Wolkenberg Castle

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Wolkenberg Castle
Wolkenberg castle ruins (2001)

Wolkenberg castle ruins (2001)

Creation time : 12th or 13th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status: Restored ruin
Place: Wildpoldsried -Wolkenberg
Geographical location 47 ° 45 '18.7 "  N , 10 ° 24' 58.2"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 45 '18.7 "  N , 10 ° 24' 58.2"  E
Height: 829  m above sea level NN
Wolkenberg Castle (Bavaria)
Wolkenberg Castle

The Wolkenberg Castle is a medieval castle ruin. It is located on the 829 meter high Wolkenberg in the Kempter Forest and belongs to the Wildpoldsried community in the Oberallgäu district in Swabia . It should not be confused with the inhabited hamlet of Wolkenberg within the same municipality, which is 400 meters to the west and around 50 meters below the castle ruins. The high to post-medieval castle complex was uncovered and secured at the end of the 20th century.

history

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Wolkenberg was regarded as the Dienstmannburg of the Guelphs and Staufers . This is confirmed by a report from 1262, according to which the knight Albert von Wolkenberg gave testimony to Duke Konradin of Swabia in Constance. Albert von Wolkenberg, on the other hand, was first mentioned in a document in 1278 when he attested the rights of the prince monastery of Kempten to the properties in the Kempter Forest. Although the finances of the Lords of Wolkenberg were not bad, they sold the castle to the Lords of Rotenstein at the end of the 13th century.

The son Konrad von Rothenstein inherits the castle from his father in 1339 and was already forced to sell the castle to Ulrich von Diessen in 1344. Immediately afterwards, knight Konrad von Rothenstein killed a citizen of the city of Kempten and was thus guilty of breaching the peace . In response, the people of Kempten conquer the "still" residence of Knight Konrad, take him prisoner and ultimately behead him.

Ulrich von Diessen also achieved notoriety in 1356 by killing the first freely elected mayor of the city of Kempten . He himself was later murdered by knight Hainz the elder of Rauns-Fischen. His sons Hans and Ulrich von Diessen made a settlement in 1391 for the saw and the upper mill near Wildpoldsried due to lack of property . As early as 1392, the Vogtsteuer and Vogtrechte were sold. In 1398 the castle and the village of Wildpoldsried were incorporated into the Kempten prince monastery . The prince monastery of Kempten had the castle administered by Heinrich von Diessen until 1409.

In 1404 the knight Heinrich von Schellenberg attempted to conquer Castle Wolkenberg from nearby Wagegg Castle. While exploring the terrain, the attackers were discovered and taken prisoner. From 1417 to 1642, Wolkenberg served as the official seat of a bailiwick ( nursing office Sulzberg and Wolkenberg ), which the prince monastery Kempten had acquired in 1398. In addition to the jurisdiction for the subordinate Stiftsland, the Vogt also collects the taxes due in his area. In 1460, Jörg Beck's father was imprisoned in the dungeon. On March 14th, he led the Appenzell people to the Battle of Buchenberg in which the monastery bailiff Walther von Hohenegg lost his life.

The courtyard to the east
View from the keep on the remains of the palace
The staircase at the main building
Memorial plaque (1926) on the Palas
The late medieval oven
The eastern foundation of the keep

Until 1470, the St. Cyprian Chapel in Wildpoldsried was the castle's church. With the construction of its own chapel and the arrival of a chaplain, Wolkenberg has its own small church from this year. Parts of the Wolkenberger Altar are today in the local museum of the city of Kempten .

Under Jörg Schmid (also called "Knopf von Leubas") the castle was conquered by farmers in April 1525 and burned down. After the reconstruction in 1557, the bourgeois Vogt Jörg Albrecht Bader now resides on the hill of Wolkenberg. In 1632 the citizens and farmers of the city of Kempten burned the castle down again. A makeshift reconstruction of the burned walls follows. After giving up as bailiwick in 1642, the Swiss Paul Delle Wolkenberg took up residence. 53 years later, after the fire in the associated brewery, the castle was finally left to decay.

In 1979, the excavation of the sparse remains of the ruins began. After the rest of the wall had been rebuilt by employees of the Kempten Forestry Office, the ruin was opened to the public in 1987 as a valuable historical monument. The association Burgfreunde Wolkenberg eV , founded in 2002, advocates the preservation of the Wolkenberg castle ruins.

description

The ruins of the summit castle are located about 1500 meters southeast of the center of Wildpoldsried on the rectangular plateau of a pre-alpine hill (829 m. Above sea level) above today's federal highway 12. The castle square is well protected on all sides by relatively steep slopes.

The castle path leads past the site of the former farmyard (memorial stone) over the south-eastern flank of the main castle cone steeply into the castle courtyard. The entire southern part of the ruin was still missing from the plan at Nessler (1985). Since the uncovering and restoration measures at the end of the 20th century, the remains of the foundation can also be traced several meters high here.

Next to the main gate in the southeast there was a mighty square keep with a wall thickness of up to four meters. The entire northern part of the castle was taken up by a large main building ( Palas ). In the middle of the courtyard facade, a round stair tower provided access to the upper floors. On the ground floor, two polygonal truncated columns indicate a vaulted hall ( Dürnitz ). The castle oven was exposed on the northwestern edge.

The curtain wall of the castle is nearly to keep track of the entire castle plateau again since the renovation. The masonry consists mainly of coarse, relatively small rolling stones and rubble stones. The extensions of the 15./16. Century were partly executed in brick construction (Dürnitz, oven). The preserved or added wall sections are still up to four meters high and are partially protected by modern roofs.

Overall, the castle offers the typical image of a smaller high medieval ( Hohenstaufen ) hilltop castle. The foundations of the curtain wall, the palace and the keep are easy to recognize as classic components. Due to the altitude about 100 meters above the valley, the castle square was easy to defend without the construction of complex ditch systems.

literature

  • Toni Nessler: Castles in the Allgäu, Volume 1: Castle ruins in the Altlandkreis Kempten and Altlandkreis Sonthofen . 1st edition. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1985, ISBN 3-88006-102-5 , pp. 88-99.

Web links

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