Hohenwittlingen Castle

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Hohenwittlingen Castle
Inside the shield wall (1996)

Inside the shield wall (1996)

Alternative name (s): Whiting
Creation time : 1000 to 1100
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Enclosing walls
Standing position : Nobles, counts, clericals
Place: Bad Urach - Whiting
Geographical location 48 ° 28 '9.1 "  N , 9 ° 25' 26"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 28 '9.1 "  N , 9 ° 25' 26"  E
Height: 677  m above sea level NN
Hohenwittlingen Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Hohenwittlingen Castle

The Castle High whiting , also Wittlingen called, is the ruin of a Spur castle above the Erms on a 667  m above sea level. NN high mountain ledge in the district of Wittlingen in the city of Bad Urach in the Reutlingen district in Baden-Württemberg .

history

The castle was built by the knight Burkhard von Wittlingen at the beginning of the 11th century, and a Burkhard de Witlingin is mentioned in a document in 1089/90. The owners were the Counts of Achalm-Urach , the Monastery of Zwiefalten in 1100 and the Counts of Württemberg in 1251 .

In the 16th century there was still a bailiff on Hohenwittlingen, who also held the function of a forester. In 1548 the castle offered protection to the Württemberg reformer Johannes Brenz . He was on the run from the soldiers of Charles V. At that time the emperor had the evangelical hall occupied in order to enforce the religious law he had passed.

From 1560 to 1617 Anabaptists - the Hutterites a . a. Paul Glock and Matthias Binder - imprisoned on Hohenwittlingen because of their beliefs.

In 1576 a fire caused severe damage, which was only partially repaired. Nevertheless, towards the end of the Thirty Years War , the castle was given a three-man Württemberg garrison to control access to the Ermstal from the Alb plateau. At the same time musketeers were recruited from the villages by ducal decree, who had to do police service in the offices to protect the rural population from marauders (see also: Elenhans ). Hohenwittlingen and Hohenneuffen (again part of Württemberg from 1639) thus became the counterpart of neighboring Hohenurach , which was held by imperial troops and controlled by Archduchess Claudia until the end of the war .

After the Thirty Years War, the castle was a prison for poachers and other villains and fell into disrepair. Until the 18th century, the abandoned castle still served the whiting farmers as protection from enemy troops. It is said that the whitingers trained their cattle in such a way that they found their way to the castle.

The surrounding walls are still preserved from the former castle complex, which had an outer bailey , a core bailey with a palace , a shield wall , a kennel and a ditch .

Not far from the castle - on the field called Langwiese - a forester's house (today's Wittlingen estate) was built in 1705. Hohenwittlingen was thus given up as a forest seat. In the course of King Wilhelm's reforms in 1828, the farmer Johann Brändle from Würtingen bought the then state domain for 2210 guilders. The priest August Weinland finally acquired the estate from him at the beginning of his retirement. In 1857 ownership passed to his son David Friedrich Weinland , who built the "mansion" in 1864. Around 1877 he wrote the book Rulaman for his sons . The Wittlingen estate is still owned by the Weinland family today.

  • South corner of the shield wall (1996)

  • Foundation walls of the Palas (1996)

  • History information board

  • Panoramic view from the ruins into the valley

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article from November 19, 2013, Südwestpresse: Hutterer auf dem Hohenwittlingen .
  2. ↑ The sovereign castles in Wirtemberg in the 15th and 16th centuries by Hans Martin Maurer. Stuttgart, 1958.
  3. ^ Homepage of Bad Urach. Hohen-Wittlingen estate

Web links

Commons : Hohenwittlingen Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files