Burgstall Schlossgraben

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Burgstall Schlossgraben
Creation time : probably end of the 11th century
Castle type : Niederungsburg, moth
Conservation status: Castle stable, tower hill with partial outer wall and ditches preserved
Standing position : Reichsministerialensitz
Place: Westheim - "Auwald"
Geographical location 48 ° 59 '44.8 "  N , 10 ° 38' 44"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 59 '44.8 "  N , 10 ° 38' 44"  E
Height: 435  m above sea level NN
Burgstall Schlossgraben (Bavaria)
Burgstall Schlossgraben

The Postal moat is an unknown Outbound high medieval moated castle that once located southwest of West home stood on the edge of the floodplain forest. Today's Burgstall is located about 1400 meters from the center of the municipality of Westheim in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district in Bavaria , Germany . Nothing is known to this day about the tower hill castle (Motte), which is located on the northern edge of the largest burial mound area in Middle Franconia with over 140 burial mounds . Today a tower hill with partially preserved outer walls is still visible from the object, which is protected as a ground monument.

history

Historical data about the moated castle in the alluvial forest, in the local forest department "In the castle", are not known. In the older literature it is attributed to the Westheim local nobility, currently it is interpreted as the ancestral seat of the Lords of Auhausen, the Reichsministeriale were also wealthy in Westheim. The Auhausers, the presumed founders of the Auhausen monastery , were probably identical with the ministerials from Alerheim, they both had the same guiding name Hartmann.

The castle, which was presumably founded at the end of the 11th century, fell into disrepair again during the 12th century, the reason for this being the move of the Lords of Auhausen to the Lobdeburg in Thuringia . The exact date of the move is not known, but it was before or in the year 1133, in that year a Hartmann "de [= von] Ahusen" appeared in a document from Bishop Udo I of Thuringia in Naumburg. After that the castle was probably abandoned and then fell into disrepair.

description

The two-part Burgstall is located in a valley of the Finkenbach on the northern edge of the alluvial forest. The facility, measuring around 140 by 100 meters, consists of a core castle with a tower hill, and an outer castle . The mostly oval round, but angular at the northwest corner has a diameter of about 20 meters, and is surrounded by a ditch up to 20 meters in the north and up to ten meters wide in the south and previously filled with water . In front of the moat there is an irregularly oval outer wall, which is ten meters wide and 2.50 meters high in the north and seven meters wide and one meter high in the south.

Remnants of masonry and ceramic shards were still to be found on the plateau of the hill in 1950, but it has been partially leveled in more recent times, and the ring wall was also destroyed in the southeast area.

In the north-west of the main castle is an approximately 130 by 160 meter large outer bailey, its area is used for agriculture today. The outer bailey was also previously surrounded by an irregular trapezoidal wall. Only the part in the south of it is clearly visible, the rest has been leveled. There are also traces of former buildings to the south of the main castle, here is an approximately square pit with a side length of about 20 meters directly on the outer wall, the excavated material was heaped up to form a wall running all around. Depending on the terrain, it was filled with water, its purpose is unknown.

literature

  • Wilfried Sponsel, Hartmut Steger: Past castles and mansions. A search for traces in the view of the giant . Typesetting and graphics partner, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-935438-27-3 , pp. 116–119.
  • Ingrid Burger-Segl, Walter E. Keller: Archaeological Hikes, Volume 3: Middle Altmühltal and Franconian Lake District . Verlag Walter E. Keller, Treuchtlingen 1993, ISBN 3-924828-58-X , pp. 76-78.
  • Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Weimersheim, City of Weißenburg: ramparts and castle stables . In: Konrad Spindler (edit.): Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 15: Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen district - monuments and sites . Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0504-3 , pp. 246-247.
  • Ernst Frickhinger: moated castle and burial mound near Westheim . In: Fränkische Monatshefte (Fränkische Heimat), Vol. 7, Issue 8/9, Nuremberg 1928, pp. 384–385

References and comments

  1. ↑ Today only 43 of the burial mounds are visible above ground.
  2. ↑ Ingrid Burger-Segl, Walter E. Keller: Archaeological Walks, Volume 3: Middle Altmühltal and Franconian Lake District , p. 77
  3. ↑ Wilfried Sponsel, Hartmut Steger: Past castles and manors. A search for traces in the view of the giant , p. 118 f.
  4. ^ Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Weimersheim, City of Weißenburg: Wall installation and castle stable . In: Konrad Spindler (edit.): Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 15: Landkreis Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen - Monuments and sites , p. 246 f.