Burgstall Karlsburg

Burgstall Karlsburg
Alternative name (s):	Karlsberg
Creation time :	probably 900 to 1000
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Castle stable, small remains of foundations, wall and moat remains
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Place:	Starnberg - Leutstetten
Geographical location	48 ° 2 '3.4 "  N , 11 ° 21' 36.8"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 2 '3.4 "  N , 11 ° 21' 36.8"  E
Height:	633  m above sea level NHN

The Postal Karlburg even Karlsberg called, is a Outbound hilltop castle on 633  m above sea level. NHN above the Würmtal about 750 meters northwest of the St. Alto branch church of Leutstetten (City of Starnberg ) in the Starnberg district in Upper Bavaria . The striking mountain spur was probably already settled in prehistoric times and was expanded into one of the largest castles in the region in the High Middle Ages .

history

The spacious moraine hill could have already supported a manor in prehistoric times. Individual finds from the Bronze and Hallstatt Ages may be related to a large burial mound necropolis west of the Würm. What is striking is the lack of clear signs of settlement from later periods. It seems that the Burgplatz was not used again until the early High Middle Ages. Because of the distinctive system of ditches in the east of the castle, some researchers suspected a Hungarian period (10th century) for the complex. However, these fortification sections were greatly modified in the High Middle Ages or later.

According to legend, Charlemagne was born in the castle. This tradition is reminiscent of the Carolingian property in the upper Würm area, which is likely around 800 here. However, there are no indications of a defense system from this period.

The castle on the Karlsberg does not appear in written sources until the 12th century. A Degenhard von Karlsberg is documented around 1114/23. The Ministeriale sat on the hill above the Würm as a servant of the Count Palatine of Bavaria. The fortress lay between two large forest areas, probably imperial forests. These forests could be managed from the castle. The Count Palatine was responsible for looking after the royal estates in Bavaria.

The high medieval expansion of the castle may be related to the conflict between the aspiring Wittelsbachers and the powerful Counts of Andechs , who had a fortified base in Starnberg .

Basic plan of the abandoned Karlsburg after Kreuter (1837)

In 1171/72, elaborate Whitsun celebrations were held on the “castro Karlsperch”. Around 1313, the great castle is said to have been destroyed during the war of Dukes Rudolf I and Ludwig IV . Subsequently, the large castle complex served only as a hunting lodge. The stone material was subsequently broken out and u. a. reused for the new construction of Leutstetten Castle (1565). In 1566, Johannes Aventinus briefly described the Burgplatz in his Bavarian Chronicle: "That castle is still shown, even if it is half-destroyed".

In 1837 the architect Kreuter explored the area of ​​the main castle and exposed the foundations of the curtain wall . Today the ground monument is densely forested and the trench system is difficult to access.

description

Terrain level on the southern slope

The castle was built on a moraine line jutting out to the west over the deeply cut Würmtal. The plateau of the roughly tongue-shaped main castle is secured on three sides by a slope trench three to four meters below the interior level. However, the ditch is largely leveled to form a narrow step or berm . In the north, halfway up the slope, another apparently artificially separated terrain step can be seen, which opens into the inner neck ditch .

On the south side of the main castle, the slope drops relatively steeply without a ditch to a deep erosion channel , which additionally protects the castle square. In the west and north, too, the mountain slopes fall steeply into the valley.

The interior of the main castle is badly torn up. The rubble wall of the stone ring wall, which was reinforced by seven rectangular shell towers in the High Middle Ages, is clearly recognizable . In the north there are still some traces of the foundations made from rolling stones and rubble stones. A circular pit in the southeast indicates the location of a keep .

To the east of the main castle are two outbuildings. From the inner outer bailey (originally about 40 by 80 meters) only a high earth rib in front of the inner ditch is largely preserved. The outer bailey is better preserved. The almost rectangular plateau (approx. 70 by 100 meters) is accompanied by ramparts in the north and east.

Due to the extensive earth walls and ditches, this section reminds at first glance of early medieval fortifications, especially those from the Hungarian period. In fact, Karlsburg was therefore occasionally interpreted as the Hungarian fortress of the 10th century, for example in 1999 by Michael Weithmann.

Local tradition tells of a successful Magyar attack on Karlsberg. A function as a Hungarian refuge cannot be entirely ruled out, as the slope trenches around the core castle and the section trenches of the outer castles that lead down to the river indicate that the castle complex was built in the early Middle Ages. In the area of ​​the Vorwerk, the trenches are sometimes over ten meters deep and continue to the northwest to the foot of the mountain. The long central cross trench seems to have been deepened into the area of ​​the inner outer bailey, however.

The fortress was certainly built before 1120, when the Wittelsbachers took over the office of the Count Palatine of Bavaria. Early medieval fortifications also occasionally appear in new castle buildings from the 11th and early 12th centuries. The exact time of the preserved earthworks could only be clarified through extensive archaeological investigations. Typologically, the castle is at the transition from early to high medieval castle construction, the floor plan rather suggests that it was built at the beginning of the High Middle Ages.

Nature and monument protection

The Postal Karlburg is within the protected landscape Würmtal (LSG-00361.01), which was found in 1984 under protection. In 2004, the area around the Karlsberg was recognized as an FFH area under the name of moors and forests of the terminal moraine near Starnberg .

The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation lists the ground monument as a settlement of prehistoric times and medieval castle stables under monument number D-1-7934-0050.

literature

• Hans H. Schmidt: "Sunken castles" in the five-lake region between Ammersee and Isar - historical-archaeological interpretations . Working group for local history research in the Würm region, Gauting 2002.
• Michael Weithmann: Knights and Castles in Upper Bavaria - Forays into the medieval country between the Alps, Danube, Lech and Salzach . Dachau 1999, ISBN 3-89251-276-0 .
• Gerhard Schober: District of Starnberg - ensembles, architectural monuments, archaeological site monuments (Monuments in Bavaria, Volume I.21). Munich, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7954-1005-3 .
• Werner Meyer : Castles in Upper Bavaria - A manual . Verlag Weidlich, Würzburg 1986, ISBN 3-8035-1279-4 , p. 246 .
• Sylvia Schramm, Ernst Brändle (among others): Guide through Gauting and its surroundings . Buchendorf 1985, ISBN 3-923657-10-2 .
• Heinrich Konrad Föringer : About the former Karlsberg Castle near Leutstetten , Munich 1840 ( E-Copy )
• Heinrich Konrad Föringer : About the basic plan of the castle Karlsberg . In: Upper Bavarian Archive for Fatherland History , Volume 2, Munich 1840, pp. 402–413 ( online, please turn back two pages ).

Web links

Commons : Burgstall Karlsburg  - Collection of Images

• Relief representation in the Bavaria Atlas

• Entry on Karlsberg in the private database "Alle Burgen".

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Konrad Föringer : About the former Karlsberg Castle near Leutstetten , Munich 1840 ( E-Copy )
2. ↑ Würmtal | Protected Planet. Retrieved February 17, 2018 . 
3. ↑ 7934-371 Moors and forests of the terminal moraine near Starnberg.  (FFH area) Profiles of the Natura 2000 areas. Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . Retrieved November 26, 2017.
4. ↑ List of monuments for Starnberg (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, p. 20.