Castle ruins in the Erlauftal
In the triangle Scheibbs - St. Anton an der Jeßnitz - Gaming in Lower Austria there were four castle ruins in the Erlauftal , of which no or hardly any remains of the wall are left: Scheuertberg near Neustift, Liebegg near Neubruck (both community Scheibbs), Jeßnitz near St. Anton the Jeßnitz and Frankenstein near Peutenburg.
The inventory fell into the Gaming Carthusian tradition, medieval castles that were in the region (acquired by Duke Albrecht II and given to his favorite foundation, the Kartause Gaming , or acquired directly), immediately razed and banned from being rebuilt. The background was to ensure the undisturbed development of the newly founded Kartause Gaming.
The task of the forts (castles) was to secure the paths Scheibbs-Gaming (over the Lueggraben), Scheibbs- Pielachtal (over St. Anton an der Jeßnitz) and Gaming-Pielachtal (over the Wolfsgrubsattel), as the area was back then was often visited and plundered by Hungarians. The forts were occupied by ministerials from the Counts of Peilstein . The current course of the road from Scheibbs to Gaming along the Erlauf was not yet possible at that time, as only the Erlauf came through between the rocks at the Talenge Peutenburg . The road was only blasted for Dreimärkterstraße in 1544 after gunpowder was invented to facilitate trade in iron ore.
| Castle | Location | Date of razing |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Frankenstein Castle
The Frankenstein Castle was located between gaming and Scheibbs, today near the tram stop Peutenburg and east of a manor called Zehenthof . At the beginning of the 18th century. Remains of the outer ring wall and the gate of the castle are said to be visible. Today there are no more remains of the wall, the castle's local mountain can still be seen.
Frederick the Fair gave Frankenstein Castle to his faithful Chunrat de Roezzing in 1314 as a pledge for his military service. It was later pledged to Ulrich von Topel . The Mauerbach Monastery and the Count of Pfannberg received the castle as a pledge in 1331. The last burgrave was Hartneid the Heffner . In 1338 Duke Albrecht II donated it to his foundation, the Kartause Gaming. Frankenstein Castle was then razed and put under the spell of reconstruction.
Frankenstein Castle had the defense policy task of protecting the old route from the Pielach valley via St. Anton an der Jeßnitz and the Wolfsgrubsattel to Gaming .
Scheuerberg Castle
Ginselberg Castle stands on a slope terrace in the west of Neustift . Nearby is the Lueggraben , in which the Scheuertberg Castle, which has now disappeared , stood in the Middle Ages . It was on the rocky castle hill, which has a plateau about 35 by 27 meters. The castle was probably built to secure the old road from Scheibbs to Gaming.
Albero and Chunrat von Scheuertberg are mentioned from 1260, the family owned the castle until 1290. Around 1302, the castle came to Otto Schoerbech through marriage to a daughter of Chunrats von Scheuertberg , as did Liebegg Castle . After his death in 1312, the castle passed to his sons Niklas, Konrad and Friedrich , who sold the castle to Duke Otto in 1322 . His successor, Duke Albrecht II, in turn donated Scheuertberg Castle to the Gaming Charterhouse in 1345. In that year he allowed the monks to put a burgrave on the castle. However, it was razed in 1358 on the orders of the Gaming Charterhouse and prohibited from rebuilding.
The castle stables of Scheuenberg Castle are located southwest of Scheibbs in the Rotte Ginselberg. The striking, conical castle hill juts out from the right valley slope of the south of Scheibbs into the valley of the Erlauf Lueggraben. The site is a natural fall-back dome, steep on three sides and interspersed with rocks, the appropriately adapted plateau of which offered space for a stately castle complex with a diameter of 35 meters. A spur-like extension to the east, which was included in the development, increases this dimension to 50 meters in some cases. The surface of the plateau is very structured, which results from numerous collapsed or underground wall sections. This suggests a relatively complex massive development. The bering reacted to the shape of the plateau and was visibly polygonal. A practically continuous peripheral development can be developed inside; a group of buildings in the west, which reveals several small rooms, is particularly easy to understand. At the northern precipice, the Bering has largely disappeared, but in the east it integrates a protruding rock spur on which further building structures can be seen. In the south, the rubble mounds form a distinctive high point, which may come from stronger, access-securing structures, possibly a tower. Opposite the courtyard was the former palace , to the north adjoining a trough apparently surrounded by walls, which may already have been connected with the development on the north side. However, only an excavation could bring clarity about the former structure. The already naturally protected place was secured against the southern mountain side by a possible wall arch , which also runs into the western and eastern steep slopes and encloses an unusually deep and up to 30 meters wide ditch. The moat merges into natural cuts on both sides, which cut the castle hill out of the terrain and reach down to the valley. Despite the thickness of the systems, a second ditch that runs up into the steep slope is located on the east side. On the mountain side, the wall is affected by the forest road, an outer ditch upstream here could consequently have been destroyed. The situation in the west seems unclear, where the wall seems to be divided into two parallel trains, but where natural situations could also be included. Up to now, large amounts of ceramics and individual metal objects have been picked up in the castle area, which come from the 13th and 14th centuries and are to be brought into line with the historical situation. At the eastern foot of the castle hill was the house builder until around 1900, which probably goes back to the Meierhof mentioned in a document.
Liebegg Castle
The once proud Liebegg Castle stood on the mountainside above the Neubruck train station. Today only small remains of the castle have been preserved in the forest. The castle was probably built to secure the way from Scheibbs into the Jeßnitz and Pielach valleys.
In 1265 the two brothers Otto and Heinrich von Liebegg appear, of whom Otto is mentioned as nobilis vir until 1290. From 1282, the neighboring Scheuenbergs already owned shares in the castle until they finally came into their own in 1290. Around 1302, Chunrat von Schüstenberg owned the Liebegg and Scheuertberg castles. Both castles were married to Otto Schoerbech, who died in 1312. The second daughter of Chunrat von Scheuertberg, Diemut , now took Liebegg Castle to her husband Otto von Plankenstein , who also called himself after Liebegg. In 1322 Otto von Plankenstein-Liebegg was captured in the battle of Mühldorf and was only released after paying a large ransom in 1325. He got the ransom by selling part of his property to the Lilienfeld monastery . After 1330 the descendants, Weikhard the Planchenstainer von Liebekk and his sister Agnes , wife of Weikhard (II.) Von Schafferfeld , share the ownership of the castle. Conflicts between the residents lead to the establishment of an arbitration tribunal in 1339 and, as a result, to an interesting division of property . From the documented agreements, remarkable details about the castle can be learned, which is divided by a windowless wall "through daz haus and through the chuchel" at the level of the curtain wall , with Agnes and Weikhard each having a tower. The division of the surrounding gardens is also described in detail and gives an insight into the economic equipment. Since the solution probably did not satisfy both parties, Wernhard's half could be acquired shortly afterwards by Friedrich dem Häusler , one of the arbitrators, who also bought the second half in 1342 and sold the castle to Duke Albrecht II at a profit in 1349, who gave it to the Charterhouse Gaming gave. On his orders, the castle was immediately razed. In 1355 he forbade any reconstruction of the castle. The former Meierhof of the castle is documented in 1339 and still appears as a farmstead under Hauß in 1790 .
The castle stable of Liebegg Castle is located south of Scheibbs in the Rotte Miesenbach . Here on the left bank of the Erlauf above the Liebegghof a noticeable spur juts out, which forms the location of the former castle. The facility is just below the Hofoydn farm , from where access is possible. The west-east-oriented spur jumps out of the overhanging hinterland to the valley of the Erlauf. The northern and southern flanks drop off relatively steeply and required no further obstacles to approach. However, a wide neck trench was dug against the western side of the mountain , which also extends deep into the slopes of the spur. Including the trench, the preparation of the land can be followed over the considerable length of 110 meters. The complex is likely to be divided into a core castle on the western, access-side section of the spur, and a lower castle on the eastern, valley-side steps. The main castle built an area of around 50 meters in length and probably ended at a clear rock step in the east. The area of the core castle is not uniform, but is again divided into several sections. In the south-west there is a raised plateau, which shows clear remains of a multi-part massive development. Presumably at this point there was a two-part building as well as an isolated round building adjacent to the east. Along the trench, sparse remains of the former Bering can be seen, which may have included the former gate to the north. This could initially have led to a kennel-like area in the north below the building . The eastern section of the core zone, the northern and southern boundaries of which appear to have already been dissolved, is located significantly lower and gradually descends towards the natural boundary of the area, the rock step in the east. The lower castle to the east, probably the Vorwerk , used the increasingly narrowing, valley-side section of the spur. At the immediate end of the valley, after a trench-shaped incision, there is a truncated cone-shaped high point, which bore the remains of massive buildings. In front of the neck ditch, a narrow plateau follows the axis of the spur and would offer itself as an agricultural area. The plateau merges into the foreground without a break, an overhanging slope. A small hill forms on its eastern end, which, according to the terrain, can be assumed to be the location of a small building.
In 1952, treasure graves searched the castle stables, uncovering remains of the wall 1.5 meters high and a number of remarkable findings; the present ceramic finds date to the 13th century.
Jeßnitz Castle
In the Middle Ages, Jeßnitz Castle, which has now disappeared, stood near the town of St. Anton an der Jeßnitz . At the beginning of the toll road to the Ötscher-Tormäuer nature park, a path branches off into a high valley and to the Wolfsgrubsattel. In earlier times an important route led to Gaming via the Wolfsgrubsattel. The road ends about halfway between St. Anton and the Wolfsgrubsattel. Past a farm, which is a little higher in the ditch and on the opposite side of a stream, there is a derelict farm, the former Meierhof of Jeßnitz Castle, which was then called house builder. Above this courtyard is the castle stables on the rocky ridge. Jeßnitz Castle once stood on the rocky truncated pyramid, protected by a wide moat, the top surface of which has the shape of a triangle.
Another theory suspects Jeßnitz Castle on a hill above the Jessnitzbach , now called Innerer Hofbauer.
In 1270 an Otto de Yeheniz is named who was sitting at Jeßnitz Castle. His son Philipp was a conventual in Lilienfeld in 1302 . A Hugo von Jeßnitz is mentioned in 1292. The Jeßnitz family died in the second half of the 14th century. out. Hartneid der Jeßnitzer sold half of Jeßnitz Castle to the Kartause Gaming in 1360 with the consent of Duke Rudolf IV . At this point in time, the Charterhouse should have already owned the other half of the castle. According to the Carthusian tradition, the castle was razed immediately after purchase.
Presumably, Jeßnitz Castle had a similar function to Frankenstein Castle, namely to protect the way over the Wolfsgrubsattel. It was on the eastern side of the saddle, Frankenstein Castle on the western side.
literature
- Marina Kaltenegger, Thomas Kühtreiber , Gerhard Reichhalter, Patrickschicht, Herwig Weigl: Mostviertel castles. Edited by Falko Daim . Vienna 2007.
Coordinates: 47 ° 58 ′ 0 ″ N , 15 ° 8 ′ 0 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Mostviertel - The cradle of Austria? - Taterman. Accessed November 1, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Entry on Liebegg Castle (Schlosskogl) in Scheibbs in the private database “Alle Burgen”. Retrieved December 5, 2018.