Burgstall Kugelburg

Kugelberg
View from the outer bailey to the tower hill , in front of the neck ditch
Alternative name (s):	Kugelberg, Colenberg, old : Kugelinberch
Creation time :	12th Century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Castle stable with remains of walls, neck moat
Construction:	Foundation walls made of local gneiss
Place:	Goldbach
Geographical location	49 ° 59 '25.5 "  N , 9 ° 11' 32.4"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 59 '25.5 "  N , 9 ° 11' 32.4"  E
Height:	234  m above sea level NN

View from the south of the pre-plateau and the tower hill (left)

View into the central castle hill

Wall remnants on the northern slope edge

Remains of the castle wall on the north-western wall

The Kugelburg castle stable , also known as Kugelberg or Kugelinberch after their ancestors, was a hilltop castle of the tower castle type on the summit of the Kugelberg south of today's Goldbach , a market in the Lower Franconian district of Aschaffenburg in the Bavarian Spessart . The Burgstall is a ground monument according to the Bavarian Monument List , which was created on the basis of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act of October 1, 1973.

location

On a valley of Aschaff advanced cone-shaped mountain ( 234  m above sea level.  NN ) opposite location of Goldbach castle was topographically in a convenient position in the lower Aschafftal and controlled the natural entrance of Aschaffenburg in the Spessart. Only about three kilometers away from the then Electoral Mainz city, the castle , which was once visible far to the left of the Mainische area, was directly in the field of vision of the Aschaffenburgers, especially their secular and spiritual masters. For Archbishop Konrad von Wittelsbach, who returned to his bishopric in 1183, the situation must have been a clear parallel to Weisenau Castle near Mainz .

history

Finds from the excavations in 2018 suggest that it was dated to the beginning of the 12th century. Presumably, the castle was built as a security castle with the expansion of Aschaffenburg. From around 1187 the Kugelbergers can be traced , were in the service of Kurmainz and the Diocese of Würzburg , waved between the Counts of Rieneck and were probably followers of the Staufer kings. The origin of the Kugelbergers is uncertain, and the seals and coat of arms reconstructions used cannot be associated with local aristocratic classes or ministerials . Kittel sees the Kugelberger as a branch of the nobles from Höstebach , who probably had their headquarters in the neighboring village next to the church when Strubo de Hostebach continued to use this name and almost at the same time as the Kugelbergers no longer appear in a document after 1295. Presumably the Kugelbergers were entrusted with the administration of the castle and its expansion and subsequently named themselves after the castle itself. They were the founders of the nearby Schmerlenbach monastery (1218 by the Würzburg canon Gottfried von Kugelberg ) and owned many goods around their castle . The parish church in Goldbach was their own church . Already extinct again around 1254 or no longer mentioned in a document, they are associated with the probably related family of the Waldenbergs . Their disappearance took place at the time of the peak of the conflict between Kurmainz and Rieneck in the Aschaffenburg- Untermain area . The castle was almost in the center of the disputes, to which the north located and only one kilometer opposite castles Landesehre (presumably on the Graefenberg ) and the Burgstall Klosterberg (probably the Waldenburg castle on the Klosterberg ) belong, as well as the Waleburg castle south and up the Main and the then Mainz Talburg Castrum Vivarium just a few meters east of Kugelberg Castle. After the disappearance of its owners and in the midst of the Mainz-Rieneck conflict, it is now assumed that the castle was probably destroyed again by Kurmainz towards the end of the 13th, at the latest in the 14th century, in order to prevent a possible threat to Aschaffenburg and free access to to have the Spessart.

investment

“The tower hill lies on the Kugelberg, which is an extension of the plateau that is pushed forward to the northwest. The terrain drops steeply to the north and west into the valleys of the Aschaff and Röder brooks. The tower hill has a diameter of 20 m. In the S and W its slope drops steeply about 5 m and merges into a 6 m wide shallow ditch. In the O, the tower hill is separated from the ridge by a depression. The facility was built in the 12th century and was already in ruins in the 14th century. "

- Björn-Uwe Abels: The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia . P. 62

Today an approx. 15 meter high, slightly square tower hill is still visible in the north on the steep slope into Aschafal , which has a deep hollow in the middle, which probably goes back to robbery excavations in the 1930s, whereby the castle hill was considerably destroyed. From west to south to east it is surrounded by a moat , which is preceded by a wall 0.6 to 1.5 meters high, presumably the former castle wall. A modern path leads south to the tower hill. The castle was built on Goldbacher gneiss ( orthogneiss ) of the Kugelberg. Stones and remains of walls on the tower hill, as well as the excavations that have taken place, show that at least the foundations were built from the same material. On the slope side in the south, after the moat and wall, there is an upstream plateau, the depressions of which can be referred to as building remains (basement). The surrounding wall is only weakly noticeable. Maybe there was a bailey here . The path, which runs fifty meters further south, divides the castle hill of the Kugelberg on the saddle from the Gartenberg, which then rises to 309 meters above sea level .

Before the robbery excavation of 1930/32 devastated large parts of the castle, Georg Hock, the chief curator of the State Office for Bavarian Monument Preservation , who was appointed in 1932 and who probably inspected the excavations, stated: "The wall of the curtain wall shows repeated kinks, so the floor plan is likely to be broken many times Polygon result, similar to the Burgstall near Kleinwallstadt . "

The digital terrain models that were created for the excavations in 2018 show that the main castle with the curtain wall encloses an almost circular summit plateau about 60 meters in diameter.

archeology

In 2018, archaeological excavations of the Archaeological Spessart Project took place in sections on the Kugelberg in cooperation with the Goldbach market and the Goldbach History and Local History Association with funding from the Lower Franconian District Cultural Foundation . In addition to an excavated section of the circular wall up to four meters high , which was slightly stepped to the edge of the slope and is built from partly over-wide stones in the foundation wall and firmly mortared stones in the wall, coins were found that belonged to the Archbishop of Mainz , Adalbert I of Saarbrücken be assigned. Excavation finds of a stone building on the west side of the curtain wall, as well as finds of stove tiles, animal bones and ceramics, some classified as local copies of Pingsdorf ceramics , prove, contrary to opinions of the 20th century - which only assigned a refuge , an existence as a residential castle . The archaeologists estimate that the castle will be expanded in two stages.

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  Excavated western remainder of the curtain wall: foundation wall set; Remnants of the wall placed on top of it mortared, set one below the other

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  Continuation of the curtain wall to the north (looking south)

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  Remains of a building (SW corner) in the castle area, standing at an angle to the curtain wall

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  New section through the castle hill in the northeast with remains of the ring wall (above) and collapse stones of another inner structure of the castle (middle below)

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  Coin find (obverse), assigned to the Archbishop of Mainz Adalbert I of Saarbrücken

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  Backside, view of the Mainz Cathedral

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  Crockery fragments from local reproductions in the style of Pingsdorf ceramics

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  Cup tile fragments alongside restored cup tiles of a furnace as well as on the neighboring castle choice Mich confessed

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  Metal finds: including a preserved pair of ironing scissors

The castle in literature

Artificial tower ruin

There is a legend about the castle about a neighboring knight who, after participating in a feud, fell on his return to the damsel on the Kugelburg in front of the castle hill and died before the wedding. The remains of the castle are said to have finally perished in the Peasants' War . A monument-protected atonement cross stands in Goldbach on Österreicher Straße , flanked by several wayside shrines and reminds of the legend.

Kugelburg ruin

In 2012, a fictional tower ruin , the Kugelburgruine, was built a good kilometer away at the entrance to Goldbach on Österreicher Strasse and inaugurated on October 23. It is supposed to be a reminder of the Kugelburg at an exposed location and was built from stones from the abandoned Untergartenhof, allegedly original stones from the Kugelburg. A tablet by Dieter Allig with an expression from the local history reminds of the legend of the knight who died in an accident.

See also

• A castle formerly also called Kugelberg , today's Kugelsburg , is located in Volkmarsen in Hesse .

literature

• Björn-Uwe Abels : The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia . (Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory, series B, volume 6). Verlag Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz 1979, ISBN 3-7847-5306-X , pp. 60-61.
• Wolfgang Hartmann: On the history of the Spessart castles Waldenberg and Kugelberg and their lords ( online edition ), In: Aschaffenburger Jahrbuch 19 (1997), pp. 9–53
• Martin Balduin Kittel: The last of the nobles from Kugelberg near Aschaffenburg , in: Archive of the Historical Association of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg (Volume 13 / 3rd issue), Würzburg 1855, printed by Friedrich E. Thein. Pp. 92-115
• J. Conrad Dahl: History and description of the city of Aschaffenburg, the former Schmerlenbach monastery and the Spessart, with supplements , Darmstadt 1818, p. 90 ff.

Web links

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

• Kugelburg (extensive collection on the castle and the excavation 2018) Website of the history and homeland association Goldbach eV
• The Fräulein von der Kugelburg on www.sagen.at (Spessart-Sagen, Valentin Pfeifer, Aschaffenburg 1948, p. 37)
• Kugelberg Castle at www.burgenwelt.de

References and comments

1. ↑ Goldbach Monument List of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation , No. D-6-6021-0018, Medieval Castle Stables "Kugelburg" , re-qualified (as of August 28, 2014)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Hartmann: On the history of the Spessart castles Waldenberg and Kugelberg and their masters
3. ↑ Kittel: The Last of the Nobles from Kugelberg near Aschaffenburg , (AdHV AB / UFr. Bd. 13), p. 102
4. ↑ Wolfgang Hartmann: On the history of the Spessart castles Waldenberg and Kugelberg and their masters, online article , accessed on February 11, 2016
5. ^ The castle on the Kugelberg near Goldbach: Small but beautiful , website of the Archaeological Spessart Project; accessed on August 10, 2018
6. ↑ Die Kugelburg , various websites of the history and homeland association Goldbach ; accessed on August 16, 2018
7. ↑ Broadcast of Bavarian TV : Frankenschau aktuell from August 13, 2018
8. ↑ See also: JH Ludewig: The cities and areas between Main, Rhine and Neckar and its additions with their sights , Hanau 1853, Verlag JG Rittsteiner, p. 70 f.
9. ^ Redesign of Österreicher Straße completed in Main Echo (online edition) of October 25, 2012
10. ^ Excitement about the tower and outdoor pool in the Main-Echo (online edition) from January 12, 2013