Burgstall Vogelsburg

Burgstall Vogelsburg
The Vogelsburg in front of the village of Nordheim. The vineyard paths around the monastery still mark the medieval fortifications
Creation time :	Fortification prehistoric, castle medieval
Castle type :	Höhenburg , section fortification
Conservation status:	Gone, walls and a moat preserved
Standing position :	Kings , imperial counts
Place:	Volkach - Vogelsburg - "Escherndorfer Berg"
Geographical location	49 ° 52 '2.3 "  N , 10 ° 11' 0.2"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 52 '2.3 "  N , 10 ° 11' 0.2"  E
Height:	275  m above sea level NHN

The Burgstall Vogelsburg is a former fortification on the Volkacher Mainschleife. The place was already fortified in prehistoric times and was used as a castle in the Middle Ages before it was converted into a monastery in the 13th century. Today the Vogelsburg monastery is located on the site of the castle .

Geographical location

The former section fortification is located about 2.5 km from the parish church in Astheim. It is only about 0.8 km from the Johanneskirche in Escherndorf. The preserved remains of the monastery rise at the narrowest point of a loop of the river, the so-called Mainschleife, on the ridge of the Vogelberg at about 275  m above sea level. Above sea level. The distance to the river banks of the Main on both sides is about 0.4 km.

In the north and south, steep slopes with a drop of around 90 m to the Main surround the remains of the castle. In the west the mountain is connected with the adjoining plateau. A flat sliding slope leads over in the east towards the village of Astheim . The steep slopes on the south side are used for viticulture ( Escherndorfer Lump , Vogelsburger Pforte vineyards ), while mixed forests are located in the north. The state road St 2260 leads close to the Vogelsburg. The former fortifications are on the Escherndorfer Berg corridor.

history

The first fortifications of the mountain are handed down from the 2nd millennium BC. From this point on, the facilities survived several cultures, they were continuously strengthened and expanded. The end came in the 13th century, although the castle had already started to fall into disrepair.

Prehistory and early history

The earliest traces of settlement on the Vogelberg come from the Paleolithic . Some scrapers from this period came to light when working in the vineyards. There were many finds from the so-called ribbon ceramists, especially from the Neolithic Age . The Michelsberg culture also colonized the mountain. Here mainly clay plates and broken glass appeared. Battle axes and trapezoidal hatchets were dug up from the string ceramists .

The first fortification of the mountain was probably carried out in the late Copper Age or the early Bronze Age . Around 1500 BC Early stone and wooden palisades were built so that the section walls were created in their basic form. The second, more extensive fortifications date from the Urnfield period . A defensive wall reinforced with wooden gratings and earth infills was built.

Around 400 BC The Celts conquered the Main loop area and took over the fortifications from the previous cultures. The major Germanic tribe of the Franks formed the last wave of settlement. In the fifth century after the birth of Christ he reached the Vogelsberg and fortified it. Similar to the Staffelberg , the Schwanberg and the Würzburg Marienberg , it was converted into a fortress that was supposed to secure the Franconian advance.

Royal court and monastery

The mountain, which belonged to the Franconian crown estate, was converted into a villa regia , a royal estate. The position as a "bottleneck" of the Franconian settlement was further secured and expanded. Maybe the Vogelsburg with its chapel also took over the function of a parish church on the Mainschleife, as it was already a place of worship in ancient times. By the 8th century at the latest, the castle lost this position towards Maria in the vineyard .

With the rule of the Carolingians, the Vogelsburg moved to the edge of the administrative units on the Main. From then on, no important road passed the fortification, which is why the fortifications began to decline. From 742 the castle became part of the Volkfeldgau , which spread out east of the Main on the eponymous river Volkach . It was given a Vogt and converted to the Gauburg des Volkfelds.

In the years 896–899, Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia donated the royal estate to the Fulda monastery . In 906 this donation was confirmed. Ludwig the child finally passed his property on to the monastery “fugalespurc cum capella”. In the 11th century the church appeared again in the sources, it was referred to as "church" (ecclesia) by the Fulda monk Eberhard.

The 11th and 12th centuries were associated with the rise of the Counts of Castell . They appropriated the crumbling castle and built a monastery in its place. In 1282, Count Hermann installed a number of Carmelite monks and founded one of the earliest monasteries of this order in Germany. The old castle walls only formed the border markings. The actual monastery area comprised a much smaller area than the castle complex.

description

The former section ramparts in the east and west of the area extend over a total of more than 400 m. Their width is only 80–100 m. In the east, remnants of the wall partially overlap with today's monastery area, the height of the wall there is 0.6 m inside. In the north-west the ramparts rise 4.4 m in height and increase in the south-west up to 6.6 m. Inside they are only 4.3 m and 0.2 m high.

The Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has classified the remains of the fortifications as a ground monument under the number D-6-6127-0091.

literature

• Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
• Hermenegild Maria Biedermann : Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Köhler . Regensburg 1982.
• Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia . Munich and Berlin 1999.
• Herbert Meyer: The Vogelsburg - middle of a blessed landscape . In Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Our Main Loop. 1993-2007 . Volkach 2008.
• Christian Pescheck : The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . Würzburg 1971.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 13.
2. ^ Biedermann, Hermengild Maria: Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Koehler . P. 2.
3. ↑ Meyer, Herbert: The Vogelsburg - middle of a blessed landscape . P. 40.
4. ^ Bauer, Hans: District of Kitzingen . P. 18.
5. ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 41.
6. ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 13.
7. ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-6127-0091 , accessed on February 14, 2014.