Burgstall Leuenstein

Burgstall Leuenstein
Burgstall Leuenstein - View of the Bleiberges from the east (February 2014)
Alternative name (s):	Lion's Arch
Creation time :	Early 14th century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Disappeared, no visible remains
Place:	Community-free area Waidacher Forst - "Pencil stone"
Geographical location	49 ° 42 '50.9 "  N , 11 ° 22' 41.6"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 42 '50.9 "  N , 11 ° 22' 41.6"  E
Height:	569  m above sea level NN

The Burgstall Leuenstein is the remnant of the abandoned high medieval Leuenstein Castle. It is located in the community-free area Waidacher Forst above the district Graisch at the highest point on the lead stone in the Upper Franconian community Pottenstein in Bavaria , Germany . The spur castle , which was one of the few real robber barons' castles , was conquered and destroyed by a contingent of King Wenceslaus and was subsequently prohibited from rebuilding. Remains of the building structure are not preserved, it was probably thoroughly razed.

Geographical location

The castle is located in the eastern part of the Frankenjura low mountain range , on which 569  m above sea level. NN high lead stone , which forms an elongated rock ridge on its plateau, running from northwest to southeast. This rocky ridge drops vertically several meters on all sides, and shortly before its southeastern end forms a south-facing rock outcrop on which the castle was located. The rock nose is about 70  meters above the "Teichtal", a dry valley .

The Burgstall is located around 275 meters north-northeast of the village of Graisch or around seven kilometers south-southwest of the center of Pottenstein in the community-free area of ​​Waidacher Forst.

There are other former medieval or prehistoric castles nearby: the Leienfels castle ruins are only around 280 meters southwest of the castle site . The Bärnfels castle ruins are located about 2500 meters to the west on a mountain spur , both castles once also belonged to the Egloffstein family. To the south are the former castles of Leupoldstein , now decommissioned, and Stierberg , to the south-east are the double castle Betzenstein , which is still partially inhabited today, and the Albewinistein castle stable near the town of Betzenstein .

history

Much information about the castle is not known. The first secured message about them comes from the time after their destruction. The castle Leuenstein, which means something like "Löwenstein", was founded by the Franconian noble family of the Egloffsteiner . They had their headquarters, Egloffstein Castle above the town of the same name in the Trubach Valley . When it was built is not known, in the Müllner annals of the imperial city of Nuremberg it is referred to as "the New House" compared to Leienfels Castle, which shows that it was built after Leienfels Castle, which was built around 1300. The symbolic castle name with the defining word “lion”, which also appears in the name of the neighboring Leienfels Castle, points to this later foundation.

The first known news about the castle comes from the year 1623, in it you can read that it was forcibly destroyed about 230 years ago during a procession against robber barons' castles: In an entry in the annals of the imperial city of Nuremberg dated November 19, 1397 from 1623, which were written by the counselor and historian Johannes Müllner, it says: “After that [So after the destruction of Spies Castle ] one moved for Leupoldstein, also located on the mountain, that was theirs from Wiesenthau and this castle was also won and broken . Meanwhile, Eberhard III. captured by Egloffstein. He must also give up his castle and fortress, called the Leinstein or Löwenstein [= Leuenstein]. The servants who were caught in them were beheaded by the king and the fortress broken. Thereupon King Wenzel forbade the forts and houses, called the spit, such as those from Berg, the Löwenstein or the New House, such as those from Egloffstein, item the Leupoldstein, so Dietrichs von Wiesenthau, from being used because of robbery and misdeeds committed from them with the help of those of Nuremberg broken, in eternity no more should be built. If someone were to submit, the Council of Nuremberg should do so alone or with the help of other defenses. ”At that time, Leuenstein Castle , along with the Reicheneck , Spies and Leupoldstein castles , was one of the most notorious robber barons in the area. In order to defend themselves against this, the Bamberg Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn , Burgrave Friedrich VI. and the imperial cities of Nuremberg , Weissenburg and Windsheim together under the command of King Wenzel, and destroyed the four castles.

The captured Eberhard III. von Egloffstein was brought to Nuremberg, and had to swear primal feud , so he was not allowed to have his castle destroyed in the avenging involved. He also had to vow that he did not want to rebuild his castle. After his original feud, he was allowed to leave Nuremberg, but had to move over the Lombard mountains, i.e. to Italy, and stay there for three years. The Leuenstein Castle was then no longer rebuilt and sold together with the Leienfels Castle by Jobst von Egloffstein to the Diocese of Bamberg in 1502 .

The exact location was also mentioned again in a boundary description by the Betzenstein nurse Eberhard Ulrich from the year 1536: “and the reason, called in Gereusch [= Graisch], henceforth to the Hüll, from which one looks for the trough to the Leienfels, at the rock of the Leinstein and then on the left the wood up towards Weidach and forab into the Regental. ”The field name Leienstein, on which the castle was located, has not been preserved, the place is now called“ Tanzboden ”.

Today the Burgstall is registered as a ground monument D-4-6234-0069 "Medieval Burgstall" Leuenstein "and prehistoric hilltop settlement" by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation .

description

The rock outcrop "Tanzboden", the name of which is possibly derived from the level and probably also leveled surface of the rock ridge, no longer shows any structural remains of the former castle. The Nuremberg castle researcher Hellmut Kunstmann could not find any ceramic shards there, but remnants of lime mortar are said to have been found earlier. Kunstmann also thinks he can see a ditch at the presumably earlier access, as well as other rock work there.

literature

• Rüdiger Bauriedel, Ruprecht Konrad-Röder: Medieval fortifications and low-nobility mansions in the Bayreuth district . Ellwanger Druck und Verlag, Bayreuth 2007, ISBN 978-3-925361-63-0 , pp. 137 and 145.
• Walter Heinz: Former noble residences in the Trubach valley . Verlag Palm and Enke, Erlangen and Jena 1996, ISBN 3-7896-0554-9 , pp. 27-32.
• Hellmut Kunstmann : The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland . Commission publisher Ferdinand Schöningh, Würzburg 1965, pp. 426–427.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Location of the Burgstall in the Bavaria Atlas
2. ↑ About castle names see: Hellmut Kunstmann: Mensch und Burg, p. 18 ff.
3. ↑ Source history: Walter Heinz: Former noble seats in the Trubachtal , p. 27 ff. And Hellmut Kunstmann: The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland , p. 426 f.
4. ↑ List of monuments for Waidacher Forest (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 63 kB)
5. ↑ Hellmut Kunstmann: The castles of eastern Franconian Switzerland , p. 427