Stahelsberg Castle

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Stahelsberg Castle
Image 1: Remains of the foundation wall of the monastery chapel on the castle grounds (April 2014)

Image 1: Remains of the foundation wall of the monastery chapel on the castle grounds (April 2014)

Creation time : 11th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Disappeared, neck ditch and wall preserved
Place: Heidenheim - Hechlingen - "Schlossberg"
Geographical location 48 ° 57 '27.3 "  N , 10 ° 43' 25.2"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 57 '27.3 "  N , 10 ° 43' 25.2"  E
Height: 528.3  m above sea level NN
Stahelsberg Castle (Bavaria)
Stahelsberg Castle
Photo 2: Profile of the neck ditch (April 2014)

The castle Stahelsberg is today only as Postal preserved high medieval aristocratic castle. It was located on the Schlossberg south of Hechlingen in the Middle Franconian community of Heidenheim in Bavaria , Germany . Today the castle is almost completely gone, only the impressive neck moat and a section wall have survived.

Geographical location

The castle site of the Spornburg is located in the south-western area of ​​the Frankenjura low mountain range , at 528.3  m above sea level. NN high Schlossberg , which forms a mountain spur protruding west into the Rohrach valley . This spur is about 70  meters above the valley floor and drops steeply on three sides, only the east side merges into a slightly rising plateau a few meters lower.

The Burgstall is located around 2,330 meters south-southwest of the Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church of St. Lucia and Ottilie in Hechlingen or around seven kilometers south-southwest of Heidenheim.

There are other former medieval or prehistoric castles in the vicinity: the two castles of Steinhart were 3.5 kilometers to the west, and the castle stables of Trendel Castle were 4.7 kilometers southwest .

history

Not much is known about the castle itself, it was probably built during the 11th century and was the ancestral seat of the Lords of Stahelsberg. They died out with the Rupertus de Stahelsberc mentioned in 1197 , which is also the first mention of the castle. After the death of Rupert, the Stahelsbergers were inherited by the nobles and later Counts of Truhendingen . Friedrich III. von Truhendingen and his wife Agnes wanted to have a Cistercian convent built on the grounds of Stahelsberg Castle , which the Eichstätter Bishop Friedrich II of Parsberg confirmed to them on August 14, 1245 . However, the monastery was originally founded in Windsfeld near Gunzenhausen before 1222 , but it is not known why this change of location took place. But the Schlossberg was not the last location of the monastery either; in 1252 it was moved to monastery rooms. This second change of location came about on the one hand for economic reasons, on the other hand through a foundation by Rudolf von Hürnheim-Rauhaus , who gave the monastery his property near Klosterzimmer, but with the condition that the monastery be relocated from the Schlossberg to the Ries . In 1253 it was again placed under the protection of the Pope. Then the monastery and the associated settlement on the Schlossberg fell into disrepair after the nuns emigrated.

Today the castle stable is a monument D-5-77-140-44 “Chapel ruin, preserved fragments of a castle or a monastery, medieval; Schloßberg "as well as the ground monument D-5-7030-0047" Medieval castle stable and abandoned Cistercian monastery "recorded by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments .

description

The approximately bell-shaped area of ​​the castle complex, which extends from east to west, has a maximum length of 140 meters and a width of up to 100 meters on the east side, on the west side it is reduced to around 40 meters. On three sides, the surface of the castle slopes steeply into the Rohrach valley, only in the east, where a plateau adjoins, it had to be reinforced by a ditch with an inner wall. This trench , which runs from north to south and is slightly curved outwards , is around 150 meters long, its average width is 15 meters and its depth is four meters (Fig. 2). The trench carved out of the rock has a clear overburden mound at the north and south end, a sign of its artificial origin. The inside of this trench is flanked by a mighty wall, which, like the trench, covers the entire east side. Its width at the base is 20 meters, from the bottom of the neck ditch its height is nine meters, from the castle grounds 2.5 meters. At the south-east corner of the castle grounds, the wall then runs a further 60 meters across in a south-westerly direction down the mountainside. There is a quarry a few meters below the Wallende .

There are no clear traces of former buildings on the castle area anymore, only the ruins of a small church are on the north side (Fig. 1). This was oriented east-west, and measured 16 by 8 meters. A rectangular choir adjoined it on its east side .

photos

and display information about the image
Photo 3: View over the castle grounds. On the left the ruins of a small church, in the middle in the background the wall can be seen. (April 2014)

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Location of the Burgstall in the Bavaria Atlas
  2. ↑ Source history: Wilfried Sponsel, Hartmut Steger: Past castles and mansions. A search for traces in the view of the giant , p. 130 f.
  3. ↑ List of monuments for Waidacher Forest (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 63 kB)
  4. ↑ Source description: Konrad Spindler: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 15: Landkreis Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen - Monuments and sites , p. 84 ff.