Greifenstein castle ruins (Eichsfeld)

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Greifenstein castle ruins
Großtöpfer - Greifenstein castle ruins - panoramio (detail 1) .jpg
Creation time : around 1397
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Remains of the keep, wall and vault remains
Standing position : Nobles, clerics, duke, prince
Construction: Sandstone cuboid
Place: Geismar - great potter
Geographical location 51 ° 13 '47.8 "  N , 10 ° 6' 43.6"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 13 '47.8 "  N , 10 ° 6' 43.6"  E
Height: 442.5  m above sea level NHN
Greifenstein castle ruins (Thuringia)
Greifenstein castle ruins

The Greifenstein castle ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle on the Schloßberg near Großtöpfer in the Eichsfeld district in Thuringia .

location

The castle was at 442.5  m above sea level. NHN high Schloßberg in the south dike field about 2000 meters west of Großtöpfer, a district of the municipality Geismar and 2000 meters east of Kella near the state border with Hesse . The ruin can be reached by traffic via the national road 2030 between Kella and Großtöpfer and on various hiking trails to the summit.

history

The area in the southwest of Eichsfeld from Stein Castle to the Rosoppetal was part of the Windische Mark in the Middle Ages and belonged to the Germarmark from the 10th century . It is not known who built the castle and who lived there. The Crafto de Grifenstein mentioned in 1283 is probably assigned to another Greifenstein castle . The castle was first mentioned in 1397 when it was stormed and destroyed by citizens from Erfurt, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen under the leadership of Duke Otto von Braunschweig because of robber barons . After it was rebuilt, it came into the possession of the Archbishop of Mainz . It was pledged to Duke Wilhelm of Saxony in 1461 and then to the Lords of Bültzingslöwen until 1539 . In 1464 Hermann Diede zum Fürstenstein was mentioned because of debts with the Lords of Hanstein , whom he had taken up because of the construction of an altar in the Greifenstein chapel. Elector Albrecht bought the castle back in 1539 for 600 guilders. After the end of the border disputes between Kurmainz and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel in 1583, Greifenstein Castle no longer played a strategic role and slowly fell into disrepair, but in 1661 an Electoral Mainz bailiff was still sitting at the castle.

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, a so-called Kirchhofsacker was known at the foot of the mountain ; it is not known whether there was a church there. In the time of the inner German division until 1989, the castle ruins were not accessible to residents due to their location in the protective strip.

investment

The castle complex consisted of simple sandstone - ashlar masonry without any special architectural details. Today only a 5 meter high stump of the round keep with a diameter of 10 meters, remains of the cellar vault, wall and moat remains .

The Electoral Mainz Office of Greifenstein

When the Elector of Mainz took possession of the castle, the Greifenstein office emerged from the castle district. The office included the villages of Kella , Pfaffschwende (at times also desolate), Armaments , Sickerode and the aristocratic property Volkerode as well as some places that no longer exist today (Thorental, Rohrbach, Rosserode, Schemrode, (Rehagen, Frankenkühl are questionable)). At the end of the 16th century, a place of sponsorship was mentioned where the embarrassing court of the Greifenstein office was held, and the castle itself was probably also a court. A map around 1590 shows a gallows between the Greifenstein and the place Pfaffschwende, which belonged to the official area of ​​the Greifenstein.

When the castle was abandoned in the 17th century, the Greifenstein office was co-administered by the neighboring Bischofstein office. The following castle men, bailiffs or officials are known:

  • Lords of Weberstedt that to 1380 the neighboring village Wiesenfeld owned and there is a bower inhabited
  • 1400 Herman von Ershausen
  • 1464 Hermann Dythe
  • 1566–1584 Klaus Wagner
  • 1592-1617 Philipp Falk

  • Castle Greifenstein and Hof Wettig around 1700, the border to Hesse is marked with boundary stones

  • The Electoral Mainz Office of Greifenstein around 1760

Gut Greifenstein

On a historical map from the late 16th century, is below the hilltop on the way to potter Vorwerk recorded. It was probably used to supply the castle residents with food. At the beginning of the 18th century the name Wettig has been handed down for the place . In the middle of the 18th century this was rebuilt as an estate, later a forester's house was built not far from the estate. In 1803 the estate became a Prussian domain and was leased. In 1841 it became private property and in 1914 the noble Keudell family in Schwebda bought it . In autumn 1945 the property was expropriated and the land was transferred to new farmers. As part of the collectivization, the country was incorporated into the LPG Kella. At the end of the 1960s, it was decided to demolish the property and the Forsthausen as part of the GDR's border security measures.

literature

  • Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . 2nd expanded and revised edition. Jenzig-Verlag, Jena 2003, ISBN 3-910141-56-0 , p. 124.
  • Heuckeroth, Erwin: Castle, forester's house and Gut Greifenstein. History from the triangle Großtöpfer-Kella-Schwebda. Edited by the Museum Association Schwebda 1989 e. V., Schwebda 2005, 82 pages
  • Rudolph, Benjamin: The castle ruins Greifenstein near Großtöpfer in the upper Eichsfeld (Thuringia) - history and existence. Deutsche Burgenvereinigung (Ed.), In: Journal "Burgen und Schlösser" 2/2011, pp. 87ff, Braubach / Rhein 2011
  • Thomas Wölker: Insights into the recent development of Altenstein, Greifenstein, Hessel and Keudelstein in the area of ​​the former inner-German border. In: Das Werraland 1992, Issue 4, pp. 81–86

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Greifenstein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ↑ Carl Philipp Emil von Hanstein - Documented history of the family of Hanstein in Eichsfeld. 1st part Kassel 1856, documents p. 44, no. 260
  3. ↑ Levin von Wintzingeroda-Knorr : Die Wüstungen des Eichsfeldes: Directory of the desert areas, prehistoric ramparts, mines, courts of law and waiting areas within the districts of Duderstadt, Heiligenstadt, Mühlhausen and Worbis. Göttingen (O. Hendel) 1903, page 494
  4. ↑ Levin von Wintzingeroda-Knorr : Die Wüstungen des Eichsfeldes: Directory of the desert areas, prehistoric ramparts, mines, courts of law and waiting areas within the districts of Duderstadt, Heiligenstadt, Mühlhausen and Worbis. Göttingen (O. Hendel) 1903, page 495
  5. ^ G. Reichel: Historical maps of the districts of Heiligenstadt (1908) and Worbis (1913), ed. Historical Commission of the Province of Saxony, printed by Louis Koch Halberstadt
  6. ^ Johann Wolf: Political History of the Eichsfeldes. Göttingen 1793, Volume 2, Section 3, Pages 37-39
  7. ↑ Ed. Ulrich Harteisen, Ansgar Hoppe et al .: Das Eichsfeld. Volume 79 of the series Landscapes in Germany. Verlag Böhlau , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2018, p. 335
  8. ^ Register entry "Ershausen: Hermann von", in: Die Regesten der Mainzer Erzbischöfe, URI: http://www.ingrossaturbuecher.de/id/person/5415 (accessed on April 18, 2017)
  9. ↑ [1] Website about armaments: borrows 50 guilders against his armaments as pledge (accessed on May 29, 2017)
  10. ↑ a b Bernhard Opfermann : Gestalten des Eichsfeldes. St. Benno-Verlag Leipzig and Verlag FW Cordier Heiligenstadt 1968
  11. ↑ Volker Große, Gunter Römer: Lost cultural sites in Eichsfeld 1945 to 1989 A documentation . Eichsfeld Verlag, Heilbad Heiligenstadt, 2006, p. 113