Burgstall Schönficht

Burgstall Schönficht
The castle stable of Schönficht in its current condition (May 2015). The former moat was widened in a north-easterly direction to the pond, on the opposite side the moat is still preserved, the castle stable is now on an island.
Creation time :	Medieval
Castle type :	Niederungsburg, moated castle
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Place:	Plößberg - Schönficht
Geographical location	49 ° 48 '59.6 "  N , 12 ° 15' 8.7"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 48 '59.6 "  N , 12 ° 15' 8.7"  E
Height:	545  m above sea level NN

The Burgstall Schönficht is a lost moated castle in Schönficht , today incorporated into Plößberg in the Tirschenreuth district in Bavaria .

history

Already before 1245 the village of Schönficht was owned by the Waldsassen monastery , because in that year it was exchanged with other villages to Heinrich von Liebenstein . Its family died out around 1300. The monastery reappeared as a feudal lord at the beginning of the 14th century and the village was called "Schonvicht". In 1351 Ulrich and Niclas, known as the Lengenfelder, got back the castle (the "Schenneficht House"), which they had to give up for several years due to an atonement. At that time, the Lengenfelder had already lost their headquarters in Lengenfeld near Tirschenreuth . From 1352 on, their liege was again the Landgrave von Leuchtenberg, who had special rights to the castle. Around 1380 the castle and village belonged to Leonhard Wurzer's fief. In 1387, a knight Andres Zenger was named as the owner, who sold the Wurz to the Leuchtenbergers but lost the castle again a few months later. In 1396 the Waldsassen monastery was lord of the castle when it returned the “Feste Schoenfiecht” to the Leuchtenbergers as a fief. Finally, in 1402, Schönficht returned from the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg to the Waldsassen monastery.

In the Sigmund Privilege of 1434, Schönficht is named as the administrative center of an extensive district of the monastery. In addition to the village, there were also Walpersreuth, Mitteldorf, Eppenreuth, Geißen- and Streißenreuth, Wurmsgefäll and Leichau. The nearby village of Konnersreuth was not mentioned, it was only fully acquired by the monastery in 1469. The keeper of Schönficht was also responsible for the lower jurisdiction at this time, but as the seat of the landed nobility, he was also responsible for the high jurisdiction , because there is a gallows hill nearby. At that time, a gallows was not only a place of execution, but also a symbol of power for the lower nobility, so it is more likely to come from the time outside the monastery rule. The site in question was dug in the 19th century and bones actually came to light. The last carer of Schönficht known by name was Sebastian von Perglas in 1527 . In the same year Georg Bleyensteiner zu Alttenstat near Vohendres (Vohenstrauß) sold all of his fiefdoms in the Schönficht zu Beidel court to Abbot Valentin von Waldsassen. In 1550 four places in the judicial district were named, in 1560 Schönficht was legally incorporated into Beidl. The judge Georg Braun, mentioned in Beidl in 1555, is said to have initially worked in Schönficht, but with his death around 1597 the court also expired there. In 1573 the tithe grain was stored in the castle, which had a large room, a lower chamber and a "Goß" (room with a hopper).

In 1583, when the Electoral Palatinate took over the Stiftland after the Reformation , it sold the Schwaighof von Schönficht to the previous tenant Hans Seubold for 1000 guilders , probably mainly for the extensive property of the nursing home. The price was quite handsome and was 60% higher than that of an entire farm in the area. The castle was allegedly already demolished at this point, and it was demolished at the end of the 17th century, a hundred years later. Only a pond with an almost square island has been preserved from the former moated castle.

Appearance of the castle

Map section of the Beidl parish around 1600, Schönficht Castle incorrectly appears as a fortified church

The appearance of the castle during the Middle Ages is not known, and the time of construction is also completely open. The island was never dug and today it is overgrown with old trees, there are also no remains of walls or rocks standing on the surface. But there are other indications. On a map from 1840, the island is drawn with an edge length of 30 meters, which results in a base area of ​​900 m², currently one comes to 700 m². The island gradually sags into the pond. This area is quite stately for a modern house, a simple tower hill castle, as it was also found in the Tirschenreuth district, is ruled out solely because of its size.

Also striking are the enormous stone masses with which the dam of the pond and its edges including the island are attached. The older residential and stable buildings in Schönficht are also surprisingly massive, with both hewn and uncut granite. One can assume that the building material was reused within the village. Something similar happened to Liebenstein Castle after 1815 and the great fire in Tirschenreuth. In any case, there was never a quarry near Schönficht, the granite here is too badly weathered. There is only one image of the castle on a map (today in the State Archives in Amberg), which was created around 1600 and shows the village and the castle. However, curiously, as a fortified church, which cannot be, since a church in Schönficht never existed. You can see a rectangular structure with Gothic windows, a tower and a curtain wall. The draftsman has probably spruced up the reality a bit, the castle was already in a ruinous state around 1600, and in the process transformed the functionless building complex into a church. The rest of the map also seems a bit idealized, with uniform half-timbered houses, deciduous forests and a double-towered Beidler parish church. The reality is likely to have turned out less idyllic. However, the course of the Beidlbach and the arrangement of the villages in relation to one another are coherently drawn; one cannot deny the cartographer a certain knowledge of the area.

The castle could go back to a monastic grangie , a Cistercian manor . This type of economy, preferred by the order in the 13th century, could not have prevailed in Schönficht, as the monastery was massively over-indebted in the first half of the 14th century and was therefore looking for quick sources of money. Most likely, Schönficht Castle can be compared with Neuhaus Castle , which was built by the Leuchtenbergers around 1300, and that would also match the Gothic windows on the map. Even with this castle, however, the medieval appearance is clearly impaired due to the conversion in the 19th century. For Schönficht you can order from a basic configuration with a stone Palas , keep wide moat and possibly wooden outbuildings, surrounding wall, go out.

Gentlemen in Schönficht

Seal of the Lengenfeld 1335

Fiefdom was initially the Landgrave von Leuchtenberg, he further awarded the fief to:

• Heinrich von Liebenstein (1245)
• Ulrich and Niclas Lengenfelder (1351)
• Leo Wurzer (1380)
• Andres Zenger (1387)

From 1402, the Waldsassen monastery employed nurses in Schönficht. They were not employees, but gave the monastery a loan, the care was used as a pledge, and the income from it corresponded to the interest on the loan. With the repayment of the loan amount, the care fell back to the monastery in return. The office was not hereditary, all the caretakers were judges at the same time. It was a kind of institutionalized office purchase . The documented carers were:

• Arnold and Jötz zu Schönficht (1415)
• Hans Lawn (1430)
• Götzel zu Schönficht (1435)
• Nickl Kutzer (1456)
• Walthasar von Zedtwitz (1467)
• Redwitz Brothers (1481)
• Christoph von Thein (1495)
• Albrecht Frankengrüner (1511)
• Sebastian von Perglas (1527/1541)
• Georg Braun (before 1555; questionable whether Braun was also a nurse, proven as a judge)

literature

• Ulrich Kinder: The fortifications in the Tirschenreuth district . From the series: Works on the Archeology of Southern Germany, Volume 28 . Publishing house Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-933474-82-7 , pp. 198-200.
• Rudolf Langhammer : Waldsassen - monastery and town . Waldsassen 1936, p. 194.
• Adalbert Busl / Harald Fähnrich: "Pfarrei Beidl" historical and cultural overview, Beidl 1977, p. 26 ff, p. 47ff, p. 310f.