Burgstall Old Castle (Düsselbach)

Burgstall Old Castle
	Image 1: Burgstall Altes Schloss - view from north-west
Creation time :	probably 11th or 12th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Standing position :	probably ministerial
Construction:	Small ashlar masonry
Place:	Vorra -Düsselbach
Geographical location	49 ° 33 '9.1 " N , 11 ° 27' 20.9" E Coordinates: 49 ° 33 '9.1 " N , 11 ° 27' 20.9" E
Height:	567 m above sea level NN

The Burgstall Altes Schloss was a, presumably high medieval , aristocratic castle west of the village of Düsselbach in the municipality of Vorra in the Middle Franconian district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria , Germany .

The castle stable of the Höhenburg is freely accessible and serves as a lookout point .

Geographical location

The former castle is located in the southern area of the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park at 567 m above sea level. NN altitude on a rocky elevation of a ridge between the valley of the Pegnitz in the east and the valley of the Sittenbach in the west, about 1700 meters west of the village of Düsselbach, about 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Nuremberg .

The Burgstall can be reached by following a hiking trail marked yellow line horizontally to the south on the road from Vorra to Stöppach. The path leads directly past the Burgstall.

Nearby were other medieval fortifications, to the north-north-west of Hohenstein Castle , to the south-west of the Kleiner Hansgörgel castle stables on the mountain of the same name near Hersbruck and to the south-east of the Lichtenstein castle ruins above Pommelsbrunn .

History of the castle

There is no historical news about the former castle. The time of its construction, the builder and even the name of the castle are unknown. It is conceivable that the Ministerials von Alfalter, who belonged to the Reichenecker service team, could be assigned. They can be proven from 1362 to 1433. It is not known whether the castle was abandoned after the Lords of Alfalter died out or emigrated, or whether it was destroyed in a war. Ceramic remains found so far refer the rather small castle to the 13th century. Walter Heinz suspects it was built in the 11th or 12th century.

The first mention of a castle at this point is not found until 1596 on a map by the Nuremberg cartographer Paul Pfinzing . He called the place "near the old castle stone hill" .

The task of the castle could have been to monitor an intersection of two old streets . One road led from Hersbruck via Großviehberg and Hohenstein to Betzenstein , a second from Kirchensittenbach to Düsselbach. They crossed near the former castle on the ridge.

Description of the castle stables

Photo 2: View of the castle rock from the south-east

Image 3: The last large remains of the wall in a crevice

The ridge at the location of the former castle forms a ridge in a north-south direction with two rocky reefs. The castle stood on the plateau of the southern rocky reef.

It was a one-piece system on a rocky plateau with the dimensions of about 24 by 12 meters, and had no outer bailey, which suggests that it was very old. The plateau drops vertically about four to ten meters to the west (Fig. 1) and south, on the north and east side (Fig. 2), on the other hand, it is moderately steep about four meters.

The plateau was surrounded by a circular wall, of which the last remnants of the wall with two layers of four cuboids each can be seen in a crevice on the west side (Fig. 3), and remains of the foundation wall are also present on the east side. The northern part of the curtain wall can still be seen as the slope edge. In contrast, nothing can be seen from the southern part.

In the northern, leveled part of the castle there was probably a building measuring 10 by 5 meters, which was formed by the curtain wall on the north, west and east sides. The south side consisted of a transverse wall between the eastern and western curtain wall, which presumably formed the transition to a castle courtyard. There was also a building in the south of the castle complex. The terrain in between is rocky, there are no traces of construction to be seen.

The entrance to the castle was probably at the northern end of the plateau and led through the building. At the northern and eastern foot of the plateau there is a weak depression in the terrain, possibly a ditch.

In the northern and eastern areas of the Burgstall you can discover remains of mortar, brick fragments and ceramic remains.

literature

Robert Giersch, Andreas Schlunk, Berthold von Haller: Castles and mansions in the Nuremberg countryside - a historical manual based on preliminary work by Dr. Gustav Voit . Self-published by Altnürnberger Landschaft eV, Lauf an der Pegnitz 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020677-1 , pp. 15-16.
Walter Heinz: Former castles in the vicinity of the Rothenberg, part 2 (Vom Rothenberg and its vicinity, issue 15/2) . Published by the Heimatverein Schaittach eV, Schnaittach 1992, pp. 102-104.

Web links

Commons : Burgstall Altes Schloss - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Burgstall Old Castle on the castles and manor side in the Nuremberg countryside