Burgstall Hohenkuchen

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Burgstall Hohenkuchen
Creation time : probably around 1200
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Disappeared, a semicircular ditch with a partial outer wall has been preserved
Standing position : Ministerialenburg
Place: Offenhausen - Oberndorf
Geographical location 49 ° 25 '39.3 "  N , 11 ° 25' 51.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 25 '39.3 "  N , 11 ° 25' 51.5"  E
Height: 539.4  m above sea level NHN
Burgstall Hohenkuchen (Bavaria)
Burgstall Hohenkuchen
Sketch of the Burgstall by Hellmut Kunstmann. a = castle area, b = ditch, c = wall, d = recent excavations, e = adjacent plateau

The Hohenkuchen Castle Stable is an abandoned aristocratic castle that lies above the town of Oberndorf , a part of Offenhausen , in the central Franconian district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria , Germany . The castle is almost completely gone today, only very few remains are evidence of it.

Geographical location

The castle stable of the Spornburg is located in the central area of ​​the Hersbrucker Alb , part of the Frankenalb , at the top of a mountain spur at 539.4  m above sea level. Above sea level. This spur, known as the Schlossberg , extends from the plateau on the eastern side to the west, to the north and south it is bounded by a Klingental valley, and to the west it drops about 130 meters into the already wide Hammerbach valley. The place of the lost castle is about 1,100 meters southeast of the center of Kucha or about 26 kilometers east of Nuremberg .

There are other former medieval castles in the vicinity, about 600 meters to the west there was the former tower hill castle in Sauanger in the hamlet of Mittelhof , a little further a presumable castle stable on the Keilberg in the area of ​​the Ottmar-Ottilien chapel . Further tower hills are located in the nearby wasteland of Birkensee and in Egensbach .

History of the castle

According to ceramic finds , which the Nuremberg castle researcher Hellmut Kunstmann dated to around 1955, Hohenkuchen Castle could have been founded as early as the second half of the 11th century or the beginning of the 12th century. The Hohenkuchen Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1245, in this document the Ministeriale Heinrich Ros named himself after the castle. The castle name is derived from the nearby villages of Kucha and Oberndorf, which were called Niedernkuchen and Oberkuchen until the early modern times . The last known mention of the castle took place in 1264, when Heinrich bought an estate in Peuerling from the Nuremberg burgrave and named himself again after Hohenkuchen. The ministerials from Hohenkuchen belonged to the service team of the Reich ministerial Ulrich II von Königstein , who sat at the nearby Reicheneck Castle . The Königsteiner ministerials were increasingly based in the Hammerbachtal, including on the hill towers near Birkensee and Egensbach. From the middle of the 13th century, members of the Ros family emigrated to Nuremberg, where they were involved in business, they were often mentioned in documents from 1251. The last mention of the Ros family was in 1307, they probably died out in the early 14th century. Hohenkuchen Castle was abandoned in the period after 1264, perhaps during the 13th century.

Today the place of the abandoned castle is densely covered with forest, only the moat has been preserved. The Burgstall, which is freely accessible at all times, is easy to reach from the Kucha – Dippersricht local road that went up in the southern Klingental valley.

The ground monument registered by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments as "Medieval Castle Stables" bears the monument number D-5-6534-0110.

description

The former hilltop castle is located at the top of the Schlossberg, which slopes steeply to the valley on three sides. Only the east side merges slightly into the plateau, so that a neck ditch had to be created here to protect it . This moat is still a maximum of two meters deep and about twelve meters wide, and extends around two thirds around the oval castle area. On the north side, the ditch is accompanied by an outer wall up to 1.8 meters high.

The area of ​​the one-piece spur castle is oval in shape and has a diameter of about 21 by 15 meters. There was probably a smaller tower castle on the tower-like castle site . Hollows and excavations in the area of ​​the castle stables and the ditch probably go back to quarry work or robbery excavations , remains of the wall can no longer be seen.

and display information about the image
View of the castle stable from the north-east. The neck ditch can be seen on the left, which cut off the complex from the adjoining plateau, on the right it merges into a slope ditch with an outer wall. (March 2014)

literature

  • Robert Giersch, Andreas Schlunk, Berthold Frhr. von Haller: Castles and mansions in the Nuremberg countryside . Published by the Altnürnberger Landschaft e. V., Lauf an der Pegnitz 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020677-1 , p. 314.
  • Walter Heinz: Former castles in the vicinity of the Rothenberg, part 2 (Vom Rothenberg and its vicinity, issue 15/2) . Published by the Heimatverein Schnaittach e. V., Schnaittach 1992, pp. 129-131.
  • Wilhelm Schwemmer: The art monuments of Middle Franconia, Volume X. District of Hersbruck . R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich 1959, p. 213.
  • Hellmut Kunstmann : Communications of the Altnürnberger landscape . Published by the Altnürnberger Landschaft e. V., December 1955, 4th year, issue 2, pp. 22-23.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Topographic map 1: 25000, sheet 6534 Happurg
  2. ^ Location of the castle stable in the Bavaria Atlas
  3. ^ The tower hill on the side of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  4. ^ The tower hill on the side of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  5. ^ The tower hill on the side of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  6. ^ Source history: Robert Giersch, Andreas Schlunk, Berthold Frhr. von Haller: Castles and mansions in the Nuremberg countryside, p. 314
  7. ^ The Burgstall Hohenkuchen on the website of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  8. ^ Walter Heinz: Former castles in the vicinity of the Rothenberg, p. 129