Burgstall Strahlfels

Burgstall Strahlfels
Image 1, The rock spur above the village of Strahlfels, on which the Strahlfels Castle once stood, seen from the west (May 2013)
Creation time :	Probably around 1250
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Quarry stone masonry
Place:	Simmelsdorf -Strahlenfels- "Schlossberg"
Geographical location	49 ° 39 '11.6 "  N , 11 ° 22' 37.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 39 '11.6 "  N , 11 ° 22' 37.5"  E
Height:	570  m above sea level NHN

The high medieval to modern Strahlenfelser Schlossberg is the residue of a dialed Spur castle , which once arose on a Felsriff on the edge of the village Strahlenfels. Today the Burgstall is located in the northern municipality of Simmelsdorf in the Middle Franconian district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria , Germany . The Strahlfels Castle is completely lost, only very few remains of the wall testify to it, the Burgfels serves as a climbing rock and lookout point .

Geographical location

The site of the former castle is at 570  m above sea level. NHN in the southern area of Franconian Switzerland , part of the Frankenjura low mountain range , on a rocky spur of 587  m above sea level protruding to the west . NHN high Schlossberg. The castle site is on a rocky elevation about 15 meters above the village, immediately east of the village area of ​​Strahlfels (Fig. 1), which is about 6.5 kilometers north-northeast of the core town of Simmelsdorf.

There are other former medieval castles nearby, in a north-westerly direction the ruins of Wildenfels are within sight , and Hiltpoltstein Castle a little further to the west . To the southwest is the Burgstall Spitzenberg at 582  m above sea level. NHN high mountain of the same name, in the village of Großengsee is the Großengsee Castle, but that goes back to a medieval castle. To the south-east is the Spies castle stable and the Riegelstein castle ruins . Other former castles are located on the Hühnerstein, about 1.4 kilometers east-northeast, and the Stierberg ruins near Stierberg .

History of the castle

The name of the castle appeared for the first time in 1254 in a document in which "Heinricus de Stralenvels" was named as a witness. The castle was probably built shortly before. The ministerials from Strahlfels stood in the way of the ministerials from Wildenstein, who rose to power in the late 13th century . They built their castle Wildenfels, the Strahlfelsern within sight of their castle. Soon after, around 1310, the Strahlfelsers evidently moved to the Reichenschwand moated castle they had built in the town of the same name and ceded the Strahlfels Castle to the Wildensteiners in the first quarter of the 14th century. In 1330 Heinrich V von Wildenstein sat at Strahlfels Castle, and in 1354 he gave the castle to King Charles IV as a Bohemian fief. Shortly afterwards, in 1360, Heinrich sold the castle to Charles IV, who had meanwhile become emperor, and in 1366/68 the castle was the official seat of Bohemia.

In the war between the Palatinate King Ruprecht and the Bohemian King Wenzel , the castle was apparently conquered by Ruprecht in 1400, because Albrecht von Egloffstein received the castle as a pledge in 1401. However, it should remain the “open house” of the Palatinate, which means that it had to be accessible to the warriors of the owner King Ruprecht at all times during times of war.

After the division of the estate among the sons of the Palatinate king , the office of Strahlfels went to Count Palatine Johann von Neumarkt , who pledged it to the knight Hermann von Freudenberg. The pledge was redeemed a few years later, because Count Palatine Johann sold Strahlfels in 1426 to the Wildensteiners. The new owner was probably Martin von Wildenstein, who died in 1466. The Wildensteiners had the castle administered by a Vogt .

During an attack in Nuremberg during the First Margrave War on March 9, 1450, the outer bailey, presumably located at the southern foot of the rock, was conquered.

Apparently, after the Landshut War of Succession , the Wildensteiners lost their interest in Strahlfels Castle, as no more building maintenance was carried out in the 16th century. Major structural damage has been reported from 1547, and in 1589 the castle was barely habitable. Soon afterwards it was given up, because the manor was not very profitable, especially since the Vogt had to be paid.

After the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, in which the Upper Palatinate was occupied by Bavaria, the Wildensteiners were expropriated by the Bavarian Elector Maximilian I ; he awarded the manor Strahlfels to the Catholic Eytel Hanns Truchsess von Höfingen. After his death in 1637 there was a dispute over the inheritance. In 1655 the manor was returned to the Wildenstein brothers Hans Christoph and Friedrich Oktavian von Wildenstein, who had meanwhile converted to Catholicism.

In 1759 Ernst Ludwig von Wildenstein sold the manor to Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Buirette von Oehlefeld. Johann was a successful merchant and also bought other manors. In 1771 the Buirette was raised to the baron status and inherited the castle within their family. However, not much was left of the castle, apparently it was already used as a quarry in the early 17th century. In 1829 only a few remains were visible.

Today the site of the former castle is overgrown with forest, only a few remains of the wall have survived. The freely accessible Burgstall serves as a lookout rock, the north side of the "Radiant Rock" is used as a climbing rock after trees and bushes have been exposed. The castle stable can be reached from the village of Strahlfels by climbing the castle rock from the south.

The castle stables are preserved as a monument D-5-74-158-73 "Former castle, piece of wall and remains of a staircase carved into the rock, medieval", as well as a ground monument D-5-6334-0028 "Medieval and early modern findings in the area of ​​the Burgruine Strahlfels ”recorded by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation .

Description of the castle stables

On the west side of the Strahlfelser Schlossberg a rock spur branches off about 100 meters to the west, which was used to build a castle. The north side of the rock spur drops about 15 meters vertically, and the west and south sides also drop steeply, partly interspersed with rocks, also 15 meters. Only the east side is connected to the slightly elevated Schlossberg and had to be protected accordingly. One can discover a presumably natural ditch there, which may have served as a neck ditch .

Of the castle on the rock spur, only a six meter long and two meter high wall remains (Fig. 4), which threatens to come off, and two smaller wall remains on the east side, which are only visible from below. There is also a round cistern with a diameter of about half a meter on the castle plateau . It is still about half a meter deep and filled with leaves.

In 1589 there was still a residential building with a brick floor , also a building opposite, in which there was a cellar, a chapel and above that a grain store.

The ascent to the castle was on the south side of the rock spur (Fig. 2) via a seven-step staircase cut from the rock (Fig. 3), from which a narrow path led upwards. You can probably imagine the staircase like that of Pottenstein Castle . The castle Wildenfels and the castle Wolfsberg had similar sunrises.

Possibly was on a 15 meters below ground level in the south still a bailey , nothing is received from the.

At the foot of the rock spur on the northwest side outside the castle complex there is a small cave , the Burghöhlehlenfels ( cave cadastre Franconian Alb , D 516), which was closed off with walls from the outside. It probably served as a storage room for the castle residents.

gallery

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  Photo 2: The area of ​​the castle at the Spornspitze (November 2013)

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  Photo 3: Steps carved into the rock at the entrance to the castle (August 2011)

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  Photo 4: Larger remains of the wall on the west side of the Burgstall (August 2011)

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  Image 5: Cave portal of the castle cave (November 2013)

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  Image 6: Remnants of the wall at the cave portal (November 2013)

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  Photo 7: Remnants of the wall in a column in the castle cave (November 2013)

literature

• Robert Giersch, Andreas Schlunk, Berthold Freiherr von Haller: Castles and mansions in the Nuremberg countryside . Published by the Altnürnberger Landschaft e. V., Lauf an der Pegnitz 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020677-1 , pp. 432-435.
• Walter Heinz: Former castles in the vicinity of the Rothenberg, part 1 (Vom Rothenberg and its surroundings, issue 15/1) . Published by the Heimatverein Schnaittach e. V., Schnaittach 1992, pp. 43-48.

Web links

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

• Burgstall Strahlfels on the page "Castles and manors in the Nuremberg countryside"
• Burgstall Strahlfels on the "Burgenwelt" page

Individual evidence

1. ^ Topographic map 1: 25000, sheet 6334 Betzenstein
2. ^ Location of the Burgstall in the Bavaria Atlas
3. ^ The Burgstall on the website of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
4. ^ The Burgstall on the website of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
5. ^ Source history: Robert Giersch, Andreas Schlunk, Berthold Freiherr von Haller: Castles and mansions in the Nuremberg countryside, p. 432 ff.
6. ↑ List of monuments for Simmelsdorf (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 137 kB)