Hilpoltstein castle ruins

Hilpoltstein castle ruins
	Castle and Traidkasten
Creation time :	around 1100
Castle type :	Höhenburg, location
Conservation status:	Keep, enclosing walls
Standing position :	Nobles, dukes, commoners
Construction:	Sandstone humpback cuboid
Place:	Hilpoltstein
Geographical location	49 ° 11 '23 " N , 11 ° 11' 39.5" E Coordinates: 49 ° 11 '23 " N , 11 ° 11' 39.5" E

The castle ruins Hilpoltstein is the ruins of a hilltop castle on a sandstone rock, the "Castle Hill" in the city Hilpoltstein in the district of Roth in Bavaria (not to be confused with Castle Hiltpoltstein ).

history

The first archaeological evidence of a first fortification on the "castle hill", from which the castle was probably built around 1100 and mentioned in 1109 and mentioned in 1142, dates back to the 10th century. In 1154 the castle was called "castellum dicto Stein", which refers to the founders of the castle, the Lords of Stein .

To 1220-1230 originated probably the palace and the castle keep and 1250 was Reichsministeriale Heinrich von Stein, the ancestor of the later Hilpoltsteiner sex with good relations with the Staufer emperors, the castle expand. Heinrich von Stein was Reichsbutiger ( cupbearer ) in Nuremberg and from 1254 to 1265 responsible for the imperial estates in Franconia .

Heinrich von Stein handed the castle over to his son Hilpolt I and after the death of Hilpolt IV in 1385 the castle came to the Wittelsbach family . Then the possessions came to the Dukes of Bavaria-Landshut and in 1505 to the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg and were occupied by carers .

The castle was significantly expanded again by the Duchess Maria Dorothea, the daughter of Christoph von Württemberg and the widow of Duke Ottheinrich II , who resided at the castle in the widow's seat from 1606 . After the death of Maria Dorothea in 1639 the castle was abandoned, sold to private individuals in 1793 and used as a quarry. In 1972 the castle came into the possession of the district of Roth, which had extensive security measures carried out from 1989.

Todays use

The castle ruins can be visited from April to October. In May, the Hilpoltstein Medieval Festival "Knights, Bards, Bag Cutters" takes place around the castle area. The castle festival traditionally takes place on the weekend of the first Sunday in August, with the ruins being used as an open-air stage for the Burgtheater in July and August.

The former court box now houses a guest house with tourist information, an archive for the district and the adult education center . The former outer bailey was used as a district hospital and retirement home for many years and now houses asylum seekers.

Building history and facility

The keep

The curtain wall

The castle complex is a fort-like Staufer rock tower, whose predecessor buildings from the 11th to 12th centuries can no longer be seen. The rectangular core Burg corresponds with their from sandstone - hump blocks masonry foundation walls the contours of the sandstone rock and shows parts of different construction times of the mid-13th century until the early modern times, with the oldest masonry located at the northeast corner.

The foundation of the palace in the west, of which only the foundation walls remain, and the foundation of the keep in the east of the complex point to the period from 1220 to 1230. In 1250 Heinrich von Stein added heights to the 9 meter high and 2 meter thick curtain wall and the hall.

The very well-preserved square 22 meter high keep on a floor area of 5 by 5 meters with its ogival entrance 10 meters high and the 1.7 meter thick walls has three floors with only 2 by 2 meters of accessible floor space. It served mainly as a lookout tower and its lords as a demonstration of their power. Traces of a Gothic vault can be found on the access floor of the keep, which indicates a construction period after 1250. Behind the keep was the castle kitchen and around 1606 a bathing room was set up here for the Duchess Maria Dorothea.

The entrance to the castle is unusually carved into the rock, where in a subsequent room one used to get into the courtyard via a wooden ladder and later via a wooden staircase that could be pulled up.

In the south of the main castle, the outer courtyard is enclosed by a circular wall with a gate and a rectangular stair tower with a Renaissance portal from 1606 built on the rock .

On the attack side of the castle, south under the core castle, was the outer castle , of whose farm buildings only the traid box from 1473 remains . In the west and north the castle was protected by a ditch with a wall. In the wall, the origin of which could point to an early medieval fortress , is a flat cellar with a barrel vault on the eastern edge of the Burganger . The room was probably created in the construction phase 1170/80 and served as the basement of a multi-storey defense structure. It was probably used as a cooling and storage room and later as a beer cellar. Around 1220/30 it received its barrel vault, which still exists today.

literature

Volker Herrmann: Guide to Hilpoltstein Castle . Publishing house Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2007, ISBN 978-3-933474-47-6 .
Thomas Platz: Hilpoltstein from the early Middle Ages to the early modern times - archaeological, architectural and historical aspects of the development of a Middle Franconian castle and town . From the series: Works on the Archeology of Southern Germany, Volume 12 . Publishing house Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2000, ISBN 3-933474-05-1 .
Ursula Pfistermeister : Well-fortified Franconia: castles, fortified churches, city walls. Volume 1: around Nuremberg . Hans Carl Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-418-00386-9 , pp. 54-55.
Ruth Bach-Damaskinos, Jürgen Schabel, Sabine Kothes: Palaces and castles in Middle Franconia . Verlag A. Hoffmann, Nuremberg 1993, ISBN 3-87191-186-0 , p. 179.

Web links

Commons : Hilpoltstein Castle - Collection of images, videos and audio files