Helfenberg castle ruins (Wolfhagen)

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Helfenberg castle ruins
View from the Festberg to Philippinenthal and the Helfenberg (left)

View from the Festberg to Philippinenthal and the Helfenberg (left)

Creation time : Early 13th century
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Burgstall, ramparts, moats
Place: Philippinenburg and -thal city ​​of Wolfhagen
Geographical location 51 ° 19 '47 "  N , 9 ° 12' 33"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 19 '47 "  N , 9 ° 12' 33"  E
Height: 349  m above sea level NHN
Helfenberg castle ruins (Hesse)
Helfenberg castle ruins

The castle ruin Helfenberg is an abandoned hilltop castle near Wolfhagen in the northern Hessian district of Kassel .

Geographical location

The remains of Helfenberg Castle are located in the north-western part of the Habichtswald Nature Park around 2.5 km east of the core town of Wolfhagen on the unwooded Helfenberg ( 366.2  m above sea  level ), a basalt knoll extending north-south between the eastern ones Wolfhager districts of Philippinenburg in the south-southeast and Philippinenthal in the northeast. To the north the terrain slopes down over the valley of the small Lohbach to the Erpe . The altitude of the Burgstall is given as 349  m , which seems to refer to a point between the north and south crests of the Helfenberg. According to Georg Landau , however, the castle was on the northern tip of the ridge, was enclosed by a deep moat and additionally secured by another ditch that cut through the ridge in the middle. The elongated castle stable on the two-pinned Helfenberg indicates the existence of a northern main castle and one or two outer castles .

history

The brothers Heinrich and Eberhard II. (Eckhard) von Gasterfeld had the castle built at the beginning of the 13th century and moved their residence from the small castle Gasterfeld there. From about 1240 onwards, their descendants called themselves Herren von Helfenberg . The Lords of Helfenberg became Landgrave Hessian Burgmanns to Wolfhagen and their line died out in 1414.

Eckhard IV. And his cousins ​​Johann III. and Werner I. von Helfenberg, or already their fathers, the Eckhard III first mentioned in 1233 and lastly in 1270. and Johann I, sons of Eberhard II, the founder of the Wolfhager line of those von Helfenberg, got into a dispute with Landgrave Heinrich I of Hesse , who had the castle conquered and destroyed. Neither the cause of the dispute nor the exact time of the destruction are recorded. Unmet Lehnsgehorsam or wrong partisanship during the clashes of the Landgrave in the years 1269-1272 with the Mainz Archbishop Werner von Eppstein , robber barons or opposition to the territorial claim of the Landgrave be presumed and the destruction took place well either 1269/72 or 1293/94.

After its destruction, the castle was uninhabited and gradually fell into disrepair. Today there are only walls and ditches of the former castle complex on and on adjacent mounds of earth.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 (p. 28f.)
  • Georg Landau : The Hessian knight castles and their owners , Volume 3, Bohné, Kassel 1836, p. 11–26 - digitized

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helfenberg Castle, Kassel district. Historical local lexicon for Hesse (as of June 24, 2010). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on November 5, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b The location of Helfenberg Castle in the orthophoto .  In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  3. ↑ Georg Landau : The Hessian knight castles and their owners , Volume 3, Bohné, Kassel, 1836, pp. 11-12 - digitized
  4. ↑ Georg Landau : The Hessian knight castles and their owners , Volume 3, Bohné, Kassel, 1836, pp. 18-19 - digitized