Stauf Castle (Palatinate)

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Stauf Castle
Stauf Castle.JPG
Alternative name (s): castellum Stoufenburc
Creation time : around 1000
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Count
Place: Eisenberg -Stauf
Geographical location 49 ° 33 '0 "  N , 8 ° 1' 37"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 33 '0 "  N , 8 ° 1' 37"  E
Height: 327.1  m above sea level NHN
Stauf Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Stauf Castle

The castle Stauf is the ruin of a Spur castle in the district of Stauf the city Eisenberg in Donnersbergkreis in Rheinland-Pfalz .

Geographical location

Stauf Castle is located south of the district named after it on a mountain spur of the Kühberg ( 366  m ), 327.1  m above sea level. NHN high Schloßberg , which rises north over the valley of the Eisbach . It can be reached from Stauf via a forest path.

history

The castle was probably built before the year 1000 and is documented as "castellum Stoufenburc" around 1012. This makes it the oldest documented system of its kind in the Palatinate .

High Middle Ages

  • In connection with a stay of Salier Duke Konrad I of Carinthia (975-1011), the first historically secure evidence of Stauf Castle is available. His son, Duke Konrad II (~ 1003–1039) held the office of count in Wormsgau, Speyergau and Nahegau in addition to the ducal dignity. Because of an uprising against his cousin King Konrad II , he had to demolish some of his castles. That may be one reason for the lack of news about Stauf Castle for the next two centuries. He died with no offspring.
  • Gottfried von Staufen († probably 1187/1188), son of Konrad the Staufer (* 1134/36; † 1195) and descendant of the king and emperor Konrad II, can be identified as the owner of the castle.
  • Count Eberhard III. von Eberstein (* (1144); † before 1219) came into the possession of Stauf Castle until 1190, apparently through marriage to Kunigunde (* approx 1188) must have been the heiress of the Stauf rule. The other daughter of Konrad, Agnes von Staufen († 1204), inherited the Pfalzgrafschaft near Rhine.
  • Eberhard IV von Eberstein (* around 1190; † March 18, 1263 ), was the owner of the Stauf rule and founder of the Cistercian convent Rosenthal after an inheritance distribution .
  • Agnes III von Eberstein, his daughter, married Heinrich II von Saarbrücken-Zweibrücken in 1238 , whereby the rule of Stauf and Rosenthal monastery fell to this family. Their daughter Kunigunde († before 1283) became the first abbess of Rosenthal, who also joined the convent to the Cistercian order . In 1282 Kurtrier is documented as a feudal lender for Stauf Castle opposite Heinrich II.

Late Middle Ages and Modern Times

Inscription plaque at Stauf Castle

Count Heinrich II. Von Sponheim-Bolanden bought the castle between 1378 and 1388. After the death of Count Heinrich II (1393), the Stauf rule came to the husband of his granddaughter, Count Philip I of Nassau-Saarbrücken . Until the end of the 18th century it remained together with the Kirchheim rulership in Nassau ownership.

In the Peasants' War in 1525, the castle was composed of a bailey (Southern Citadel), a "middle castle" and the main castle consisted (North Castle), destroyed.

The historical association Rosenthal owned the ruins from 1871 until it passed to the city of Eisenberg in June 2000.

Reign of Stauf

The following localities have belonged to the Stauf rule since the 14th century: Breunigweiler , Eisenberg , Göllheim , Kerzenheim , Kerzweiler (Korbsweiler), Pfrimm ( Pfrimmerhof ), Ramsen , Rosenthal , Sippersfeld and Stauf as well as the so-called Rheindörfer Bobenheim , Hochheim , Horchheim , Leiselheim , Mörsch , Pfiffligheim , Roxheim , Weinsheim and Wiesoppenheim .

legend

Three virgins are said to have lived at Stauf Castle once, one red-haired, one black-haired and one blonde. The blonde is said to have been the most beautiful of them, but she went blind in her youth. The young women were very rich because they took away the presents they had brought from all applicants for their hand, but their other conditions could never be met.

One day the women wanted to share their wealth, but the seeing sisters tried to betray their blind sister. She noticed the fraud but said nothing.

Knight Berthold von Winzingen , still a bachelor, heard from a miner about the beautiful virgins at Stauf Castle and that the blonde was the most beautiful of them. The knight then went to the castle to see for himself. He was greeted by the two seeing sisters, but when he asked about the blonde sister, the dogs were chased on him and he was chased out of the castle. However, the knight did not give up and lay in wait nearby. After a few days he saw the seeing sisters ride out of the castle and took the opportunity. He bribed the castle servant at the gate and went into the castle. He met the blonde virgin and was overwhelmed by her beauty and grace. She was willing to come with him and accompanied him to Winzingen Castle . When the sisters found out, they feared for their wealth as their sister could claim her share. So they let the castle servant bury the treasure near their castle. After telling the sisters where the spot was, they poked his eyes out and threw him into the swamp, where he drowned.

After a short time it led the sisters back into the swamp while they were ducking, and something pulled them down into the depths. Just before they drowned too, they heard a deep laugh from the swamp.

When the blonde sister heard of her sisters' death, she inherited her inheritance and moved with her husband to Stauf Castle. One evening she was taking a walk along the castle wall when she heard a deep voice: “It was I who killed your sisters and I know where the riches are buried. I want to give it to you, but you have to use part of it to build a monastery and support the poor. The rest should be yours. You have to promise me that. ”She promised. "Good, then come tomorrow night to the book in the valley at Rosenberg and bring your husband with you!" The speaker disappeared.

The couple went to the designated place that night. There they met a friendly miner who led them to the treasures.

The blonde sister kept her promise and the foundation stone of a church was laid for what would later become the Ramsen monastery . When the church was consecrated, the other two sisters were remembered. But no mass was read for them and no prayer said for them, so Berthold determined.

That is why they have not found rest in their wet grave to this day. At the witching hour they should still wander through the valley with flowing robes and their red and black hair and sing wistful songs. At the end of the witching hour she is supposed to pull a green monster back into the depths of the swamp and laugh terribly deeply.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Map service of the landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate Nature Conservation Administration (LANIS map) ( notes ) Scale 1: 1,000
  2. ↑ Stauf castle ruins. In: www.hist-verein-rosenthal.de. Retrieved June 18, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Hermann Schreibmüller : Castle and Lordship of Stauf in the Palatinate , Volume 1: until 1263, Kaiserslautern: Thieme, 1913. P. 10 ( dilibri.de )
  4. ↑ Hermann Schreibmüller : Castle and Lordship of Stauf in the Palatinate , Volume 1: to 1263, Kaiserslautern: Thieme, 1913. P. 34 ( dilibri.de )
  5. ↑ Hermann Schreibmüller : Castle and Lordship of Stauf in the Palatinate , Volume 1: until 1263, Kaiserslautern: Thieme, 1913. P. 38 ( dilibri.de ). In contrast to Schreibmüller, it seems more obvious to see Kunigunde as a daughter than as a granddaughter of Konrad des Staufers (* 1134/36). As a granddaughter, the age difference to Eberhard III would be. (* 1144) quite considerable, if not impossible
  6. ^ Hermann Schreibmüller : Castle and Lordship of Stauf in the Palatinate , Volume 1: to 1263, Kaiserslautern: Thieme, 1913. P. 20 ( dilibri.de )
  7. ^ Wilhelm Fabricius : The Lords of the Lower Nahe Area , Bonn: Behrendt, 1914, p. 404 ( dilibri.de )
  8. ↑ Hermann Schreibmüller : Castle and Lordship of Stauf in the Palatinate , Volume 2 (conclusion): until 1393, Kaiserslautern: Thieme, 1914. P. 16 ( dilibri.de )
  9. ↑ Viktor Carl: Greed - Fraud - Murder - Punishment . In: Palatinate sagas and legends . Arwid Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben 2000, ISBN 3-9804668-3-3 , p. 628