Sponeck Castle

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Sponeck Castle
Tower of Sponeck Castle

Tower of Sponeck Castle

Alternative name (s): Span harrow
Creation time : after 1281
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Oberburg, residential tower
Standing position : Nobles, counts
Place: Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl -Jechtingen
Geographical location 48 ° 6 '50.8 "  N , 7 ° 35' 2"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 6 '50.8 "  N , 7 ° 35' 2"  E
Height: 202  m above sea level NN
Sponeck Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Sponeck Castle

The Castle Sponeck earlier also Spanegge called, is the ruins of a hilltop castle on a 202  m above sea level. NN high rock spur above the Rhine in the district of Jechtingen in the municipality of Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl in the district of Emmendingen in Baden-Württemberg . The castle was built over the remains of a late antique fort , the Sasbach-Jechtingen fort .

Geographical location

Both the fort and the castle were built on the 25 meter high rock spur, which was then surrounded by the Rhine on three sides. An attack was only possible from the east. Only when the Rhine was straightened out in Tulla had the Rhine been shifted about 200 meters to the west. Due to the associated change in topography, the rock west of Sasbach-Jechtingen is now completely surrounded by land.

history

Late antique border fort

Wall remains of the late Roman fort in Sponeck Castle

In 1973, during excavations in the area in front of Sponeck Castle, the remains of a late antique fort built around 370 during the reign of Emperor Valentinian I were discovered. Walls, towers and part of the interior could be identified. The irregular structure is more like a medieval castle than a Roman Limes fort and, with its wall, adapts to the terrain. The east side was sealed off by a 1.6 meter thick wall with two corner towers. At the highest point of the rock another tower is to be assumed, the foundations of which could be partially excavated. From there a line of sight to the next late antique military sites on the Rhine and in Alsace was guaranteed. The interior development consisted of half-timbered buildings leaning against the walls , floor plans could not be determined. With approx. 40 × 50 meters, the relatively small but strong system, together with the neighboring late Roman fortress on the "mons brisiacum" ( Breisach ) and the forts of Oedenburg and Horbourg in what is now Alsace, served to secure the crossing of the Rhine and to Defense against the Teutons . The number of four late antique military installations in a narrow space is unique. In 378 the Alamanni crossed the Rhine either at the "Sponeck-Kastell" or at Breisach, but were repulsed by Emperor Gratian in the battle of Argentovaria . According to the findings within the fort and a nearby cemetery, where the soldiers' family members were also buried, the fort existed at least until the 401 border troops withdrew, but probably beyond. There are some indications that the facility was initially used by the Alamanni and then by the Franks as a base to secure the crossing of the Rhine. Then the fort fell into disrepair, and the strategically favorable location of the rock spur was not used again until the late Middle Ages .

Hilltop castle

View of Sponeck Castle from the 19th century
Today's Sponeck Castle

The hilltop castle was built after 1281 over the former fort. 1302 a Hildebrand "de Sponecke" is mentioned. After 1333 the castle passed to the Counts of Württemberg , for whom it served as a bridgehead to the County of Horburg in Alsace . After Duke Ulrich von Württemberg was expelled , the castle came into the possession of Caspar Fabri in 1525 and Jacob von Berckheim in 1540 . Around 1550, the castle, presumably already dilapidated, returned to the Württemberg line of the Mömpelgardische line . The castle was in ruins during the Thirty Years' War . The name of the Count von Sponeck , who is related to the House of Württemberg, is derived from the castle. With the exchange and epuration treaty of 1806, the castle came from the Kingdom of Württemberg to the Grand Duchy of Baden .

In 1781 or 1802, the Upper Austrian government councilor, Aegid Karl von Fahnenberg from Burkheim am Kaiserstuhl, tried to acquire the castle and the property belonging to it from the Württemberg people. His plan was to take in Jews in this imperial immediate area for protection money .

Later, the Burkheim eagle host Sebastian Sichler managed to keep the castle as an inheritance . He had set up a tap house in the ruins and had become mayor. Against payment of a transfer fee of 1,100 guilders, he received the castle from the Freiburg Higher Court even after the transfer to Baden.

After several changes of ownership, the painter Hans Adolf Bühler bought the castle for 25,000 gold marks in 1917 , rebuilt it and set up a studio in the former residential tower. The Freiburg architect Carl Anton Meckel and the company Brenzinger & Cie. involved. After the painter's death in 1951, the castle remained in the family's possession.

The plant today

Nothing has been preserved from the historic castle complex. She had a core castle of about 22 by 25 meters with a great hall of about 9 times 7 meters, a dungeon with a footprint of about 12 by 12.5 meters and a wall thickness of approximately 1.7 meters and a bailey with residential tower . The buildings that are still visible today and some of them are in ruins, like the tower, are structural additions from the 19th and 20th centuries. The restored remains of a stone wall and two corner towers have been preserved from the Roman fort.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sponeck Castle in Sasbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Photo of Burg Sponeck before the renovation , leo-bw.de , accessed on July 13, 2020.
  2. ↑ see kaiserstuhl.eu
  3. ^ Ernst Galli: Egid Joseph Karl Freiherr von Fahnenberg, Lord of Burkheim am Kaiserstuhl (1749-1827). In: Schau-ins-Land 114 (1995), p. 122.