Lobenstein castle ruins (Upper Palatinate)

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Lobenstein castle ruins
Lobenstein castle ruins - view of the south side of the residential tower

Lobenstein castle ruins - view of the south side of the residential tower

Creation time : probably during the 12th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Quarry stone masonry with corner blocks
Place: Cell
Geographical location 49 ° 8 '49 .3 "  N , 12 ° 24' 30.3" E Coordinates: 49 ° 8 '49 .3  "  N , 12 ° 24' 30.3"  E
Height: 564.6  m above sea level NHN
Lobenstein castle ruins (Bavaria)
Lobenstein castle ruins

The Lobenstein castle ruin is a former, presumably high mediaeval aristocratic castle in the municipality of Zell northeast of Regensburg in the Upper Palatinate district of Cham in Bavaria .

The ruins of the hilltop castle are freely accessible at all times and are used as a lookout point .

Geographical location

The castle ruins are located in the Upper Bavarian Forest , just north of the town of Zell at 564.6  m above sea level. NHN high Zeller Schlossberg, about 27 kilometers northeast of Regensburg. It consists of a large trapezoidal residential tower, which is located on the rocky summit, and a decayed building next to the summit area, of which only weak walls can be seen.

There are other former medieval castles in the vicinity, just a few kilometers north-northwest of the Katzenrohrbach castle stalls north of the village of the same name and a little further north of the Kirchenrohrbach castle stalls or Gußstein on the northern slope of the Regen river . Another former castle stood in the northwestern town of Hatzelsdorf, in a southeastern direction lies the Sengersberg castle ruins near the village of Au on the mountain of the same name, in the southwest the Siegenstein castle ruins and northeastern Regenpeilstein castle .

history

The Lobenstein Castle, whose origin in literature was often only put in the 14th century, was possibly founded as early as the early 12th century, because in a tradition of the Reichenbach monastery from the middle of the 12th century, the two presumed brothers "Othmar" and "Rizman de Lobeneke" mentioned. They were ministerials of the Diepolding Counts, whose eponymous seat Lobeneck probably refers to the later Lobenstein Castle. In the masonry on the north and north-east side of the residential tower, the remains of a previous building can still be found today, over which the current residential tower was built. At that time this castle probably served to secure the margravial territory to the west.

At a not exactly known time, the Lords of Peilstein came into possession of the presumably destroyed Lobenstein Castle. In 1339 "Eiban von Peilstein" sold his castle stable near Zell to "Eberhard Hofer von Hof". On May 23, 1340, he received from Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian permission to "rebuild the purkstal near cell that he chauffeured around Iban von Peilstein, bowen sull and mug, as it is useful", ie to rebuild the ruinous predecessor castle, however, Eberhard had to grant the emperor the right to open in return for an assurance of imperial protection. The Hofers were ministerials of the Wittelsbach family who had their ancestral seat at Hof am Regen Castle , but then made Lobenstein Castle their headquarters, and from 1342 called themselves Eberhard, Hofer von Lobenstein. They had their family grave in the former Walderbach monastery and in the Catholic parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Zell.

From 1380 Lobenstein is referred to as the seat of a Hofmark , where the Hofers appointed their own judges. "Seifried Krumbeck" is the first to be attested. In 1369 "Kalhoch Hofer" called himself Pfleger zu Lobenstein, in 1373 then also "Eberhard Hofer".

Another destruction of the castle took place during the Hussite Wars , probably during the train against Nittenau in 1428. It is said to have been no longer inhabited by then, and to have been given up in favor of the new residence in Zell. After that, Lobenstein Castle was rebuilt, which is also shown by the secondary masonry inside the residential tower.

Arched window niche with benches on the west side of the residential tower

The Hofer became robber barons in the times after the Hussite Wars , "Degenhard Hofer" killed some ducal subjects. Then Lobenstein Castle was in 1443 by Duke Albrecht III. conquered by Bayern-Munich for being robber barons. After that, however, the Hofer received the castle back as a fief , with the right of opening for the duke. In 1468 the castle was jointly owned by the brothers Dietrich and Hans Hofer. However, Hans again committed himself to robbery, which is why his share in the castle was taken from him by the Wittelsbach Count Palatine Otto II . Dietrich also handed his part of the castle over to the Count Palatine as a man-made feud and promised eternal opening. Both brothers granted the Count Palatine the right to open again after Hans got his share of Lobenstein Castle back into his possession.

Dietrich Hofer nevertheless joined the Löwlerbund in 1489 , which rebelled against Duke Albrecht IV , placed the castle under the protection of the Bohemian Duke Wladislaw II , and declared Duke Albrecht feud . Lobenstein Castle was then conquered by ducal troops, probably in the same year, and Dietrich's son Wolf Hofer only got it back in 1507, after he had obediently vowed as a compatriot . In 1516 the brothers Jörg and Wolf Hofer paid homage to Count Palatine Ludwig V and Philipp , took the castle as a fiefdom for ever and granted a permanent opening.

After border disputes between Bavaria and the Palatinate in 1530, “Schloss Lobenstein” was added to the “ young Palatinate ” on April 11, 1538 , which was founded after the Landshut War of Succession . In 1526 the owners of Lobenstein were still referred to as Bavarian subjects. The Hofmark was owned by Jörg Hofer until 1550, from whom it passed to the brothers Wolf Dietrich and David Eitel. In 1557 David became the sole owner, but since he was in debt, he tried in vain to sell the property to the barons of Rhine in 1558 .

In 1556 the castle is described as "... not inhabited for 20 years ...", when the castle was given up as a residence is not known exactly, possibly after the conquest in the Lion War. In 1689, too, Lobenstein is referred to as “... a bit of a being and mere pile of stone ...”, although a view from the second half of the 16th century shows the castle buildings still under roof. At that time, however, the people of Hof at Lobenstein and Zell were sitting in the castle in Zell, which was mentioned in 1556 as "... ain Hofpau zu Zell ...".

The last Hofer on Lobenstein and Zell was Hans Georg Hofer, who can be traced back to 1593. The Protestant but had to after 1629 Regensburg emigrate after during the Thirty Years' War , the recatholicization began. In 1637 he still called himself after Lobenstein and Zell, although all his attempts to regain possession of the rule had failed.

The final destruction of Lobenstein Castle took place shortly afterwards in 1633 by Swedish troops. The heirs of Hans Georg Hofer had to sell the ruins to the Bohemian baron Georg Thomas von Herstenzky zu Herstein and Welhartitz in 1649, as they could not rebuild the complex. The baron, on the other hand, probably intended to rebuild the castle; in 1652 he paid homage to the sovereign. However, there was no reconstruction, Georg Thomas sold the rule in 1665 to Baron Hans Peter von Salis . After his death in 1670 the fief fell back to the sovereign. From 1709 the son-in-law of the widow of Baron Hans Peter, Conrad Thomas Rummel von Lonnerstadt, is the owner of the two estates in Zell and Lobenstein. In 1737 the castle is mentioned again as "... the old collapsed Lobenstein Castle ...". The goods remained in the Rummel family's possession until 1806, when the property was inherited by the von Frank family.

Today only the residential tower, which has been preserved up to three storeys high, remains of the former castle, it is freely accessible and today serves as a viewing tower . Of the remaining buildings only walls and ditches, some of which are heavily overgrown with trees and bushes, have survived. The ruins can be easily reached from Zell on foot via a signposted path.

The ruin registered as a historical building by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation has the monument number D-3-72-167-6.

Description of the plant

View of the north side of the residential tower

The ruins of the Höhenburg lie on and around the highest point of the Zeller Schlossberg at 564.6  m above sea level. NHN on a triangular dome , which is covered in places with rounded granite rocks. The Schlossberg falls very steeply to the valley of the Perlenbach valley, especially to the south, the west and east sides of the mountain also drop steeply, only the north side of the mountain turns into a slightly more gently sloping slope, which then rises again to a neighboring hilltop .

The area of ​​the one-piece, rather small summit castle has roughly the shape of a trapezoid , and had a maximum length of about 65 meters and a width of 30 meters.

The castle complex was surrounded by an enclosure wall, of which a rubble wall up to 1.8 meters high can still be seen in the eastern and northeastern areas. In the rest of the area, especially in the south of the complex, the wall can only be seen as the edge of the terrace. On the naturally poorly protected north and north-west side of the former castle, the surrounding wall is preceded by a moat . Entrances to the facility could have been in the area of ​​today's driveway in the middle of the east side, and possibly on the west side.

The castle courtyard was located in the southern and partly in the eastern area of ​​the complex; it was in the lowest part of the castle complex. On the north-west side of the castle there was an elevated residential building with the dimensions of around 28 by 16 meters, of which only the foundations and a collapsed cellar vault can be seen today. A view from the 16th century shows the building as a two-story building with a hipped roof . The north side of this building stood only a few meters behind the surrounding wall, so that a very narrow, presumed kennel area was created here.

At the highest point of the facility, in the northeast area, there was a residential tower , it was connected to the northeast side of the residential building. The tower stands on several of the granite boulders that were integrated into the masonry of the tower. The rocks also appear in the basement. On the north and west side of the tower base, small cave spaces were created between the rocks, which were closed with walls.

The residential tower had the shape of a trapezoid, three floors and a basement. Except for the second floor, they are well preserved today. The tower measures 15.5 by 9.5 to 13 meters with a height of 18 meters, and is built from cut-out layered quarry stone masonry with corner blocks. The masonry on the ground floor is up to 2.4 meters thick, the northeast and southeast corners of the tower are bevelled. On the north and north-east side, in the lower area, the masonry of an older predecessor building can be seen that is clearly separated from the rest of the masonry. It could have come from the 12th century castle.

Under the eastern half of the tower there is a brick-vaulted cellar with a small slotted window facing east, the remaining floors were originally divided into three equal rooms by beamed ceilings. The now visible subdivisions, vaults, walls and pillars inside the tower were probably built in during the 15th century. At that time, the quarry stone masonry inside was plastered, as remains of the plaster that has been preserved shows.

The entrance to the tower is on the ground floor; on the west side of this floor there is a slit window that tapers towards the outside. There are also vaulted window niches on the north and east sides, while the east still shows the reveal of the rectangular window and side benches. These and the remaining reveals of the residential tower were probably added during renovations in the 1970s. The south-east corner inside the tower was subsequently separated by walls on the ground and first floors, so that a very narrow and barrel-vaulted room was created in the north-east corner , which today extends over two floors.

The first floor certainly served as the main living area, here are five arched window niches, some with preserved benches. This floor is covered by two barrel vaults parallel from north to south, of which only the beginnings of the vaults and the pillar in between on the south side are preserved today. The south-east corner on this floor has also been separated by masonry, but this room is also covered with a barrel vault facing north to south.

Not much has been preserved from the second floor of the residential tower, it now serves as a viewing platform . Only on the west side of this floor is a higher wall remnant preserved, in which there is an arched window. At the northeast corner there is another opening, where there are two corbels on the outside of the tower , possibly a toilet bay .

At the southeast corner of the tower there is a polygonal extension on the outside , which has a round floor plan on the inside; this could be the rest of a round tower flanking the entrance.

literature

  • Bernhard Ernst: Castle construction in the southeastern Upper Palatinate from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period, Volume 2: Catalog . Publishing house Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2003, ISBN 3-933474-20-5 , pp. 213-217;
  • Ursula Pfistermeister: Castles of the Upper Palatinate . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1974, ISBN 3-7917-0394-3 , p. 89;
  • Ursula Pfistermeister: Castles and palaces in the Bavarian Forest . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1997, ISBN 3-7917-1547-X , pp. 24-25;

Web links

Commons : Lobenstein castle ruins  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ↑ Bernhard Ernst: Building castles in the south-eastern Upper Palatinate from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period, Volume 2: Catalog , p. 39 ff.
  3. ↑ Source history: Ernst 2003, p. 215 ff.
  4. ↑ Lobenstein Castle Ruins on the BLfD website ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / geodaten.bayern.de
  5. ^ Source description: Ernst 2003, p. 213 ff.