Sterrenberg Castle (Rhineland)

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Sterrenberg Castle
Sterrenberg Castle

Sterrenberg Castle

Creation time : around 1190
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Keep, hall
Standing position : Nobles, counts
Place: Kamp-Bornhofen
Geographical location 50 ° 12 '48.3 "  N , 7 ° 37' 59.3"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 12 '48.3 "  N , 7 ° 37' 59.3"  E
Height: 216.8  m above sea level NHN
Aerial view of Sterrenberg Castle
Oil painting by Karl Bodmer , around 1830; it shows the Bornhofen monastery with the pilgrimage church, a procession, the Rhine and the castles Sterrenberg and Liebenstein .
On the left the so-called “war wall”, in the middle the inner shield wall of the core castle, on the right the keep and women's shelter
On the mountain side, Sterrenberg Castle is protected by two shield walls. The late medieval, outer shield wall is 9.30 m high, the older, inner 12 m high. The wall thickness is 2.75 m or just under 2 m.

The Castle Sterrenberg is the ruins of a hilltop castle at 216.8  m above sea level. NHN on the right bank of the Rhine near Kamp-Bornhofen in the Middle Rhine Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate . Together with the neighboring Liebenstein Castle, the castle forms the so-called " enemy brothers ". After the old Ehrenbreitstein Castle has disappeared under the fortress , Sterrenberg is considered the oldest preserved castle complex in the Middle Rhine Valley.

There are several versions of the legend of the “ enemy brothers ”. What is certain, however, is that there never was a confrontation with weapons at the castle.

Sterrenberg Castle has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 ; it is also a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention .

history

Sterrenberg is mentioned as an imperial castle as early as 1034, but this early information is not certain. In 1190, Sterrenberg Castle is listed in the fief book of Reich Ministerial Werner von Bolanden as an imperial fief , including customs in Bornhofen. The Lords of Bolanden owned the castle until the second half of the 13th century. They used other knight families to occupy the castle, who named themselves after the castle (Lords of Sternberg; coat of arms: six-pointed star and the Schenk von Sterrenberg; coat of arms: three diamonds placed at right angles). The keep and the first inner shield wall date from this early period .

Sterrenberg Castle from Liebenstein Castle

At the end of the 13th century, part of the castle was given to the Counts of Katzenelnbogen as an imperial pledge . During the same period, the Counts of Sponheim (Sponheim-Dannenfels branch line) and Albrecht I von Schenkenberg (owner of Schenkenberg Castle , Canton Aargau, Switzerland; * 1250 - † June 11, 1304 in the Löwenstein-Murrhardt area, Württemberg, buried in the Murrhardt Monastery Church ), married to Luitgard von Bolanden, who received the Calwer coat of arms and the title of Count von Löwenstein as the owner of the county with castle from his father, King Rudolf I von Habsburg . In 1310 at the latest, the Archbishop of Trier and Elector Baldwin of Luxembourg received Sterrenberg Castle as an imperial pledge. At that time Count Diether VI was. von Katzenelnbogen in possession of the castle (or part of it). The Bolander heirs built (or expanded) the neighboring Liebenstein Castle at the end of the 13th century and no longer appear as co-owners on Sterrenberg. Between Diether and Balduin there were subsequently disputes, presumably with fighting, which Baldwin won in 1315. Diether had a fatal accident at a tournament in the same year. Until the middle of the 14th century, Sterrenberg Castle became the center of Kurtrier's property on the right bank of the Rhine , which is essentially a core area between today's Kamp-Bornhofen , Filsen , St. Goarshausen-Wellmich on the Rhine and inland east into the Taunus near Lykershausen , Prath and Dahlheim included.

Presumably in the 14th century, the Trier built a massive second, outer shield wall in front of the core castle . It can be seen as a sheer reinforcement, but lies as if it were directed against Liebenstein Castle in the immediate vicinity, originally also Sponheim Castle, which was never captured by Kurtrier as a Ganerbeburg . This seemingly plausible motivation is not supported by sources. In popular parlance, this second shield wall formed the historical core of the legend of the enemy brothers as a presumed "battle wall" .

As early as the second half of the 14th century, Maus über Wellmich Castle , rebuilt from 1353 to 1357, became the strategically more important castle of the Electorate of Trier, which displaced Sterrenberg Castle in its importance. In 1456 Sterrenberg was called "dilapidated" and in 1568 "uninhabited".

The dilapidated complex remained Electorate of Trier until the end of the Old Kingdom in 1806, then fell with the entire property of the Archbishops of Trier on the right bank of the Rhine to the Duchy of Nassau , which became Prussian in 1866 . Sterrenberg Castle has belonged to the state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 1946 .

From 1970 to 1977 security measures and rebuilding were carried out: 1970 the women's shelter ( Palas ), 1972 the gothic restaurant building. The keep was given a crenellated wreath and white plastering, which corresponds to the medieval condition.

Numerous beam holes and chimney vents in the outer and inner shield wall show that there were other residential buildings here, which was probably not the case on the wall in front of the restaurant, which received window openings during the restoration work. Further reconstruction work on the building substance that was no longer comprehensible was dispensed with.

Current facility

Keep

The castle, which is now owned by the cultural umbrella organization Burgen, Schlösser, Antiquities Rhineland-Palatinate, can be accessed or approached through a gate opening in the younger, outer shield wall (so-called battle wall ). The former outer bailey is used as a small parking area. Through a second gate, adjacent to the older, inner shield wall can be reached in the yard core Burg .

In the middle stands the square, white plastered keep on a steep slate base. Since the last renovation, it has a height of 14.7 meters and can be climbed as a lookout tower . The establishment of a permanent exhibition on the history of the castle is planned in it. The women's shelter on the east side (mountain side), reconstructed in 1972, is a simple, white plastered building based on the Romanesque model with a gable roof and a round tower on the flanks; its rooms serve as the bower of the castle hotel. Behind it extends a small, walled courtyard. An agricultural historical exhibit is a cart (around 1918) owned by Johannes Eschelbach, who was mayor of the nearby town of Filsen from 1903 to 1918 .

To the west (on the Rhine side), another wall borders the restaurant building with a viewing terrace, which was reconstructed in Gothic form in 1970 and only managed in the summer months. The gastronomy is promoting its award as the house of the best pint for the years 2004-2006, an award given by the Chamber of Agriculture Rhineland-Palatinate together with winegrowing associations for various regions of the state, which the Sterrenberg castle restaurant shares with 25 other restaurants for the Middle Rhine region . The wines do not come from the slate slope under the Enemy Brothers, which is too steep and unsuitable for viticulture, but from the vineyards on the left bank of the Bopparder Hamm .

Surroundings

The Rheinsteig leads past the enemy brothers , which on this section is identical to the Rheinburgen hiking trail .

The view of the Rhine surrounds Bad Salzig and the Rhine loop near Kestert to the south .

literature

  • Winfried Monschauer: Sterrenberg Castle , guide booklet 19, published by Burgen, Schlösser; Antiquities of Rhineland-Palatinate, 2005.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map service of the landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate Nature Conservation Administration (LANIS map) ( notes ) Scale 1: 1,000
  2. ↑ The enemy brothers: Liebenstein and Sterrenberg in the magazine of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, p. 8, 2./3. April 2011
  3. ^ Entry on Sterrenberg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
  4. ^ The women's shelter on the Sterrenberg Castle website