Stein Castle (Thuringia)

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Stein Castle
Stein Castle.jpg
Alternative name (s): Bischofstein Castle
Creation time : 1230 to 1400
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Burgstall, ramparts and moats, remains of walls
Standing position : Nobles, clericals, duke
Place: Lengenfeld under the stone
Geographical location 51 ° 13 '19 "  N , 10 ° 12' 23"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 13 '19 "  N , 10 ° 12' 23"  E
Height: 401  m above sea level NN
Stein Castle (Thuringia)
Stein Castle

The stone castle is an Outbound hilltop castle on 401  m above sea level. NN in northwest Thuringia above the town of Lengenfeld unterm Stein in the Unstrut-Hainich district .

Geographical location

Stein Castle was located on the Schlossberg immediately northwest of Lengenfeld, about 15 km west of Mühlhausen and 10 km east of the Hessian district town of Eschwege . The completely wooded Schlossberg ( 401.9  m ) is a spur-like offshoot of the upper limestone plate on the Uhlenstein ( 460.8  m ). The castle complex itself was on the extreme southwestern tip of the mountain, the steep mountain slopes lead into the Effeldertal in the southeast, Friedatal in the south and Bilztal in the northwest and north. To the south at the foot of the mountain runs the railway line of the former cannon train , which is now used as a trolley line, and Bischofstein Castle , built in the 18th century .

From a small edge at the lower castle you have a view over the Friedatal to the Plesse and the Hülfensberg .

history

In the Middle Ages, the area around Stein Castle was closely connected with the Windische Mark , belonged to the Germarmark and thus came into possession claims between the Landgraves of Thuringia and the Counts of Northeim and successors between the Landgraves of Hesse , the Dukes of Braunschweig and the Archbishops of Mainz . The owners of the area in the 11th century were the Gisonen , with the death of Hedwig von Gudensberg in 1148 the inheritance of the Gisonen fell to her husband Ludwig , the Landgrave of Thuringia.

The castle was probably built at the beginning of the 12th century, but the size of the complex leaves an older fortified predecessor from the 10th / 11th. Suspect century. It was first mentioned in writing as a castle in 1298 as castrum Steyn . Initially, only the name "Stein" appears, but it also occurs in other castles in West Thuringia and Northeast Hesse ( Altenstein Castle ) and therefore cannot always be assigned to the castle later called Bischofstein. But before that, some documents refer to the castle.

A Tuto de Lapide probably already lived on the rock above Lengenfeld in 1234. In 1269, the pastor of Lapide is mentioned as a witness in a sales document about 4 Hufen Wald near Gozrode , but it can only have been the pastor of the church of the town of Stein. In the middle of the 13th century the castle must already have been in the possession of Kurmainz, Archbishop Gerhard I of Mainz transferred the castle to the nobleman Gottschalk von Plesse in 1251 to guard and manage all accessories. In connection with the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession (1247 to 1264), the Dukes of Braunschweig took possession of several places in the Werra Valley, including Stein Castle. After the death of Archbishop Gerhard (1251–1259) Gottschalk von Plesse had to sell the castle to Duke Albrecht von Braunschweig . In a contract of 1264, the Duke had to cede 8 fortified sites in the Werra Valley to the Hessian Landgrave Heinrich , but not Stein Castle. The subsequent Archbishop Werner (1259–1284) also reclaimed the castle, but did not receive it.

In 1282 a Hugo was mentioned as advocatus in Lapide and in 1288 an administrator Arno von Heimberg, so they were Brunswick officials. In 1298, Landgrave Dietrich of Thuringia and Count Bertold von Henneberg vow to elector Gerhard (1288–1305) of Mainz, with the help of the king, to induce Duke Albrecht to renounce Thuringia and Stein Castle. In 1305 there was a contract between the followers of Duke Albrecht of Braunschweig and the Landgrave of Thuringia. The Brunswick vassal Hildebrand von Hardenberg receives the stone as a fief. Since the brothers Bernhard and Hildebrand von Hardenberg were appointed as electoral Mainz officials on the Rusteberg in 1321 , they also became servants of the Archbishop. For this reason Hildebrand and Johann (knight) and Bernhard (nobleman) von Hardenberg sell Stein Castle with all its accessories for 2300 marks of pure silver to Archbishop Matthias von Buchegg , who thus regains possession of the castle. On this occasion, the oppidum (small town, castle patch) is mentioned, the remains of which have been preserved in the area as urban desert below the castle.

In 1336 (and 1341) Baldewin von Luxemburg had to pledge the castles Stein (probably only the Oberburg) and Großengottern to Landgrave Friderich von Thuringia because of open debts. The Dukes of Braunschweig also made several claims to the possession of Stein Castle as their Gisonian legacy. In a list of goods from 1358, the area of ​​the Windische Mark is listed with all villages and desolations. From the 15th century, the name Bischofstein became common. In the 17th century the castle complex fell into disrepair, but was still used as an official residence.

In the 18th century, today's Bischofstein Castle was built from the remains of the stone castle ruins. The place Lengenfeld unterm Stein takes its name from the castle rock. A rock ledge nearby is also called “stone”.

Castle men

The owners of the castle appointed lords or bailiffs to manage the castle and judicial district. Since the castle temporarily had two or more owners (on the upper castle and the lower castle) or shares were pledged, several lords of the castle lived on the stone at the same time. The following castle men can be proven:

  • 1184 Berengar II, a brother of Count Ludwig III. from Lohra
  • 1251 Gottschalk von Plesse (Kurmainzer Burgmann)
  • 1282 Hugo von Stein (Brunswick Burgmann)
  • 1288 Arno von Heimberg (Braunschweig administrator)
  • 1305 Hildebrand von Hardenberg (Brunswick vassal) (and Vogt Konrad Arnold (Hardenbergscher Burgmann))
  • 1339 nobleman Heinrich von Hanstein with 1/2 castle
  • 1336 Dietrich and Hermann von Heringen (Ergburg men for the stone on the Eichsfeld)
  • 1342 Bertold von Worbis and Johann von Wintzingerode , Vögte zu Rusteberg receive half of the castle as a pledge
  • 1350 Reinhard Keudel
  • 1360 Eckert von Proyse alongside other knights
  • 1364 Heinrich von Dingelstädt
  • 1364 Marold von Töpfer (Dopphirn)
  • 1364 (after?) Heinrich and Johann von Nazza (von der Necze)
  • 1364 (after?) Bertold von Volkerode, his father and his brothers
  • 1367 Otto and Johann von Ershausen (Ergburglehen on the lower castle)
  • 1380 Siegfried von Bültzingslöwen (half of the castle until 1574)
  • 1381 Gebrüder Eckard, Heinrich, Herdein and Appel von Proyse
  • then Ulrich von Nesse, Lords von Volkerode, von Harstall
  • 1420 Lords of Ershausen (in the lower castle)
  • 1476 Lords of Hanstein

City stone

Location of St. George's Chapel within the deserted Stein

At the foot of the castle hill there was a fortified settlement that presumably served to supply the castle. The settlement was surrounded by a wall and a moat and directly connected to the castle. Due to the hillside location below the castle, the buildings were built on terraces. The “oppidum” was certainly not a city in the legal sense, but more of a fortified market or farm. Archaeological finds from the 13th-14th centuries Century are in the Heimatmuseum Mühlhausen. The St. George's Chapel was on a plateau, a rubble wall indicates a size of 15 × 5 meters, below there is another ring wall of a possible cemetery. A modern cemetery still exists in the lower part of the settlement. The castle and town are mentioned for the last time in 1420. It is not known when the settlement was abandoned. The chapel was rebuilt around 1600 and consecrated in 1611, and destroyed again along with the castle in the Thirty Years' War. In 1708 the chapel is mentioned in connection with a church act, after which it was probably demolished.

Below the town at the foot of the castle hill there was still an outwork at the end of the 16th century , probably for the agricultural supply of the castle. In Friedatal the Hagemühle still belonged to the castle district.

The Electoral Mainz Office of Bischofstein

After the Archbishops of Mainz acquired the castle and the probably smaller castle district of Stein, the Electoral Mainz Office of Bischofstein was created. The Bischofstein office finally included the villages of Bebendorf , Diedorf , Döringsdorf , Ershausen , Faulungen , Geismar , Großbartloff , Heyerode , Hildebrandshausen , Katharinenberg , Krombach , Lehna , Misserode , Lengenfeld and Wilbich . In 1583 the villages Frieda (formerly Eichsfeldisch) and Döringsdorf (formerly Hessian) were exchanged between Kurmainz and the Hessian Landgrave. Furthermore, the current town of Stein and Kubsdorf belonged to the office of Bischofstein . In the 16th century, the office of Bischofstein was partly administered from Rusteberg because of the shared ownership. From the 17th century, the neighboring office of Greifenstein was combined with the office of Bischofstein and administered from here. After the construction of Bischofstein Castle, Bischofstein Castle was completely abandoned and the administration of the office moved to the castle. Exactly where the court was held is not known, possibly in the area of ​​the city of Stein, the gallows was suspected to be on the Kälberberg.

Officials in the early years included the lords of Hanstein and von Bültzingslöwen , von Volkerode and Harstall. In later years officials of the elector were appointed. The authority was composed of the following persons: the governor, the magistrate, the actuary, the clerk and the official pedel. The office was also responsible for lower jurisdiction, and there was also a prison on the Bischofstein. Before the abandonment of Stein Castle, the following lords and bailiffs are known:

The Electoral Mainz Office of Bischofstein in 1759
  • 1532–1561 Kunz Gutjahr (half of the Burgvogtei)
  • 1561–1574 Thomas Thombose (half of the Burgvogtei)
  • 1574–1617 Philipp Falk (from 1574 always the entire castle bailiwick)
  • 1617–1635 Johann Rabhun
  • 1635-1660 Petrus Jodoci
  • 1661–1663 Johannes Jodoci
  • 1663–1675 Georg Wilhelm von Zwehl
  • 1675–1706 Urban Ignaz Glesener
  • 1708–1736 Karl Heinrich Helm
  • 1736–1749 Johann Anselm Helm

Structural systems

Small remains of the wall can still be found in various places on the castle grounds

The castle grounds are 140 m long, the width varies between 19 and 40 m and is protected by a moat. The terrain rises to the east and divided it into two parts of the castle: the upper castle and the lower castle. On both parts of the castle there was a tower, which can still be seen as a depression in the area. A historical map from the end of the 16th century and the information provided by Bailiff Phillip Falk around 1600 show other buildings: the large office building stood on the upper castle and had 3 floors, in front of it a shed, a wash house and a baking and malt house and inside Area of ​​Niederburg a horse stable and permanent house.

Today you can only find minimal wall remains, stones and broken bricks in the castle grounds, but the neck moat is still clearly visible. Almost all traces of the settlement can also be found in the area. A well system is still known in the area of ​​the former Vorwerk and there is a small pond.

Noble family von Stein

It is not known where the von Stein aristocratic family came from, and whether Poppo von Stein, mentioned in 1139, can be assigned to the local Stein Castle is not known. Since there were several Stein castles in Hesse and Thuringia, the documents for the lords of the castle de Lapide cannot always be clearly assigned to a castle. In 1293 a knight Hugo von Stein was employed as bailiff or ministerial at Stein Castle. It is also possible that other castle people from other noble families named themselves after the castle on which they temporarily lived. They owned goods in Bickenriede, Anrode , Ammern, Aue (near Eschwege) and Rumerode (near Diedorf). Other bearers of the name are: (an exact assignment to the individual noble families is not always possible with certainty, as there were several castles in the Thür. / Hess. Border area)

  • Tuto (dictus de lapide) (1272)
  • (the above) Hugo von Stein (sealed in 1282) with Heinrich
  • Adelheid (wife of Hugo)
  • Jutta (Hugo's sister) with sons Heinrich and Ulrich
  • Hugo and Lukardis (parents of Hugo)
  • Eberhard von Stein (1289)?, Provost in Dorla
  • Heinrich von Stein (de Lapide 1294), scholaster at the Marienstift in Erfurt, a brother of Hugo

literature

  • Rolf Aulepp: Medieval desertions in the Eichsfelder part of the Mühlhausen district , (Wüstung Stadt Stein) - In: Eichsfelder Heimathefte Heft 1/1989, p. 89ff.
  • Rolf Aulepp: Medieval desolations in the Eichsfelder part of the Mühlhausen district , (Stein Castle) - In: Eichsfelder Heimathefte Heft 2/1989, p. 180ff.
  • Thomas Bienert: Medieval castles and palaces in Thuringia , Wartberg-Verlag Gudensberg 2000, pp. 308–309.
  • Paul Grimm , Wolfgang Timpel: The prehistoric and early historical fortifications of the Mühlhausen district , Mühlhausen 1972, p. 51f.
  • Hans Patze , Peter Aufgebauer (Ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 9: Thuringia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 313). 2nd, improved and supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-520-31302-2 , p. 50f.
  • Raymund Falk: Bischofstein Castle and its relationships in the Middle Ages. UE 1 (1992), pp. 15-22.
  • Anton Fick: Lengenfeld / Stein and the office of Bischofstein in Eichsfeld. Heiligenstadt 2006, 272 pages, 2 plans, ISBN 978-3-935782-12-8
  • Anton Fick: Castle Bischofstein in Eichsfelde edited according to archival and historical literary sources. Part I (up to 1360), self-published by Duderstadt in 1959
  • Elmar Golland: From Stein Castle to Bischofstein. In: EJb 12 (2004), pp. 37-58.
  • Roland Pudenz: The Turkish tax lists of the Electoral Mainz offices of Bischofstein and Greifenstein from 1542. In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 10 (2002), pp. 119–130
  • Anton Fick: Contributions to the history of the Electoral Mainz office of Bischofstein in Eichsfelde. Duderstadt 1957
  • W. Hucke: The governors of the Eichsfeldischen offices. in: Unser Eichsfeld 34 (1939), pp. 226-230
  • C. Völker: The oldest list of goods from the Bischofstein office from 1358. (?) In: Unser Eichsfeld 25 (1930), pp. 14–19, 42–48
  • L. Rummel: Stein Castle near Lengenfeld. In: Eichsfelder Heimatborn (Thür. Tageblatt Worbis / Heiligenstadt) v. August 6, 1955
  • L. Rummel: History of St. George's Chapel in Stein Castle. In: Lengenfelder Echo, 8/1959.
  • Walter Prochaska: On the history of the Windischen Mark at the Bischofstein. In: Eichsfelder Heimathefte 1962, pp. 15 and 17

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] eichsfeld-archiv.de
  2. ^ Paul Grimm, Wolfgang Timpel: The prehistoric and early historical fortifications of the Mühlhausen district. Mühlhausen 1972, p. 23
  3. ^ Johann Wolf: Political History of the Eichsfeldes. Göttingen 1793, Volume 2, Section 3, Page 3: "castrum Stein situm apud cenobium Sanktimonialium dictus Celle"
  4. ^ Witzenhausen, Werra-Meißner-Kreis, in: Historisches Ortslexikon [2] (as of September 17, 2019)
  5. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 1,1 n. 558, in: Regesta Imperii Online, [3] (Accessed April 23, 2020)
  6. ↑ Landgrafen-Regesten online no. 3218 (purchase of the castle and town of Bischofsstein in Eichsfeld by the Archbishop of Mainz). Regest of the Landgraves of Hesse. (As of February 17, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  7. ↑ Stein Castle on the Eichsfeld Archive website (source by Raymund Falk in Eichsfelder Heimatstimmen)
  8. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 1,2 n. 3501, in: Regesta Imperii Online [4] (Accessed April 23, 2020)
  9. ↑ a b Nikolaus Görich: The office of Bischofstein. In: Unser Eichsfeld, Mecke Verlag Duderstadt 1921, pages 7–9
  10. ^ Johann Wolf: Eichsfeldisches Urkundenbuch together with the treatise of the Eichsfeldischen nobility. Göttingen 1819 ( treatise on the Eichsfeld nobility, as a contribution to their history. §7 page 40)
  11. ↑ Various pages eichsfeld-archiv.de
  12. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 1,2 n. 4855, in: Regesta Imperii Online [5] (Accessed April 23, 2020)
  13. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 2,1 n.2770, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/bdab2ad5-47e7-4f5d-b953-5fb77d6c702c (accessed on August 17, 2017)
  14. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 2,1 n.2771, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/bb0e30dd-dc98-4280-80a2-4033fa037866 (accessed on August 17, 2017)
  15. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 2,1 n. 2774, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/b2e0b5a1-383b-4ea1-80a9-92ba6484708d (accessed on August 17, 2017)
  16. ↑ [6] eichsfeld-archiv.de
  17. ↑ Rolf Aulepp: "Medieval desertions in the Eichsfelder part of the Mühlhausen district." In: Eichsfelder Heimathefte, ed. Pedagogical District Cabinet Worbis, Eichsfelddruck Heiligenstadt 1988, pages 180ff.
  18. ^ Johann Wolf: Political History of the Eichsfeldes. Göttingen 1792, Volume 2, Section 3, Pages 5-8
  19. ^ G. Reichel: Historical maps of the districts of Heiligenstadt (1908) and Worbis (1913), ed. Historical Commission of the Province of Saxony, printed by Louis Koch Halberstadt
  20. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Bernhard Opfermann : Gestalten des Eichsfeldes. St. Benno-Verlag Leipzig and Verlag FW Cordier Heiligenstadt 1968
  21. ↑ castle description on the website of the Cannons Railway Museum
  22. ↑ [7] on eichsfeld-archiv.de
  23. ^ Johann Wolf: Eichsfeldisches Urkundenbuch together with the treatise of the Eichsfeldischen nobility. Göttingen 1819, page 49
  24. ↑ Levin von Wintzingeroda-Knorr : Die Wüstungen des Eichsfeldes: Directory of the desert areas, prehistoric ramparts, mines, courts of law and waiting areas within the districts of Duderstadt, Heiligenstadt, Mühlhausen and Worbis. Göttingen (O. Hendel) 1903, page 117
  25. ↑ Stein Castle on the Eichsfeld Archive website (source by Raymund Falk in Eichsfelder Heimatstimmen)