Donaustauf castle ruins

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donaustauf castle ruins
View of Donaustauf with the castle hill from the south

View of Donaustauf with the castle hill from the south

Creation time : around 914-930
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Circular wall, gate structures, keep
Place: Donaustauf
Geographical location 49 ° 1 '51.5 "  N , 12 ° 12' 25.6"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 1 '51.5 "  N , 12 ° 12' 25.6"  E
Height: 424  m above sea level NN
Donaustauf castle ruins (Bavaria)
Donaustauf castle ruins

The Donaustauf castle ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle at 424  m above sea level. NN high mountain promontory over the Danube over the Donaustauf market in the Upper Palatinate district of Regensburg in Bavaria . The Donaustauf market developed in the Middle Ages as a bourgeois settlement under the protection of the mighty fortifications of the castle.

The castle ruins have belonged to the Donaustauf market since April 6, 1986. From 1997 it was secured by the market and renovated.

The castle after Merian (copper engraving from 1644)

history

The Burgplatz already housed around 500 BC. A Celtic fortification of unknown extent and importance from the late Hallstatt period , as proven by excavations in the northeast side of the lower outer bailey in 1981.

Between 914 AD and 930 AD, Bishop Tuto of Regensburg had a castle built here to ward off the Hungarian invasions. The castle is mentioned as castellum quod dicitur Stufo between 894 and 930. The name stouf is the Old High German name for a cone-shaped rock or hilltop.

In the 11th century, the castle was of great strategic importance under the Regensburg monastery . In 1132 the castle is mentioned in a document as castrum Episcopi Tuonustouphen , which means that the castle was then the property of the Regensburg bishop. In 1132, 1146 and 1161, respectively, it was conquered and partially destroyed by the Bavarian dukes, who tried unsuccessfully to extend their rule over Regensburg. Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa is said to have spent the night from September 7th to 8th, 1156, in order to ride from there to the Reichstag on the meadows near Barbing on the morning of September 8th .

The Regensburg bishops used the castle as a residence at times. B. Albert I (1217–1259), and had them administered by ministerials . For lack of money, the bishopric pawned the castle several times in the 13th century. The Dominican Albertus Magnus , who was Bishop of Regensburg, wrote a commentary on the Gospel of Luke in the castle. In the summer of 1324, the Regensburg Bishop Nikolaus hid in the castle from the legate of the Archbishop of Salzburg . After 1331 the bishop stayed more often at the castles Donaustauf and Wörth .

From 1355 to 1373 the castle was owned by the Bohemian Crown, and in July 1355 Emperor Charles IV personally came to Donaustauf to take possession of it. In 1373 it came to the Bavarian Wittelsbach family . In 1385 the castle came again from the Wittelsbach family to the imperial city of Regensburg, which it had seized for a short time in 1301. In 1385/88 the castle was devastated in the city war and besieged unsuccessfully by Bavarian troops in 1388. When it was owned by the city of Regensburg, the castle also served as a prison for citizens of Donaustauf. In 1488 the Wittelsbach Bavarian Duke Albrecht IV took possession of it again personally.

From the 14th to the 17th century, the defense of the castle was expanded. In 1610, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria re-fortified it and added bastions. During the Thirty Years' War , the Donaustauf fortress was conquered, blown up and burned by the Swedes with great losses after the Bavarian occupation attacked Swedish supply troops in January 1634. After the Swedes left, poorly repaired and inhabited again, it fell into disrepair since the end of the 17th century and was used as a quarry.

In 1810 the ruins came to Bavaria with the Regensburg monastery. On March 18, 1812, the Bavarian state ceded the castle ruins to the house of Thurn und Taxis as compensation for the postal rights in Bavaria . The Princes of Thurn and Taxis have held the hereditary title of Duke of Donaustauf and Wörth since 1899.

Building history and facility

The oldest components of the medieval castle date from around 1060/70. These include the circular wall of quarried stone , the Palas , the inner gate buildings and the chapel (with even more buildings from the 11th century) which, however, were changed in the late Middle Ages.

Today's castle ruins
Remains of the chapel on the upper floor of the gate area

The extensive facility was designed as a section castle and comprised six successive gates:

Of the original six gates, four are still visible. In addition to being secured by the gates, the core castle was separated by a ditch in front of the 2nd gate .

The stump of the eastern round tower made of humpback ashlars below the palace has a diameter of 15 m and a wall thickness of 5 m and was added later to secure the unprotected side to the plateau of the outer bailey. It was probably only used later as a gun emplacement.

The early Romanesque square-based chapel upstairs of the inner gate tower had a three-aisled hall with three yokes , from the northern and western walls remain with semicircular alcoves and side featured columns with cushion. However, the pillars themselves are replicas. The Gothic lancet windows in the Romanesque vaults were added later. The chapel resembled the Magdalenenkapelle of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. With its partial location in the gate tower, the chapel is a special form of castle construction.

Only one wall with a Romanesque double window with a column remains of the hall . Nothing remains of the square keep . The east side of the castle area was laid out as an English park with an avenue from 1812. The north upstream, grabenumwehrte bailey today houses a small cemetery.

Donaustaufer Burgensteig

The Donaustauf castle ruins are one of more than 40 castles in the Regensburger Land that are networked with each other via hiking trails, the so-called Burgensteige. The Donaustaufer Burgensteig is about 30 kilometers long.

literature

  • Silvia Codreanu-Windauer , Karl-Wilhelm Höllerer: Castellum Stufo - Investigations on the Donaustaufer Burgberg . In: The archaeological year in Bavaria , 2005 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, 2006, p. 113 ff
  • Andreas Boos : Castles in the south of the Upper Palatinate - the early and high medieval fortifications of the Regensburg area . Universitätsverlag Regensburg, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-930480-03-4 , pp. 149–155.
  • Georg Dehio : Bavaria V: Regensburg and the Upper Palatinate - Handbook of German art monuments . Drexler Jolanda / Hubel Achim (arrangement), Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1991.
  • Udo Osterhaus: The castle hill near Donaustauf, Regensburg district, Upper Palatinate. An early Celtic manor . In: The archaeological year in Bavaria, 1982 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, 1983, p. 76 ff

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donaustaufer Burgensteig burgensteige.de