Steinenschloss Castle

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Steinenschloss Castle
Stone castle near Thaleischweiler-Fröschen (view over the main entrance to the upper castle)

Stone
castle near Thaleischweiler-Fröschen (view over the main entrance to the upper castle)

Alternative name (s): Atzenstein, Biebermühler Schloss, Steiner Schloss
Creation time : around 1100
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Foundation walls
Standing position : Count
Construction: Square and hump square masonry
Place: Thaleischweiler frogs
Geographical location 49 ° 15 '56.2 "  N , 7 ° 36' 19.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 15 '56.2 "  N , 7 ° 36' 19.5"  E
Height: 295  m above sea level NN
Steinenschloss Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Steinenschloss Castle

The castle ruins Steinenschloss , also called Atzenstein, Biebermühler Schloss, Steiner Schloss , are located in the district of Thaleischweiler-Fröschen in the south-western Palatinate , above the confluence of the Schwarzbach and Rodalb rivers .

From the hilltop castle located about 295 meters above sea level and 48 meters above the valley floor, the adjacent valleys were clearly visible. Because of this strategic location, the castle may have served as a southern border castle.

Surname

The original name of the hilltop castle, which was built around 1100, can no longer be documented. In the 13th century there was a settlement called Steinen, Steigen or Stegen below the castle hill. In 1564, when this settlement was mentioned as a desert, the name “Steiner Castle” appeared in a written record, from which the name “Stone Castle” developed. The castle could possibly have been called "Atzenstein" because there was a courtyard of the same name in the area. Name researchers reject this thesis, however.

description

Floor plan and description, information board at the castle

The castle complex is roughly in the shape of an iron with the tip facing south; the length is 70 meters, the width about 46 meters. The 1.80 to 2.50 meter wide surrounding wall consists of hewn sandstone blocks , some of which are supplemented by humpback blocks . The upper castle, located on a sandstone rock, is separated from the lower castle by a rock ledge in which the cistern is also located.

A bailey was to the west of the castle complex outside the curtain wall. It stretched along the entire west side of the trench , even a few meters further to the south.

In the lower castle there was next to farm buildings and rooms presumably used as guard chambers as well as the castle entrance. It consisted of a 2.50 meter wide and 3.15 meter high gate, which was secured by a drawbridge and a moat.

The upper castle can be reached through a passage carved into the rock. It housed the living quarters, so the Palas , kitchen, toilet facilities, the armory and a mighty round tower that dominates the entire castle. With an inner diameter of 8.5 meters, with its 2.50 meter thick walls, it has an outer diameter of 13.5 meters. This tower probably served as a keep , but due to its large diameter it could also have been a residential tower . In the north, the upper castle is protected by a buckled shield wall , which was probably damaged in the 12th century. Its western half was rebuilt during the second half of this century, whereas the eastern part of the wall dates from the 11th century.

history

The exact time when the castle was founded is not known. Excavation finds indicate signs of settlement as early as the younger Stone Age and the Hallstatt Period.

After dating the masonry of the existing wall remains, the castle was founded around the year 1100. The builders were probably the Counts of Leiningen . A Roman villa about a kilometer away possibly served as a source of building material for the late Salian castle complex.

The massive round tower was built between 1125 and 1166, later than the castle. With its Salian-Staufer structural elements, it is one of the largest of this time in the Rhineland-Palatinate region. Just a few years later, a fire destroyed the castle; it could be one of the three Saarbrücken castles that Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa had razed next to Saarbrücken Castle in 1168 . In a document from 1237 the castle is considered to have been destroyed and was not rebuilt.

From the 13th to the 18th century the castle ruins changed hands several times. It lists the Counts of Leiningen-Dagsburg, Zweibrücken-Bitsch, Leiningen-Hardenburg, from 1564 property of the Counts of Leiningen-Hardenburg-Dagsberg and from 1570 Hanau-Lichtenberg.

In the 19th century the ruins were used as a quarry and completely destroyed. The stones removed were used both for building houses in the surrounding communities and in 1875 for building the Pirmasens -Nord train station ( Biebermühle ) and the railway line. The ruin is currently in state ownership and is under the administration of the State Office for Monument Preservation, Mainz.

Excavations, reconstruction and finds

In 1896/97 Mehlis carried out the first excavations, but had to stop work due to a lack of funds.

Under the supervision of the Office for Prehistory and Early History, Speyer, uncovering work took place after the Second World War in 1956/57 by the doctor LA Hoffmann. This awakened public interest in the castle, which at that time was nothing more than a rubble place overgrown by trees and forest plants.

The excavation work began in the spring of 1968, and in 1973 the “Burgverein Steinenschloss” was founded for this purpose. Today the Thaleischweiler-Fröschen local history association oversees the excavations and work on the complex. In the meantime, the surrounding wall and hall area including toilets have been renovated, the gate system of the lower castle has been reconstructed and the walls of some farm buildings have been made visible again. The tower, which was uncovered in 1985, was built from 1989/90 with the stone blocks up to 1 m long and 55 cm high up to a height of 10 meters.

The finds recovered from the rubble and fire rubble of the ruins range from ceramic disks and game stones made of sandstone or deer antlers to tools and weapon parts made of iron to door handles and keys. Gilded bronze fittings also came to light; in addition a double-headed eagle made of gilt bronze, probably also a decorative fitting . In addition, a work piece made of stone with an arched slit window was recovered. A shell-like landmark was discovered during the exposure of the western outer area .

The extensive restoration and uncovering work that has already taken place gives you an idea of ​​the appearance of the former castle.

literature

  • Horst Wolfgang Böhme (ed.): Castles of the Salierzeit, part 2: In the southern landscapes of the empire . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1992, ISBN 3-7995-4134-9 , pp. 55-58.
  • Walter Herrmann: On Red Rock - A guide to the most beautiful castles in the Palatinate and Alsatian Wasgau . G. Braun Buchverlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2004, ISBN 3-7650-8286-4 , pp. 172-175.
  • Jürgen Keddigkeit , Ulrich Burkhart, Rolf Übel : Palatinate Castle Lexicon, Volume 4.2: St-Z . Institute for Palatinate History and Folklore, Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern 2007, ISBN 978-3-927754-56-0 , pp. 30–40.
  • Elena Rey: Castle Guide Palatinate . 2nd edition, Verlag, Kaiserslautern 2003, ISBN 3-936216-15-0 .
  • Günter Stein : Castles and palaces in the Palatinate. A manual . Weidlich, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-8035-8356-X .
  • Alexander Thon (Ed.): ... like a banned, inaccessible magic castle. Castles in the southern Palatinate . 2nd Edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1570-5 , pp. 142–145.

Web links

Commons : Burg Steinenschloss  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.burgenlexikon.eu/177.html Literature by Christmann about settlement names