Stahlberg Castle

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Stahlberg Castle
Stahlberg Castle

Stahlberg Castle

Creation time : 1158 to 1168
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Keep, parts of the curtain wall, remains of an angular tower
Standing position : Clerical. Count
Place: Bacharach - Steeg
Geographical location 50 ° 3 '25.3 "  N , 7 ° 44' 18.9"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 3 '25.3 "  N , 7 ° 44' 18.9"  E
Stahlberg Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Stahlberg Castle

The Burg Stahlberg is the ruin of a Spur castle in a valley on a mountain ridge above the hamlet Steeg the city Bacharach in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate .

Stahlberg Castle has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .

history

Dendrochronological investigations from 2005 yielded data in the period from 1158 to 1168 for the construction of the entire complex. Previous assumptions about a different age of the upper and lower castle can thus be considered refuted. A second major expansion phase dates back to the second quarter of the 14th century. This was mainly due to the collapse of the rectangular keep and the south-western curtain wall . The round keep was raised at that time. Other smaller extensions are documented around 1470.

The castle was probably built on behalf of the Archbishops of Cologne to secure the property that existed here at the time, possibly also as a counter-castle to Stahleck Castle , where Gozwin von Stahleck held the office of bailiff over the Middle Rhine property of the Archbishopric of Cologne, his son Hermann von However, as Count Palatine, Stahleck made himself largely independent. As early as 1243, the castle and Fürstenberg went to the Wittelsbach Count Palatine as a fief . Apart from a longer pledge phase between 1317 and 1353 to the Archbishops of Trier, it remained with them and was administered for a long period by Burgraves Knebel von Katzenelnbogen. In the Thirty Years' War in 1631 damaged by Swedish troops, it was - as almost all the castles of the region - in 1689 by the French army in the Nine Years War completely destroyed.

Current condition

Parts of the curtain wall with a round tower behind it and the remains of a square tower have been preserved. During the first restoration work, parts of the circular wall and the hall structure were secured, and the chapel was excavated. Further hedging periods will follow. Since 1912 the ruin has been owned by the Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection eV , Cologne.

  • Square keep

  • Round keep

  • Castle gate

  • General view from the southwest

Web links

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

literature

  • Michael P. Fuhr: Who wants to be the keeper of the river? 40 castles and palaces on the Middle Rhine . 2nd Edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1460-1 .
  • Thomas Otten: The Stahlberg castle ruins. Practical monument preservation at the Rheinischer Verein . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . 42nd year, no. 4 , 2005, p. 241-244 .
  • Achim Wendt: The Stahlberg castle ruins. First results of the building research . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . 42nd year, no. 4 , 2005, p. 245-255 .
  • Achim Wendt: Stahlberg ruins - rediscovery of a forgotten Rheinburg . In: City and Castle on the Middle Rhine . 1st edition. Schnell & Steiner, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2072-7 , pp. 139-153 .
  • Sibylle Bauer: The Stahlberg castle ruins. First results of the dendrochronological investigations . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . 42nd year, no. 4 , 2005, p. 256-262 .