Burghalde (Kempten)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The northern part of the Burghalde above the old town

The Burghalde is an elevation in the city center of Kempten (Allgäu) on which the ruins of the fortress of the same name are located.

The settlement history of this place can be traced back to late antiquity . In the Middle Ages, the castle of the Kempten city lord, the prince abbot or his bailiff stood on the trapezoidal free-standing hill. In 1379 the castle hill was bought by the imperial city of Kempten, which only included it in the city fortifications in 1488. The early modern fortifications were razed in 1705. It was not until the middle of the 19th century, when the Burghaldeverein took care of the ruins, that the hill was expanded into Kempten's first public park and an event location. In 1870, the so-called keeper's house was built in Stein, and in 1889 a wooden floor with a neo-Gothic style with corner turrets was added. In 1950 the open-air theater was built.

Today the area with the partly historic walls in the old town is a popular local recreation area. From the Burghalde there are views to the south of the Alpine chain, to the west to the Princely Residence and the Basilica of St. Lorenz , to the north over the old town and to the east to the Lindenberg with the Gallo-Roman temple district and the remains of the Roman country town of Cambodunum .

geology

The Burghalde (left half of the picture) is shown in the cadastre from 1823.

The trapezoidal hill, which is 690 meters above sea level, is located west of the Iller today . The course of the river was fundamentally changed in the second half of the 13th century. Until the construction of the medieval city wall, the Iller flowed through the Freudental and the area of ​​today's Kronenstrasse west of the hill. The area below the Burghalde was gradually filled in to create flood-free zones. The earlier course of the river can be recognized by the deepening of the Freudental up to the present. For a long time it was assumed that the Burghalde was an island surrounded by the Iller. Recent research has shown that there was only one river course between Roman times and the Middle Ages.

The elevation is composed of deposits of the Upper Sea Molasse , which are surrounded by younger river deposits in the flood plain. A few hundred meters upstream are rocks of the lower freshwater molasse , which also form the Georgsinsel . These solid rocks are separated by deposits of terminal moraines and retreat stages of the Würm Ice Age at the location of the König-Ludwig-Brücke . Opposite on the eastern side of the river is low terrace gravel . A testimony to this is the Engelhaldepark , which was a gravel pit before it was recultivated. A geological fault runs through the middle of the Burghalde from west to east .

etymology

Due to its location, the Burghalde was referred to as Hilarmont , Hillemont or Hillberg , Hilleberg , Ilerberg for centuries . The first part of the word ( Hilar , Hille , Hill , Iler ) stands for the river Iller from the Latin “hilaris mons” , the other part ( mons or mont ) for hill or mountain. The different names mean Berg an der Iller. In old engravings the Burghalde is called Ilermont Burghalden , Burchhald or Burghald .

Cambidanum is the late antique name of the fort settlement on and on the castle hill. The name comes from the Notitia Dignitatum and is associated with this as a settlement focus of late antiquity due to strong settlement findings in the area of ​​the Burghalde.

Today the area, i.e. the remains of the castle and the elevation, is referred to as the Burghalde without distinction .

history

The Burghalde in the right half of the picture behind the smaller Lützelburg , anonymous woodcut from 1567, seen from the south
The Burghalde on an engraving by Matthäus Merian (1673)
The Burghalde around 1850, seen from the south
The Burghalde as a ruin at the beginning of the 19th century: Development into a romantic public park

Late antiquity

The first isolated indications of the use of the hill exist for the Roman Empire . In late antiquity , the hill was probably the location of a fort to the fort settlement Cambidanum, which is located below in the west and north . The previous country town of Cambodunum had no military fortifications and from 233 AD was endangered by the Alemanni invasions. Therefore, from the middle of the 3rd century onwards, the Romans moved the settlement under the new name Cambidanum from Lindenberg (Cambodunum) to the more easily guarded, 25-meter-high Burghaldekuppe. At the same time, the important Iller crossing at the foot of the mountain could be better controlled.

With the relocation ( Limesfall ) of the Limes , Cambidanum became a border town. The castle was occupied by a part of the third Italian legion .

A settlement with a massive city wall developed in the area of ​​the Burghalde. The abandoned settlement Cambodunum has since served as a building material supplier and quarry for the new city. With around 0.75  hectares, Cambidanum is one of the larger forts in Raetia . As in Cambodunum, people of Germanic origin lived in the new settlement; Two crossbow primers of Elbe Germanic origin provide evidence of this .

The fort was probably abandoned in the early 5th century.

Fragment of the late Roman city wall on Burgstrasse

On Burgstrasse there is still a small piece of the late Roman city wall, which was built over by the medieval city wall at a right angle. This wall ran or runs through the Evangelical Cemetery , which was created from 1535 on a slope to the west of the Burghalde. A small late Roman burial ground could be located in the area of ​​today's town hall ; it belonged to the civil settlement of Cambidanum. To the north, parts of a late Roman building were discovered in 1941 during excavations carried out by Ludwig Ohrroth. An exact interpretation of the original function of the building proves to be difficult; due to its size and features, e.g. B. the two apses , it could have been the auditorium of the governor's palace. The interpretation as an early Christian church, which is found in the older literature, is not tenable.

High and late Middle Ages

During the High Middle Ages the castle of the city lord, the prince-abbot of Kempten , stood on the hill . Presumably in the first half of the 13th century, a mighty residential tower with humpback ashlars was built , the west wall of which is about 15 meters long in the pavilion from 1909. The prince's castle was on the west side and was separated from the rest of the area by a transverse wall.

The provocative location of the Stiftsburg above the imperial city caused some resentment among the citizens, which erupted in 1363. The citizens abused the traditional invitation to the annual Martin's dinner at the castle, took the castle by force of arms and forced the prince abbot and his bailiff to flee. The prince abbot won the subsequent legal dispute over 15 years before the imperial court. The imperial city was sentenced to rebuild the destroyed castle and pay a fine. The Prince Abbot Heinrich von Mittelberg, however, waived the execution of the judgment and sold the castle, the hill and the associated quarries to the imperial city "for the sake of peace." From then on, the city used the area as pasture and continued to mine stones. It was not until 1488 that the hill was included in the city fortifications and surrounded by a wall with battlements and towers. The tower with a pointed dome that is now on the north-west corner comes from this construction phase. The consecration of a Wolfgang chapel on the Burghalde has been handed down a year earlier; it is said to have been moved to St. Mang's Church in 1518 . In 1496 and 1525 the curtain wall was raised.

During the Thirty Years War , the fortification was occupied alternately by imperial and Swedish troops. In 1703, the French military built the mountain into a fortress as part of the War of the Spanish Succession . The fortress was razed by imperial troops in 1705 on the orders of Prince Eugene .

With the mediatization of the imperial city, the Bavarian state tried to auction the ruin. The city wanted to prevent the large property from falling into private hands. The municipal council therefore decided to bid them for any price. On September 22nd, 1814, a municipal council on behalf of the city bought the endangered ruin from the state for 200  florins .

present

After lying fallow for a long time, the Burghaldeverein, which was founded in 1865/68, developed the ruins into a community park and local recreation area. The association, in which all important families in the city were involved, laid out paths, planted hundreds of trees and erected buildings. The tree varieties were carefully selected, partly according to the color of the leaves and the shape of the crown. Celebrations and performances soon took place on the Burghalde. In 1870 the so-called keeper's house was built for 5718.70 marks on the medieval ring wall in the north of the hill in Stein. It was designed in neo-Gothic style as an artificial ruin with a flat roof on the inside and was intended to serve as an apartment for a castle heap attendant. It was supposed to prevent the city's youth from meeting in the evening unsupervised and, for example, rolling stones down the slope. Because the flat roof had not proven its worth, the building was increased in 1889 by a floor made of wood and the striking roof attachment with the four corner tower markers. The costs for this amounted to 5847.34 marks. A restaurant was set up for the club members in the caretaker's house. In 1894 the city erected a fountain at the west entrance. In 1908 an electricity supply was set up on the Burghalde, a year later the pavilion on the west side was built as a further roofed guest room. For the fiftieth anniversary, the Burghaldeverein had 650 members. Well-known members included the architects Otto and Leonhard Heydecker , Adolf Leichtle , Maximilian Vicari and the master blacksmith Johann Abt (1869–1933), on whose work the DTM racing team Abt Sportsline is based. In 1926 this association also financed the city gardener's fountain at the west entrance to the Burghalde, the design of which comes from the architect Heydecker, who was very active in Kempten.

The National Socialists planned to build a NS-Ordensburg on the hill, which would have involved the demolition of all buildings and historic walls. The advancing world war helped to avert the plans raised in 1942. In 1950, an open-air stage was created on the Burghalde . It was designed by Sepp Zwerch (1907–1985). The late medieval castle gate was expanded during the work. The massive earth movements brought to light medieval and late Roman masonry.

The Allgäu Castle Museum has been located in the caretaker's house, which was renovated in 2001, since 2004. A scented and medicinal herb garden was laid out next to the museum. In summer, the train station pharmacy offers guided tours there. The museum is run by the Allgäuer Burgenverein e. V. operated.

description

Inner courtyard facing north with caretaker's house (built 1870/89, today: Allgäu Castle Museum) and city wall tower from 1488

The entire area is a listed building. A circular wall runs around the hilltop in an approximate trapezoidal contour, of which the upper layers are modern. A square city wall tower from 1488 rises up on the north-west corner. The guard house standing next to it has a wooden roof structure. The two-storey and partially boarded-up hipped roof building has four corner turrets.

The southern part of the hill area is dominated by the open-air stage, in the rear of which there is a well or cistern shaft probably dug in the 16th century. It is about 30 meters deep and was restored in 1931. Behind it, the stumps of two round cannon towers at wall height have been preserved, which can probably be assigned to the expansion of 1525.

Truss walls connected the curtain wall of the Burghalde with the medieval city ​​wall of the imperial city. These side walls are still standing, while the city wall itself is only preserved in remnants. The south-eastern side wall ends with the low, round powder tower, which bears a flat conical roof and probably dates from the 15th century.

Legends and research history

View of the Burghalde from the northwest in winter

Numerous legends are associated with the Burghalde, mainly related to the patrons of the Kempten Monastery, Queen Hildegard and her husband Charlemagne . A historical core of these legends is unlikely. Hildegard was venerated as a saint in the Princely Monastery of Kempten .

“The brave ancestor of the Dukes of Alemannia, Gottfried, had fought against the supremacy of the Franks for over half a century. Even under Pipin von Heristal, he still maintained the freedom of his people. This Gottfried was the great grandfather of Imma, the mother of our Hildegardis. This Imma was the heiress of Hilarmont Castle, the current Burghalde near Kempten. Her husband was a noble Franconian and royal governor in Upper Swabia. Charlemagne took Hildegardis as his wife and with her gained control of the area around Kempten.
When Charlemagne heard that the Kempten monastery was almost destroyed, he arranged for it to be restored. His wife Hildegardis took an eager part in this work. Her father Hildebrand had the pagan temple at Hilarmont Castle converted into a Christian church and consecrated. Almost thirty years earlier (745), St. Othmar, Abbot of St. Gallen, had sent one of his friars, named Bertgoz, with four other monks to Kempten to continue the work begun by Theodor and Magnus. They had a chapel in honor of St. Nicholas, and built wooden huts around the same as an apartment for themselves. "

It also turned out to be a legend that there was said to have been a monastery on the Hilarmont. Nevertheless, the Kempten city coat of arms reflects the Burghalde (Dreiberg) as supposedly the earliest site of the monastery (red pinnacle tower).

The existence of a Celtic castle on the Burghalde has been archeologically refuted, although the inscription on a memorial stone at a lookout point in the south of the Burghalde continues to claim this. According to another legend, when the Burghalde was stormed in 1363, a cannon was captured and cast into the so-called children's bell of St. Mang's Church.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bayer. State Ministry of the Interior - Supreme Building Authority (Ed.): Planning Kempten / Allgäu. Cityscape and urban landscape. P. 22.
  2. ↑ GeoNames names 684 meters above sea level. (accessed on December 26, 2012)
  3. ↑ Bayer. State Ministry of the Interior - Supreme Building Authority (Ed.): Planning Kempten / Allgäu. Cityscape and urban landscape. P. 20 f.
  4. ↑ a b Hilarmont, Hille Mont or Hill Berg, Hille Berg, Ilerberg. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 13, Leipzig 1735, column 53.
  5. ^ View of the city of Kempten 1634 by Matthäus Merian, 1643.
  6. ↑ Kempten 1569, woodcut in Sebastian Munster's Cosmographey, edition 1578.
  7. ↑ Kempten 1569 after the wood engraving by Hanß Abelin and Hanß Rogel.
  8. ↑ Birgit Kata and a. (Ed.): More than 1000 years: The Kempten Abbey between founding and relinquishment 752 - 1802. Allgäu research on archeology and history , No. 1. Likias, Kempten 2006, ISBN 3-9807628-6-6 , p. 47.
  9. ↑ a b c Gerhard Weber, Volker Dotter Weich, Karl Filser a. a. (Ed.): History of the city of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 58.
  10. ^ Gerhard Weber, Volker Dotter Weich, Karl Filser a. a. (Ed.): History of the city of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 64.
  11. ↑ Birgit Kata: The Erasmus Chapel showroom in Kempten (Allgäu). 1st edition. Art publ. Fink, Lindenberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89870-706-0 , p. 21 f.
  12. ^ Gerhard Weber: The Roman city of Cambodunum. In: Alexander Duke of Württemberg: City of Kempten (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VII.85 ). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 , p. XXXII f .
  13. ↑ Birgit Kata and a. (Ed.): More than 1000 years: The Kempten Abbey between founding and relinquishing 752 - 1802. ( Allgäu research on archeology and history , No. 1). Likias, Kempten 2006, ISBN 3-9807628-6-6 , p. 52.
  14. ↑ a b c d e Joachim Zeune: Kempten, Burg ("Burghalde"). In: Allgäu Castle Region. The castle guide. 2008, p. 70 f.
  15. ↑ Birgit Kata and a. (Ed.): More than 1000 years: The Kempten Abbey between founding and releasing 752–1802. Allgäu research on archeology and history , No. 1. Likias, Kempten 2006, ISBN 3-9807628-6-6 , p. 22.
  16. ^ A b Michael Petzet: City and District of Kempten . 1st edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, p. 24 f .
  17. ↑ Otto Erhard: The Burghalde in Kempten. Announcement of the Burghalde Association to its members. Verlag des Burghaldevereins, Kempten 1919, p. 36 f.
  18. ↑ Otto Erhard: The Burghalde in Kempten. Announcement of the Burghalde Association to its members. Verlag des Burghaldevereins, Kempten 1919, pp. 55–63.
  19. ↑ Otto Erhard: The Burghalde in Kempten. Announcement of the Burghalde Association to its members. Verlag des Burghaldevereins, Kempten 1919, p. 42.
  20. ↑ a b Otto Erhard: The Burghalde in Kempten. Announcement of the Burghalde Association to its members. Verlag des Burghaldevereins, Kempten 1919, p. 44.
  21. ↑ Otto Erhard: The Burghalde in Kempten. Announcement of the Burghalde Association to its members. Verlag des Burghaldevereins, Kempten 1919, p. 46.
  22. ^ Alfred Weitnauer : Mayor Merkt . Life and achievement. 1st edition. Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten 1967, p. 45 f .
  23. ↑ Christine Tröger: Changing history. In: Kreisboten Kempten . September 13, 2011. ( online )
  24. ^ Alexander Duke of Württemberg: City of Kempten (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VII.85 ). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 , p. 22 .
  25. ↑ Bolland. Haggemuler: Blessed Hildegardis, Queen and founder of the Kempten Monastery. In: www.heiligenlegend.de (accessed on December 24, 2012)
  26. ^ Stephanie Heyl: Coat of Arms - City of Kempten (Allgäu). In: www.datenmatrix.de (accessed on December 24, 2012)

literature

  • Birgit Kata u. a. (Ed.): More than 1000 years: The Kempten Abbey between founding and releasing 752–1802. ( Allgäu research on archeology and history , No. 1). Likias, Kempten 2006, ISBN 3-9807628-6-6 , pp. 47-53, pp. 59 f.
  • Gerhard Weber, Volker Dotter Weich, Karl Filser a. a. (Ed.): History of the city of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , pp. 56-68.
  • Alexander Duke of Württemberg: Swabia, independent cities. City of Kempten. (= Monuments in Bavaria. Volume 85, 7). Lipp, Munich a. a. 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 .
  • Michael Petzet: City and District of Kempten (short inventory). (= Bavarian art monuments. 4). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959.
  • Joachim Zeune: Kempten, Burg ("Burghalde"). In: Allgäu Castle Region. A castle guide. 2008, OCLC 633364235 , pp. 70 f.

Web links

Commons : Burghalde Kempten  - Collection of images
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 24, 2014 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 43 ′ 22.4 "  N , 10 ° 19 ′ 14.2"  E