle rebuilt and expanded as a residence in the Renaissance style.

In 1671 the city of Attendorn confirmed to the von Fürstenberg family that they had never given the city treasure and taxes. Then the captains of the knighthood in Friedberg asked the family to post the imperial eagle as a sign of imperial immediacy. The elector, who had remained silent about this until now, ordered an investigation in 1698. It was not until 1701 that the electoral court chancellery in Bonn ordered the application to be granted.

In 1785, Elector Maximilian Franz called Baron Clemens Lothar von Fürstenberg to account for the expression used in a document and ordered that the Schnellenberg House be incorporated into the Cologne Brand Society. Baron Clemens Lothar von Fürstenberg, for his part, sued this order and obtained favorable orders in the lower courts in 1785 and 1789. In the course of these trials he had his membership of the imperial knighthood again certified in 1791.

The final decision was not made until 1802, when the Hesse-Darmstadt government and the Duchy of Westphalia also took possession of Schnellenberg Castle. On September 17, 1812, after 217 years, the court of appeal in Darmstadt finally decided in favor of Fürstenberg that Schnellenberg Castle had been imperial under the old imperial constitution.

The castle remained the residence of the Fürstenberg family until they moved their main residence to Herdringen Castle near Arnsberg .

The castle after 1800

Since the last members of the von Fürstenberg family moved away in 1835, the castle has been slowly decaying. Changing tenants ran a brewery in the southern part of the outer bailey. In 1889 this outer bailey was completely destroyed by fire. After that, only the Burgschänke was continued, which in addition to a beer garden, the “Green Place”, which was located behind the upper castle, also had a bowling alley.

In 1902, Schnellenberg was so threatened by decay that the von Fürstenbergs had some inventory items removed and brought to the castle in Herdringen.

In 1911/12 one of the first youth hostels in Germany was set up in the Oberburg . This was closed again in 1928, according to Boos (1958), because a permanent lease by the German Youth Hostel Association "failed due to the demands of the Fürstenberg administration about possible forest damage by hikers".

In the same year Norbert Bilsing leased the castle. At first he used it mainly for agricultural purposes, but he also opened a small inn. From 1932 to 1934 there was a camp of the voluntary labor service ( Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst ) in the castle , after which it served as a home for the country school year , which had been introduced by the Nazi regime in 1934 as a compulsory year for girls leaving school. During the Second World War, the city of Düsseldorf stored some of its art treasures in Schnellenberg Castle.

After 1945 the upper castle was then leased to the social welfare works as a rest home, while the outer castle with side wing was used by the tenant family Bilsing as a boarding house and utility room. In 1957 the family gave up farming, and one year later they opened the “Burghotel”. After the death of the first tenant Norbert Bilsing in 1958, his sons Norbert jr. and Ulrich the business. In the 1960s they ran a small zoo with brown bears , deer and monkeys in front of the castle.

The Bilsing family still operates the hotel and restaurant today, just as the castle is still owned by the Freiherr von Fürstenberg-Herdringen family. The city of Attendorn offers civil weddings in the cross vault.

chapel

George Altar

The St. George Chapel in the upper castle is particularly worth mentioning . It is in the Mannerist style and is still completely in its original condition from 1600. It was built by Caspar von Fürstenberg as part of the renovation of the castle, and his brother Dietrich donated the construction costs . The portrait of the prince-bishop is on the ceiling. The floor plan of the chapel is four by four meters. The decoration in the approximately seven-meter-high room comes from Augustinus Jodefeld from Paderborn in the area of ​​the wall and ceiling painting, while the Frankfurt artists Hans Miltenberger and Johann Hocheisen were responsible for the carving and stone work. The painting was whitewashed in 1837, but could be restored from 1974. The altar dedicated to Saint George is on the east side, wooden galleries can be found in the north and west.

Surroundings

In the vicinity of the castle are the Biggesee and the Atta cave .

Web links

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

literature

  • Heimatblätter, magazine of the Heimatvereine for the district of Olpe
  • Voices from the Olpe district
  • Home chronicle of the district of Olpe
  • Albert K. Hömberg, in Heimatblätter magazine of the Heimatvereine for the Olpe district, 1935, and 12/52
  • Albert K. Hömberg, Historical News on Noble Seats and Manors in the Duchy of Westphalia, Issue 9, 10
  • Heinrich Neu , Walther Zimmermann : The work of the painter Renier Roidkin. Views of West German churches, castles, palaces and cities from the first half of the 18th century . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1939, pp. 142-143.
  • Pickert's collection
  • Documents of the House of Bamenohl in the Münster aristocracy archive
  • Josef Brunnabend: Attendorn, Schnellenberg, Waldenburg and Ewig, 2nd edition Münster 1958, pp. 244–246.
  • Markus Köster: Attendorn's first youth hostel at Schnellenberg Castle, in: Attendorn yesterday and today. Bulletin of the Association for Orts- und Heimatkunde Attendorn eV No. 34/2012, pp. 3–12. [ISSN 1864-1989]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Document 1411.VIII.29.
  2. ↑ Document 1441.I.3.
  3. ↑ Document 1471. XII. 18th
  4. ↑ Document 1483, IV. 23. and 1439.V.18
  5. ↑ Document 1512, X. 17.
  6. ^ A b Meinolf Lüttecke: Family Bilsing: 90 years Burg Schnellenberg. May 7, 2018, accessed on May 23, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ Roland Vossel: Wedding in Olpe: On the Biggesee or in the castle. April 26, 2018, accessed on May 23, 2020 (German).