Wernerseck Castle
| Wernerseck Castle | ||
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 Wernerseck Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Kelterhausburg | |
| Creation time : | 1402 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Ruin, essential parts preserved | |
| Construction: | Basalt stones, slate stones | |
| Place: | Attention | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 22 '20.8 " N , 7 ° 22' 41.1" E | |
| Height: | 154 m above sea level NHN | |
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Castle Wernerseck even Kelterhaus Burg called, is a late medieval castle on the territory of the municipality Ochtendung in Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate . It owes its name to its founder and owner, the Archbishop of Trier Werner von Falkenstein (1388-1418).
location
The ruins of the Höhenburg are located above the Nette in the Vorder Eifel , in the immediate vicinity of the federal motorway 61 , exit Plaidt . In the eastern area of the mountain spur, at the narrowest point of which the castle was built, there was a Roman height fortification in late antiquity. The construction of the complex, which was probably designed as a fortress , can be dated to the first half of the 4th century through coin finds. Based on ceramic finds, the facility is assumed to be used until the early 5th century. Similar facilities from late antiquity along the Nette can be found at Welling , Ruitsch and on the Katzenberg near Mayen .
history
The Elector of Trier and Archbishop Werner von Falkenstein began building the castle at the end of 1401 as part of his expansion policy in the Pellenz area . The building site was no longer in the district of Ochtendung, which belonged to Kurtrier, but was already in the feudal area of the Counts of Virneburg . It served as a border fortress against the Archbishop of Cologne . However, the castle never did justice to this purpose, as the boundaries shifted during construction. The castle was later used for administration. Presumably Konrad Kolbe von Boppard was appointed first bailiff in 1412. Since the 16th century, the castle was pledged to the Lords of Eltz , who owned it until the 19th century. From 1966 to 1969 a falconry was set up in the castle. A support association has made it its business to secure and renovate the dilapidated castle and renovated the residential tower between summer 2006 and November 2007.
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investment
The pentagonal castle is provided with round towers at three corners , another corner forms the gate system. We lived in the 22-meter-high, four-story donjon ( residential tower ), which also served as a keep . The chapel was also located in it. Access was via a high entrance . The residential tower has unusually strong walls (2.5 m) and the lower part has largely been preserved, the upper floors with the roof platform became increasingly dilapidated and repaired in 2007 by a development association. The castle is owned by the municipality of Ochtendung. It can be visited at any time, but can only be reached after a walk of approx. 2 km (viewed from the town center).
Construction phases
In the first construction phase of Wernerseck, the residential tower was built as a component (south-east corner) of a simple circular wall . The cantilevered bricks on the north side of the main tower, which formerly connected it to a wall, can be taken as evidence of this. Furthermore, there is a band of basalt stones in its masonry on its south and east side , which should possibly decorate the outside of the castle complex. The circular wall largely followed the course of the wall of the older, Ottonian castle complex, including the gate building. In a later expansion, the curtain wall was expanded and provided with corner towers.
Older castle ruins
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The remains of an older castle building can be found in various places in the castle, which were used in the construction of Wernerseck and so have survived over time. The masonry in these places differs from the later erected due to the use of small-format slate . Particularly noteworthy are half of a gate system next to the residential tower, part of the later inner gate building, and the remains of a building in the center of the castle. The previous building probably followed the uninterrupted rock ridge and thus also included the plateau in the area of the later outer bailey . Since there are no reliably datable finds from the time before the construction of the new castle, conclusions can only be drawn about the time when the castle was built from the structural findings. In the inner gateway, the remains of an older gateway are preserved, which is almost identical to that of the Waldschlössel near Klingenmünster. This suggests that the original castle should be viewed as an Ottonian complex from the 10th to 11th centuries. The old castle was never mentioned in a document. It is not unlikely that it was built by the Count Palatine of Laach .
literature
- Günther Gries, Annette Lehnigk-Emden: The Wernerseck Castle . In: Ochtendunger Heimatblätter . Edited by the Heimatverein Ochtendung. Heft 4 (1993), pp. 3-18, Heft 5, (1994), pp. 19-30; No. 6 (1995), pp. 19-21.
- Dieter Schmidt, Günther Gries, Annette Lehnigk-Emden: Wernerseck Castle, the castle hill in prehistoric, late Roman and medieval times . Ochtendunger Heimatblätter. Edited by the Heimatverein Ochtendung. Issue 11 (2001), ISSN 0938-1244 .
- Bernhard Gondorf: The castles of the Eifel and their peripheral areas. A lexicon of the "permanent houses" . J. P. Bachem, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7616-0723-7 .
- Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich: "... like a monarch enthroned in the middle of his court". Castles on the Lower Middle Rhine . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2210-3 , pp. 156-161.
- Josef Busley and Heinrich Neu: Art monuments of the Mayen district , L. Schwann, Düsseldorf, 1941, pp. 386–391.
- Achim Schmidt: demarcation point or bulwark? - Remarks on the building history of the Wernerseck castle ruins near Ochtendung, Mayen-Koblenz district. In: Olaf Wagener (Ed.): Symbols of Power - Aspects of Medieval and Early Modern Architecture. (= Supplements to Mediaevistik. Volume 17.) Frankfurt / Main 2012, pp. 177–196.
Web links
- Entry on Wernerseck in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Local history association Ochtendung: Wernerseck Castle
- Wernerseck Castle on the burgenwelt.de site