Klingenfels castle ruins

Klingenfels castle ruins
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Castle stable, wall and moat remains
Standing position :	Nobles
Place:	Ilshofen- Steinbächle
Geographical location	49 ° 8 '55.1 "  N , 9 ° 52' 37.9"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 8 '55.1 "  N , 9 ° 52' 37.9"  E
Height:	414.4  m above sea level NN

The castle ruin Klingenfels is an abandoned spur castle above the confluence of the Steinbach in the Schmerach at 414.4  m above sea level. NN about 750 meters west-southwest of the Steinbächle district of the city of Ilshofen in the Schwäbisch Hall district in Baden-Württemberg .

history

Klingenfels Castle was built by the Lords of Klingenfels at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, and in 1222 a Konrad von Klingenfels was first attested. The noble family von Klingenfels was probably related to the family of the lords of Krautheim . Both families also belonged to the class of the noble free . The Klingenfelser died out shortly after 1250, after which a low-nobility family of ministers named themselves after the castle. They were probably related to the Vellbergers , which is indicated by, among other things, an identical coat of arms .

Klingenfels Castle itself was mentioned for the first time in 1350, at that time it was in the fiefdom of the Ministeriales who had received them from the Lords of Hohenlohe .

The "big Raubhauß" was destroyed during the war cities in 1381, probably along with Burg Biel Riet from the Hallern for outbound from the castle raids. A year later, the imperial city of Hall acquired the castle stables and the subsequent oak wood for 80 guilders , thereby expanding their territory.

However, the possession of Hall was controversial, in 1413 the Hall citizen Kunz von Klingenfels demanded the rights to the castle stables. The imperial city really seems to have lost its property during the 15th century, because in 1506 the knight Wolf von Validlingen sold, among other things, “ ain Burkstall called Clingenfelß ”, which came to him “ from ancient times ”, to Georg von Vellberg. After the death of Konrad von Vellberg in 1592, the castle stables came back to the imperial city of Hall in 1594.

description

The castle lay on a plateau spur that jutted west into a bend of the Schmerach river . The castle complex was naturally protected on the north and west side by a steep slope to the Schmerach, which is about 70 meters below, and on the south side by a deeply cut Klingental valley of the Steinbach. On the east side, on the other hand, the castle had to be secured by ditches created because the terrain here rises slightly towards the plateau .

The outermost trench in the east - about 100 meters long, 4 to 5 meters deep and about 6 meters wide - was driven into the shell limestone and was located between the forecourt and the outer bailey . Today an approximately three meter deep ravine runs through it. The trapezoidal area of ​​the outer bailey is about 22 meters wide and 74 on the east side and 55 meters long on the west side. Traces of building can no longer be seen today.

To the west of the outer bailey, a second straight trench, which is still around 60 meters long and 6 meters deep today, separated the triangular area of ​​the inner bailey . This has a greatest length (east-west) of 52 meters and a width of 48 meters; A wall can also be seen here, presumably the rest of the fallen curtain wall .

In front of the western tip of the castle complex, about 3.5 meters lower than the core castle, there is an extension of the mountain spur on which other farm buildings of the castle may have stood.

The entire castle area is partially severely disturbed by quarrying work .

literature

• Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1228-7 , pp. 121-123.
• Max Miller (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 6: Baden-Württemberg (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 276). Kröner, Stuttgart 1965, DNB 456882928 .

Web links

• Klingenfels castle ruins at erwinschumacher.de
• About "Clingenfels the great Raubhauß" in the Hällische Chronik. Online version of Bielefeld University, see p. 63 of the census there.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the “Hallic Chronicle” on the web links.
2. ↑ Source history: Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory , p. 122ff
3. ↑ Source description: Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory , p. 121ff