Stockenfels castle ruins

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Stockenfels castle ruins
West side of the main castle of Stockenfels

West side of the main castle of Stockenfels

Creation time : Around 1340
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Counts and barons, Hofmark
Construction: Quarry stone masonry with corner bosses
Place: Nittenau -Fischbach
Geographical location 49 ° 13 '36 "  N , 12 ° 10' 21"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '36 "  N , 12 ° 10' 21"  E
Height: 459  m above sea level NN
Stockenfels castle ruins (Bavaria)
Stockenfels castle ruins

The Stockenfels castle ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle at 459  m above sea level. NN at a strategically favorable location on a 120 meter high granite dome in the Regental near the Fischbach district of the city of Nittenau in the Schwandorf district in Bavaria .

The castle was once the center of the Stockenfels rule, whose later name was Stockenfels / Fischbach, as the complex was destroyed during the Thirty Years War and the administrative center was relocated from Stockenfels Castle to Fischbach.

history

The construction of the preserved buildings refers to the middle of the 14th century as the date of construction or to the two builders at the time, Duke Ludwig the Strengen and his successor Duke Ludwig IV. , The later Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian . The latter equipped Stockenfels Castle with its own chapel. After the death of Emperor Ludwig, Stockenfels often changed hands, including predatory lords. In 1351 the property passed to the patrician family Auer, who originally came from Regensburg , but had to leave their hometown in 1334. In 1372 Stockenfels was taken over by the Wittelsbachers after some turmoil in the war . In 1430 the knight Georg Heuras von Satzdorf took over the castle.

In 1510 the Heuras sold the rule to Albrecht von Wirsberg , who was the district judge and caretaker at Neunburg vorm Wald . There followed a time when the owners kept changing.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Baron Karl von Eckart acquired the ruin, which his descendants, the Counts of Mühle-Eckart, still own today. The current owner is Gabriele Countess von Drechsel, née Countess Mühle-Eckart, who also takes care of the upkeep and preservation of the castle.

description

The castle site is located on the southern granite crest of a double-pinned mountain, which is 120  meters above the Regental . To the west, south and east, the Burgplatz drops steeply to the valley of the rain or its tributaries, only to the north, after a depression, is the somewhat higher, second hilltop, which was also fortified. It is not known whether it was a further castle complex or an outbuilding of Stockenfels Castle. The terrain then slopes slightly to the north.

The castle complex is divided into a western and slightly lower bailey and the core bailey on the hilltop, the highest point of the castle site . Only extensive remains of the wall have survived from the outer bailey.

Photograph of the outer bailey of the Kallmünz castle ruins
Remains of the outer bailey's wall. In the picture on the left you can see parts of the facade of a former farm building.
Photograph of the castle gate of the Stockenfels castle ruins
Entrance gate to the main castle

The closed, lengthwise rectangular, 33 by 13 meter core castle was presented with a wall on the south and east sides , which was only built in a later construction phase around 1430, but has almost completely disappeared apart from a few remains. The north end of the main castle forms the only habitable building in the castle, a dominant residential tower that takes up the entire width of the complex. It consists of quarry stone masonry with corner bosses. The original building, built around 1338 according to dendrochronological dating, has three floors. The ground floor is vaulted and partly with a cellar, followed by two floors with halls and plank rooms. The former high entrance on the south wall facing the castle courtyard was on the first floor. In a second construction phase around 1515, this residential tower was raised by two more floors. To the south, the south-west and south-east corners of the residential tower are connected to a circular wall, which in the western area formed a small courtyard. The round-arched castle gate of the core castle leads to the south-west end of this courtyard, there is a fountain . A building in the eastern area between the curtain wall, separated by a north-south dividing wall, served as a kitchen, as a pouring stone leading through the curtain wall shows. This is followed by two ruinous residential wings, also taking up the entire width of the main castle.

The legend of the beer fans

Every night at Stockenfels Castle, high on a ridge above the Regental, those who have committed the third worst crime in Bavaria atone for their sins. After a murder and arson it is “to pour water into the beer”, at least that is what the vernacular and the relevant sagas and stories about the notorious ghost castle Stockenfels, also sometimes called Bierpanscher-Walhalla, say. The unfaithful waitresses, bartenders, landlords and landladies who messed about, poured poorly or otherwise cheated on their trusting guests also join the rascals.

Punctually at midnight, the otherwise buried groundless castle well opens and a seemingly endless ladder extends from the bottom of the well up to the top of the massive keep . The Devils from Stockenfels are now driving the poor and wailing souls of the maleficients up the ladder until rung by rung is occupied, from the bottom to the top. Downstairs, a devil gives bucket after bucket of water and the chain of the exiles has to pass it on to the very top, where the devil pours the scooped water over the castle wall again.

It goes like this night after night in the witching hour, and penance lasts forever, because brew maleficients never find rest. They have to draw as much water as they poured into the beer during their earthly life and thus deceived their guests. Quite a few are also known by name, such as the Schwodlbräu from Zangenstein, the waitress from Stadtamhof, three waitresses from the Hofbräuhaus, some brewers from Munich, the Podagrawirt from Haag, the nurse from Aufhausen, the brewer from Regensburg and many others from Bavarian countries.

Quite a few have been up there for 300 years and the number is increasing every day. That is why the deep ponds at the foot of the castle never dry up, even in the hottest summer, no wonder considering the watercourses that pour into them every night from the castle. And there are many stories about curious, nocturnal hikers who involuntarily witnessed the Panscherbuße at Stockenfels Castle. But they have all paid for their curiosity with their lives and now watch the ghost festival on Stockenfels every night and forever.

The Nittenau Festival Association plays the legend three times a year at the castles Hof am Regen , Stefling and Stockenfels in the form of a ghost walk.

literature

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Stockenfels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Leidorf, Peter Ettel, Walter Irlinger, Joachim Zeune: Castles in Bavaria - 7000 years of history in aerial photography , p. 186