Streitburg castle ruins

Streitburg castle ruins
Streitberg castle ruins - view of the complex from the south
Alternative name (s):	Streitberg Castle
Creation time :	before 1120
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Restored ruin, of which not much of the building structure has been preserved
Standing position :	Ministerialenburg
Construction:	Quarry stone masonry
Place:	Wiesenttal - Streitberg
Geographical location	49 ° 48 '46.3 "  N , 11 ° 13' 14.3"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 48 '46.3 "  N , 11 ° 13' 14.3"  E
Height:	403.7  m above sea level NN

The castle ruin Streitburg or castle ruin Streitberg is the remainder of a high medieval aristocratic castle above the village of Streitberg , a district of the Wiesenttal market in the Upper Franconian district of Forchheim in Bavaria . It is located directly opposite the Neideck castle ruins , the symbol of Franconian Switzerland .

The castle ruins are freely accessible.

Geographical location

The ruin of the Spornburg is located at 403.7  m above sea level. NN high, rocky Streitberg protruding to the southwest above the village of Streitberg, which is bordered in the south and east by the Wiesent valley and in the west by Schauertal .

The ruins can be reached via hiking trails from the village or the surrounding area.

There were many other former castles in the vicinity of the Streitburg ruins: to the north-east of the Kulk castle stalls on the mountain called Guckhüll, to the south-east, Neideck Castle and the Wöhr hilltop castle on a former river island of the Wiesent near the hamlet of the same name. About 250 meters southwest and above the Neideck is the Wartleiten castle stable , in the area of ​​today's cemetery in Niederfellendorf a Fellendorf castle stable and on the Hummerstein above Gasseldorf an early medieval castle stable.

history

Streitberger coat of arms

Reconstruction of the state around 1760

Readings from the 4th and 5th centuries indicate that the mountain was already a hilltop settlement from the migration period . The exact time when the medieval castle was built is unknown. The builders of the medieval castle are the Lords of Streitberg , who probably built the castle before 1120 , probably initially as a free owner .

Since 1285 at the latest, the lords of Schlüsselberg , a powerful dynasty, exercised fiefdom over the castle or large parts of it. In 1303 a knight "Bert de Streitberg" was officially named as the feudal bearer of the castle. After the Schlüsselbergs died out in 1347, the castle came in equal parts to the bishops of Bamberg and Würzburg , who let the knights of Streitberg, who probably still owned a part of the castle as free owners, sit on the castle as feudal men.

In 1508 the castle became the property of Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg-Kulmbach . The complex was subsequently used as a military base and margravial official residence. Konrad Schott von Schottenstein , Beringer von Kotzau and Ernst von Kotzau were among the Hohenzollern Streitberg officials .

In 1523 the Swabian Federation took up a force against the notorious robber baron Hans Thomas von Absberg . The heap of mercenaries passed below the Streitberg Castle, on which the bailiff Conz Schott von Schottenstein , a brother-in-law of Hans Thomas von Absberg, was sitting, in the direction of the Truppach Castle . There was a small exchange of fire, but the conflict did not escalate and Streitberg Castle was not damaged.

The castle also remained undamaged during the Peasants' War in 1525, but was conquered and destroyed in 1553 during the Second Margrave War. Led by the Nuremberg Colonel Ritter Haug von Parsberg and the Bamberg Colonel Claus von Egloffstein , whose Kunreuth castle had been destroyed by Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades , the Bishops of Bamberg and Würzburg stormed the castle with the Nuremberg people on June 16, 1553.

It was rebuilt between 1562 and 1565. In the Thirty Years' War plundered and 1632 by imperial troops damaged again, it served after the elimination of damage from 1657 to 1791 again as the seat of a margravial Office. The cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein completed a very precise map of the castle area for the first time in 1816 with the existing inventory. In the possession of the state of Bavaria since 1803, the plant was sold to the municipality of Streitberg in 1812, used as a quarry from 1811 to 1814 and almost completely demolished.

Building description

Floor plan of Streitburg Castle in 1760

Inner gate system seen from the lower castle

Streitburg vertical aerial photo (2019)

The main castle was located on a high dolomite rock massif that fell almost vertically on three sides into the Wiesent valley . The north side, endangered by the rising terrain, was once a heavily fortified outer bailey, which is now completely built over.

Behind the broad ditch of the main castle, the gate from 1563/65 with a bastion and an advanced gun turret has been partially preserved. Behind the gate you can still see the remains of the wall of the long stables and the forester's house.

The castle path leads to a terraced ledge with deep lining walls , on which the large main building with its clock tower was built in the 16th century. The renaissance building is completely gone. The location of the former stair tower can still be seen from the rock work. The stair tower gave access to the summit of a high cliff. In the west, under this hilltop, there was another building, the outer wall of which had collapsed. Two barrel-vaulted cellars have been preserved, under which there is another cellar with a hole prison, completely carved out of the rock. The cellar vaults are inaccessible to visitors.

Historical illustrations

• 

  Streitberg with the Streitburg castle ruins, steel engraving (1834) by Conrad Wießner

• 

  Streitberg with the Streitburg castle ruins, steel engraving (1840) by Johann Poppel

• 

  Streitberg with the Streitburg castle ruins, lithograph (around 1840) by Theodor Rothbarth after a drawing by Carl Käppel

• 

  Streitburg castle ruins, steel engraving (1840) by Payne and Gray after a drawing by Ludwig Richter

literature

• Dieter Zöberlein: The von Streitberg, story of a Franconian noble family. 3 parts, Burggrub 2018, self-published, here part 2, pp. 40–82; Part 3, pp. 86-89 and p. 151
• Ursula Pfistermeister : Well-defended Franconia - Volume 3: Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg . Fachverlag Hans Carl GmbH, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-418-00387-7 , pp. 119-120.
• Gustav Voit, Brigitte Kaulich, Walter Rüfer: From the countryside in the mountains to Franconian Switzerland - a landscape is discovered . (Series of publications by the Franconian Switzerland Association, Volume 8) Verlag Palm and Enke , Erlangen 1992, ISBN 3-7896-0511-5 , pp. 145–156.
• Gustav Voit, Walter Rüfer: A castle tour through Franconian Switzerland . Verlag Palm and Enke , Erlangen 1991, ISBN 3-7896-0064-4 , pp. 178-183.
• Björn-Uwe Abels , Joachim Zeune , among others: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 20: Franconian Switzerland . Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH and Co., Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0586-8 , pp. 245-246.
• Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of south-western Franconian Switzerland . Commission publisher Degener and Co., Neustadt an der Aisch 1990, pp. 58-87.
• Hans Vollet, Kathrin Heckel: The ruins drawings of the Plassenburg cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein . Kulmbach 1987.
• Brigitte Kaulich, Gustav Voit, among others: Around the Neideck . Verlag Palm and Enke , Erlangen 1983, ISBN 3-7896-0057-1 , pp. 282-288.
• Karl Bosl (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 7: Bavaria (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 277). 3. Edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-520-27703-4 .
• Toni Eckert, Susanne Fischer, Renate Freitag, Rainer Hofmann, Walter Thousand Pounds: The Castles of Franconian Switzerland: A cultural guide . Gürtler Druck, Forchheim o. J., ISBN 3-9803276-5-5 , pp. 143-147.

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Streitburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Burgruine Streitburg on the Burgenwelt.de site
• Brief history of Streitburg Castle

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Map services ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the BfN  
2. ↑ Christoph Eger: The hillside settlement of the 4th and 5th centuries AD on the Reisberg near Scheßlitz-Burgellern, district of Bamberg. In: Craftsmen, warriors, tribal princes - The Germanic fortification of the migration period on the Reisberg. Exhibition catalog of the Franconian Switzerland Museum, volume 17. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition in the Franconian Switzerland Museum Tüchersfeld 91278 Pottenstein from May 22nd - November 7th 2010. Editor: Rainer Hofmann on behalf of the Franconian Switzerland Museum Association, Tüchersfeld 2010. ISBN 978-3 -942439-02-2