Burgstall Dietrichstein (Lützelsdorf)

Burgstall Dietrichstein
Alternative name (s):	Diederichstein
Creation time :	1000 to 1100
Castle type :	Höhenburg, valley edge location
Conservation status:	Disappeared, few preserved remains of the wall have been preserved
Place:	Pretzfeld - Lützelsdorf - "Diederichstein"
Geographical location	49 ° 45 '23.6 "  N , 11 ° 12' 10.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 45 '23.6 "  N , 11 ° 12' 10.5"  E
Height:	454  m above sea level NN

The Burgstall Dietrichstein , which is also known as the Diederichstein ruin , is a presumably high medieval aristocratic castle that has disappeared high above the Trubach valley in the municipality of Pretzfeld in the Upper Franconian district of Forchheim in Bavaria , ( Germany ).

The castle stable is freely accessible at all times and is now used as a lookout point.

Geographical location

The small, former hilltop castle is located in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park, around 750 meters north-northeast of the village of Lützelsdorf on the edge of the valley, which slopes vertically towards the Trubach, at around 450  m above sea level. NN des Diederichstein about eleven kilometers northeast of Forchheim .

Close by, on the Kreuzberg, is the Schlüsselstein castle stables , presumably a foundation of the Schluesselberger family , immediately west of Ebermannstadt there is an unnamed castle stables, which was laid out as a very large high moth . To the east was the former Wolkenstein castle , today a ruin with only very few remaining remains, the defunct tower castle Eberhardstein on a rock tower, and the Stadtmers Bürg stables on the Hetzelfels. A little further lies the former Wichsenstein Castle above the village of the same name, Wichsenstein , today a vantage point with great views.

History of the castle

Exactly when the Dietrichstein Castle was built cannot be said today, the only documentary mention is from the year 1355. At that time the castle probably no longer existed.

Its name could give an indication of the age of the small castle: The Nuremberg castle researcher Hellmut Kunstmann has proven that castles in Eastern Franconia with the name composition of personal names and stone are usually very old. Examples include Pottenstein Castle , which was founded around 1070, Gößweinstein Castle , which was first mentioned in 1076, or Hiltpoltstein Castle , which was also built before 1100. Other examples are Castle Egloffstein , castle Leupold stone , castle Eberhard stone castle Wichsenstein or castle Gernot Stein to call.

The shape of the castle complex also suggests that it is very old: the almost circular complex is separated from the slightly lower plateau on the northeast side by a semicircular ditch. On the opposite side, the castle was protected by a steep drop in the rocks. The castle could not withstand long against an opponent who attacked with a gun from the plateau on a broad front, as it offered a wide attack surface. The construction of Dietrichstein Castle is therefore likely to have taken place in the second half of the 11th century before the invention of the powder guns. This is also underlined by finds of ceramic fragments, which are dated to the period between the 11th and early 13th centuries.

The builder of the castle is also unknown. According to Kunstmann, the lords of Wiesenthau could be an option. A first member of the aristocratic family was named in 1128 with "Bero von Wiesenthau". However, the name Dietrich did not appear for the first time until 1156.

In addition, the gentlemen von Dietrichstein from Carinthia could also be considered as builders. You are mentioned several times as the Bamberg ministerial family as document witnesses and guarantors in legal proceedings relating to Upper Franconia. They could have built a castle there and named it after their ancestral castle Dietrichstein . However, there is no documentary evidence for both assumptions.

The only mention of it was on February 22nd, 1355, when Heinrich Wolf and his wife Alheid gave the Bamberg Cathedral Chapter their farm in Lützelsdorf, inherited from their cousin Konrad Wolf, "with all rights and with what Konrad Wolf owned on the Dytrichstein" for 320 pounds Heller sold. The Wolf were probably a side branch of the Lords of Wiesenthau , they were also in possession of the nearby castle in Pretzfeld in 1375 . According to the document, the castle was owned by the Wolf family.

In 1977, some of the remains of the castle stables wall were uncovered and preserved, and in places also renewed.

The ground monument registered by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments as a “medieval castle stable” bears the monument number D-4-6233-0307.

description

The lost castle was on the vertically sloping edge of the plateau to the valley of the Trubach. A smaller ledge, which extends from the rock face in a southerly direction, was separated by a semicircular ring ditch. This moat, which could have been created by a rock slide, was widened when the castle was built. Today it has a width of 12 to 14 meters and a depth of about five meters. At the ends of the trench, which extend to the steep slope of the plateau, hardly any spoil heaps can be seen, a sign of the natural formation of the trench. At the northern end of the trench, the plateau slopes slightly so that the bottom of the trench and the terrain in front of it are on the same level. There a wall had to prevent penetration into the trench, from it a wall with a length of 17 meters can still be seen, which extends along the outer edge of the trench, then bends inward and thus formed a barrier wall against penetration from the side. The wall there is about 0.5 meters high and three meters wide.

The moat is on the northeast side of the almost circular castle area. The opposite sides were protected from attack by the vertical slope of the rock face.

The earlier access to the castle was probably on the east side of the castle plateau at today's staircase, which leads over a few steps out of the moat. The castle's circular plateau has an approximate diameter of about 35 meters and is flat on its surface. The restored curtain wall can still be seen on the northeast and partly on the south side . Two shallow hollows in the northwestern area probably originate from buildings. A restored section of the wall has also been preserved from them.

In the southeastern part, near the former entrance to the castle, there is a 1.5 meter wide wall, according to Kunstmann the remains of a thick-walled tower, perhaps the castle's former keep . Since backfilling of the intermediate masonry was dispensed with during the restoration of the wall, it now appears as a double wall. To the west, the remains of the wall of another building, up to two meters high, can be seen, which precisely matched the course of the rock.

Also to the south of the complex is a 1 to 1.5 meter wide crevice that is still covered by four stone slabs today. As is usual with many castles, it was probably used as a storage cellar by the castle residents.

and display information about the image

View of the Burgstall from the northeast (January 2012)

literature

• Walter Heinz: Former noble residences in the Trubach valley . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen and Jena 1996, ISBN 3-7896-0554-9 , pp. 261-269.
• Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of south-western Franconian Switzerland . Commission publisher Degener & Co., Neustadt an der Aisch 1990, ISBN 3-86652-928-7 , pp. 262-264.
• 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. 40-41.

Web links

• Panoramic picture of the Dietrichstein castle stable on the Franconian Switzerland Nature Experience page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Location of the Burgstall in the Bavaria Atlas
2. ↑ For the last two castles, see: Walter Heinz: Former noble seats in the Trubachtal , pp. 226 ff. And 232 ff.
3. ↑ Source history: Hellmut Kunstmann: The castles of southwestern Franconian Switzerland , p. 262 f.
4. ^ Walter Heinz: Former aristocratic seats in the Trubachtal , p. 264
5. ↑ Source description: Walter Heinz: Former noble seats in the Trubachtal , p. 264 ff.