Wölpe Castle
| Wölpe Castle | ||
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 The castle hill of Burg Wölpe from the northeast with the Wölpe |
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| Creation time : | 1151 first mention | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg, moth | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall, mound of earth | |
| Place: | Nienburg / Weser - Erichshagen-Wölpe | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 39 '43.8 " N , 9 ° 15' 11.3" E | |
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The castle Wölpe is the Burgstall a medieval lowland castle in Erichshagen-Wolpe , a district of Nienburg / Weser in Lower Saxony . The castle of the Counts of Wölpe , first mentioned in a document in 1151 , was built on the Wölpe brook as a tower castle (moth) on a raised mound of earth. As a result of warlike events, the castle complex was destroyed and rebuilt several times. After the Thirty Years' War , the complex was built as the official seat of the Wölpe officeNew. After the dissolution of the office in 1859, all the buildings were demolished because they were in disrepair. Today the castle hill is free of buildings and has trees. After archaeological prospecting measures in 2011, excavations have taken place regularly since then .
Building description
As a painting from 1823 shows, the oldest part of the castle complex is a tower hill castle , which was built in the humid valley of the Wölpe , a tributary of the Aller , on a heaped hill. The water was later expanded to form broad moats that flowed around the castle and the later palace on three sides, which can be seen on the map from 1778. The archaeological investigations showed that there were buildings from different periods on the castle hill. The first castle complex dates from the first quarter of the 12th century and presented itself as a sandstone building. Other buildings date from the 16th century, which probably burned down during the Hildesheim collegiate feud in 1519. In the 18th century, baroque-style buildings were built on the castle hill using bricks and field stones.
A little further away from the castle hill there was an approximately 80 × 100 meter large outer bailey , the bottom of which was about 2 meters above the lowland and was artificially piled up to 1 meter. The outer bailey temporarily had four buildings, which were probably farm buildings. There were several garden areas around the castle, the outlines of which can still be seen in aerial photographs . After the Wölpe office was dissolved in 1859, the buildings of the official courtyard on the former castle grounds were sold for demolition in 1876.
Today only the 4.5 meter high and 60 × 65 meter large mound of earth remains of the earlier fortifications with later castle. There are three raised spots on it that indicate the location of former buildings. The hill is located at the eastern entrance to Erichshagen, which is called the official garden. The former castle site can be reached via an approximately 200 meter long dam through the valley. The castle hill is lined with trees, including the oldest chestnut in Nienburg, around 300 years old. For a long time the hill was overgrown with nettles , which, as ruderal plants, represent an indicator of the earlier settlement. In 2010 the local council of Erichshagen-Wölpe decided to upgrade the castle hill and make it accessible to pedestrians and cyclists all year round. The weeds and undergrowth were then removed so that it is again generally accessible. A paved path over the hill is still to be created.
history
In the first recorded mention from 1151, the castle was referred to as Wilipa when it belonged to the church in Minden . At the beginning of the 13th century, the Counts of Wölper moved their Festes Haus to the nearby Drakenburg and later to Neustadt am Rübenberge , where they created a new center. They sold their county of Wölpe in 1302 for 6500 silver marks to Duke Otto II. He appointed a Drosten to the castle as governor and the castle became the seat of the Calenberg office of Wölpe. During a feud , the castle was destroyed by fire in 1315.
In the Hildesheim collegiate feud between 1519 and 1523, Wölpe Castle was destroyed again and then restored as a palace by Duke Erich I. He founded a settlement near the castle, which was named after him (Erich) and because of the village shape of a Hagenhufendorf (-hagen) as Erichshagen . Nevertheless, for a long time the place was popularly known as Wölpe . In 1624 the Danish King Christian IV visited Wölpe Castle during the Thirty Years War . A year later, in 1625, it was captured and damaged by the mercenary troops of General Tilly . Because of the damage, the castle was razed after the war and converted into an official building in 1649. The Amt Wölpe was administered from this Amtshof . In the 19th century, another official building was built near the street that still exists today. This is the former district court building, which is located on the main road at the entrance to the castle hill. It served as a forestry for a long time and is now a residential building. The Wölpe settlement not far from the Amtshof had around 100 residents in the 19th century. In 1859 the office was dissolved in the course of a community reform and allocated to the district towns of Nienburg and Neustadt am Rübenberge .
2009, interested persons to shut in local history Working Group Castle Hill Erichshagen-Wölpe together to the remains of the castle to explore and as ground monument to tap. For this purpose, an investigation concept was developed in 2010 that is supported by the Museum Nienburg , the municipal archeology of the Schaumburg landscape , the city of Nienburg / Weser and the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation .
Prospecting 2011
In 2011 there were intensive archaeological prospecting measures on the castle hill and its surroundings in order to prepare for an excavation . The preliminary investigations included relief mapping , geophysical prospecting such as geoelectric ground resistance measurement, geomagnetics and georadar , aerial archeology , boreholes and inspections .
Excavations
Excavation 2012
In September 2012 the first excavation campaign took place on the castle hill. The aim of the almost four-week measure was to gain knowledge about the structural development of the facility and everyday life in the castle. The excavation took place as a teaching excavation for the Chair of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Regensburg . The municipal archeology of the Schaumburg landscape , the lower monument protection authority of the city of Nienburg / Weser and the working group Burghügel Erichshagen-Wölpe were involved .
During the excavation, an area of almost 80 m² was examined, which makes up about 0.5% of the area of the castle hill. For this purpose, an excavation cut was made over a length of 31.5 meters and a width of 2.5 meters. With its shallow depth of 1.2 meters, the excavation mostly only touched the topsoil . In some areas it reached a depth of 2 meters.
The aim of the excavation was to determine the location and structure of the surrounding moat and to back it up. It was found that the bottom of the trench at that time is partly two meters below the surface of the earth today. The layer structure of the castle hill should also be investigated, in particular whether it is a natural or raised elevation. This could not be clarified because of the shallow depth of the excavation. The excavation was mainly aimed at the remains of buildings on the castle plateau. Several pieces of wall and a paved area could be identified. It was assumed that the building structures, which cannot be dated in detail, could have a modern date of origin and that they were preserved as wall foundations when the building was demolished from 1876 onwards.
- Finds
During the excavation in 2012, remains of a wooden structure were found at the foot of the castle hill in the area of the presumed moat. It consists of stilts rammed vertically in the manner of a palisade and horizontally laid wood. The oldest layers of finds in the moat area are dated to the 13th and 14th centuries. In this area, wooden planks from a boardwalk were found at a depth of one meter . The woods were subjected to a dendrochronological examination.
Almost all other finds came from the topsoil and could not be assigned to any finding . About half of the finds were animal bone material, such as the teeth of wild boars and the lower jaws of horses and pigs. Large amounts of medieval ceramic parts were found on the hillside of the castle hill. These included gray earthenware with wave bases, cup bases, shards of wall as Pingsdorf goods and ball pots as well as roof tiles of the monk and nun type . The ceramic remains range from the earliest pieces from the 12th century to modern times . Other finds were crossbow bolts and fragments of stove tiles depicting a nobleman or saint. The medieval finds were stored alongside modern finds, such as a Mariengroschen minted in 1818 , Waldhüttenglas and a cannonball . It is therefore assumed that it is relocated material from the castle plateau or from areas remote from the castle.
2013 excavation
In September and October 2013 another excavation was carried out on the Burghügel under the direction of the University of Regensburg, which lasted six weeks and was carried out by 12 students from the University of Marburg as well as volunteers from the region and the Burghügel Erichshagen-Wölpe working group . At the foot of the castle hill, numerous wooden stakes and wooden beams were found in the subsoil, 44 of which were secured. Dendrochronological studies place the timbers in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, in one case in the 11th to 12th centuries. They are said to have served as a palisade wall to ward off enemies. According to another interpretation, they served to technically secure the castle hill against erosion or as a ditch edge. The excavated soil layers were partially disturbed and contained thick layers of rubble from the demolition of the castle buildings in the 19th century. A longer piece of sandstone emerged, which is the frame of a coat of arms attached to the building. The frame contained the lost coat of arms of Duke Philipp Sigismund von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1568–1623). A special finding was a stone construction on the edge of the hill plateau, which could be the surrounding wall of the castle.
During the excavations, based on the grown soil, it was found that the castle hill was built on a natural hill about one meter high. The archaeologists could not find a moat , despite the long excavation cut far into the lowland . The location within a swampy depression of the Wölpe water apparently made it superfluous.
The excavation was part of four archaeological projects by universities in 2013 in Nienburg , including excavations in the iron and Roman Iron Age settlement at Lemke and the earthwork of Müsleringen and the measurement of Wallburg Alte Schanze in Oyle .
Excavation 2014
In the Quaet-Faslem- Haus in Nienburg an information event took place at the beginning of 2014, at which the University of Regensburg reported on the excavations in 2012 and 2013 and announced another excavation in August 2014. In particular, the question of whether the castle hill was smaller than it is today when the castle was built should be investigated. Funding for the excavation is provided by the Calenberg-Grubenhagensche landscape , the Weser-Hunte Regional Association and the Sparkassenstiftung Nienburg.
The roughly four-week excavation took place in August and September 2014, during which the structure of the castle hill was examined more closely. In order to encounter the oldest soil layers, the excavation reached in places up to 2.6 meters deep underground. In the previous three excavation campaigns, a total of 46.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide with different depths was made in the ground. The deepening in the castle hill carried out in 2014 indicated that the system was created in two construction phases. First, a mound was filled with a diameter of about 20 meters, the soil of which was secured against flowing apart with wooden beams in a funnel-like construction. From this first phase of construction, which can be dated to the beginning of the 13th century through ceramic finds, there are also remains of a stone foundation, which indicates the castle type of a moth . This corresponds to the remnants of a palisade with a battlement , which was about 5 meters to the outside. There was another construction phase in the early modern period , in which the hill was expanded to its present-day dimensions of around 60 meters in diameter by heaped earth. Finds during the excavation were, in addition to animal bones still to be examined, mainly ceramic shards, including table, cooking and oven ceramics. The finds from previous excavations are to be exhibited in the Nienburg Museum.
The deepest excavation to date provided essential information on the history of the castle hill. The archaeologists suspected the tower of a moth in the only partially exposed stone foundation that forms a corner of the wall.
Excavation 2015
In September 2015 another excavation took place over several weeks on the castle hill of Wölpe Castle under the direction of the University of Regensburg. During this fourth excavation campaign, instead of the tower of a moth expected in 2014, the remains of a larger building were found, which archaeologists date to the 12th century and therefore estimate it to be older than the remains of the castle that had been uncovered by then. At the building they noticed a narrow, L-shaped entrance, the walls of which were made of hewn sandstone.
The findings of the excavation included a stone cannonball, a dog skeleton and coins, including one with a portrait of Louis XIV. After the excavations were completed, a colloquium on Castle Wölpe and current research on medieval castles in Northern Germany took place in 2015 .
Excavation 2017
In September 2017, the excavations were continued on the castle hill as a cooperation between the municipal archeology of the Schaumburg landscape and the working group Burghügel Wölpe . They lasted for three weeks and, as in previous years, were presented to the public. The excavations were carried out by 15 students from the Australian National University from Canberra as new cooperation partners. Further excavations in cooperation with the Australian university are planned for 2018 and 2019. They are intended to completely uncover and document the remains of the stone building discovered in 2015.
Found objects
Musket balls
Bone waste from animals
Ceramic remains
Ceramic fragment, probably a stove tile
In early 2017 it became known that a probe goers in around 50 meters from the castle hill a geborstenes pipe section of a medieval cannon of bronze had discovered. The 42 cm long and almost 15 kg heavy part belonged to a cannon with a caliber of 50 mm. A lion figure is engraved as a coat of arms on the pipe part. The coat of arms matches the coat of arms of the Hessian noble family Schenck zu Schweinsberg . Archaeologists assume that the cannon broke when it was fired due to wear and tear and casting defects, possibly during the siege of Wölpe Castle during the Hildesheim collegiate feud between 1519 and 1523.
Broken cannon barrel
Broken pipe from a medieval cannon
Engraved coat of arms with lion figure on the cannon
Barrel of the cannon barrel
Excavation 2018
The investigations continued in September 2018 with a three-week excavation with 15 students from the Australian National University from Canberra. A German archaeologist was in charge of the excavation. At the center of the excavation was the oldest of three castle complexes on the site of the formerly existing castle complex, which was built around 1115. Bricks were found with fingerprints, as well as prints of small cat paws and a dog's paw, which were pressed into the soft clay before burning. The cooperation with the Australian university will be continued in 2019 through another excavation.
Excavation 2019
In September 2019, in the third year of cooperation between the Museum, Nienburg, the Australian National University Canberra and the municipal archeology of the Schaumburg landscape, another excavation campaign took place. It was attended by 18 Australian students, a lecturer and a professor from the Department of Archaeological Sciences. The investigations were aimed at uncovering a building floor plan from the early days of the castle, which was only successful in some areas. During the excavations, a male skeleton was found which, according to an initial estimate, dates from the late Middle Ages or the Renaissance . It is planned to have the bones examined more closely by a laboratory and dated using the radiocarbon method. According to the archaeologists, the type of burial is conspicuous without a coffin and grave goods and instead under stones, which indicates disrespect. It could be an executed person, especially since cervical vertebrae are pressed out, which is an indication of hanging .
See also
literature
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The former Wölpe Castle , in: If stones could talk . Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5 , pp. 102-104
- Chronicle of the County of Wölpe . Diepenau 1999, ISBN 3-929793-69-5
- Jens Berthold : Final report on the investigations at Burg Wölpe 2011
- Jens Berthold: Lower Saxony Fund Chronicle 2011 to: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory , Supplement 16, 2013, pp. 159–161
- Tobias Gärtner, Frank Wedekind: Erichshagen FStNr. 2, Gde. Stadt Nienburg (Weser) - News from Lower Saxony's prehistory 83, 19th half-volume (Fundchronik Niedersachsen 2014)
- Tobias Gärtner: The moth of the Counts of Wölpe in: Archeology in Lower Saxony 16/2015, pp. 95-98
- Tobias Gärtner: The bishop with the knitting needle in: Archäologie in Niedersachsen 18/2015, pp. 143-145
- Jens Berthold, Erich Block, Kristina Nowak-Klimscha, Tobias Scholz , Frank Wedekind: Burg Wölpe. The archaeological investigations on the castle hill in Erichshagen-Wölpe between 2011 and 2015 , in: Schriften der Kommunalarchäologie der Schaumburger Landschaft 2 , Nienburg, 2016
- Jens Berthold, Ash Lenton, Frank Wedekind: The weapons from the Wölpe. New finds from the excavations and inspections at Wölpe Castle, City of Nienburg / Weser In: Archeology in Lower Saxony , 23/2020, pp. 81–84.
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann zu Wölpe in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Reconstruction drawing of Wölpe Castle by Wolfgang Braun
- Aerial view of the castle hill with the former garden area in the Schaumburg countryside
- Brief presentation of the excavation results from 2012 ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Excavation report from 2012 ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf, 5 MB)
- Short report on the 2012 excavation at the University of Regensburg
Individual evidence
- ^ Concept Burghügel Wölpe at the local council meeting on November 25, 2010
- ↑ Archaeological investigations at Wölpe Castle near Erichshagen ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Excavation announcement for 2013 ( memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Wooden posts in the bathtub in: Die Rarke from September 21, 2013
- ↑ a b Manon Garms: Excavations offer interesting insights into: The Rake from February 17, 2014
- ↑ Archaeological research projects on the Mittelweser
- ↑ Looking for traces in the ground in: Kreiszeitung from June 7, 2013
- ^ Excavations at Wölper Burghügel near Radio Nienburg
- ↑ For the time being, the last excavation on the Wölper castle hill in: Die Rarke from August 30, 2014
- ↑ Characters from the Middle Ages at: Kreiszeitung.de of September 17, 2014
- ↑ One of the first "moths" at: Kreiszeitung.de from September 15, 2014
- ↑ On the Wölper castle hill they are digging again in: The rake from September 1st, 2015
- ^ Coins, weapons and a dog's skeleton in: The Rake from September 11, 2015
- ↑ Old foundations, weapons and coins at Kreiszeitung.de from September 11, 2015
- ↑ Vivian Krause: Fundamentally new findings: Building entrance from the 12th century: Open excavation day - back to the Middle Ages at Kreiszeitung.de on September 19, 2015
- ↑ "Open Excavation Day" at Wölpe Castle near Museum Nienburg from September 15, 2015
- ↑ News from the Burgraves in: The Rake from September 17, 2015
- ↑ Bingo Environmental Foundation supports excavations at Wölpe Castle near Museum Nienburg on April 6, 2017
- ↑ Manon Garms: Insights into everyday life at Wölpe Castle in Die Harke from September 15, 2017
- ↑ Excavations at Wölpe Castle are over in Die Rarke from September 28, 2017
- ↑ Successful "Open Excavation Day" at Wölpe Castle in Die Harke on September 27, 2017
- ↑ Archaeologists dig in Erichshagen in: Kreiszeitung from September 15, 2017
- ↑ Sabine Lüers-Grulke: With a panther in the coat of arms in: The Rake from February 24, 2017
- ↑ Julia Kreykenbohm: Broken in battle, found in the mud in: Kreiszeitung from February 23, 2017
- ↑ Research project continues in Die Rarke from September 5, 2018
- ↑ Excavations in Wölper Burg inspire students in the Kreiszeitung on September 14, 2018
- ↑ 15 Australian students digging into The Rake on September 6, 2017
- ↑ Digging continues at Burg Wölpe in The Rake of September 6, 2019
- ↑ Nienburg: Skeleton from the Middle Ages discovered at ndr.de on September 19, 2019
- ↑ Excavations are nearing the end in Die Rarke on September 11, 2019
- ↑ Manon Garms: Skeleton raises many questions in Die Rake from September 11, 2019
- ↑ Report No. 37 Investigations Burg Wölpe 2011 under Contributions of the municipal archeology of the Schaumburg landscape