Burgstall Wallenfels

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Burgstall Wallenfels
Castle hill (photographed downhill) with the arched neck ditch in the foreground.

Castle hill (photographed downhill) with the arched neck ditch in the foreground.

Alternative name (s): Waldenfels
Creation time : probably in the 12th century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Castle stable, ditches, ramparts, remains in newer parts
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Quarry stone, brick
Place: Mengshausen
Geographical location 50 ° 47 '51.4 "  N , 9 ° 38' 20.1"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '51.4 "  N , 9 ° 38' 20.1"  E
Height: 255  m above sea level NN
Burgstall Wallenfels (Hesse)
Burgstall Wallenfels

The Burgstall Wallenfels , also called Waldenfels , is an abandoned spur castle at 255  m above sea level. NN in the Mengshausen district of the Hessian community of Niederaula in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district . The Burgstall is now a ground monument .

location

The facility is located on a mountain tongue on the outgoing, northern slope of Mengshausen Kuppe , the 473.4 meter high (above sea level) summit is about 1.3 kilometers south. In the Fulda valley , about 1.5 kilometers to the west, the village of Mengshausen and about 2 kilometers to the northeast is the village of Kerspenhausen (both as the crow flies). Both villages are now districts of the Niederaula community.

Today, access to the castle grounds is via an old forest path that leads up the slope of the Walbertsgraben and flows into the Halsgraben .

description

The castle complex is located on a spur that is only 15 meters above the valley level . It is formed by the Walbertsgraben stream (a right tributary of the Fulda ) and a small side stream that runs towards the Walbertsgraben at an acute angle. On the southern side of the terrain spur, where the terrain continues to rise, the castle grounds were separated from the rest of the mountain by a slightly curved neck ditch around 40 meters long . On the northern side, on the outcropping terrain, you can still see a short ditch with an existing wall, which closed off the castle grounds here. The total triangular area of ​​the castle was about 60 meters long and about 30 meters wide at the neck ditch. The location and size are very similar to the Milnrode castle ruins , which are only about five kilometers down the fulda on the other side of the valley.

L-shaped stone setting on the castle hill, probably ascribed to modern times from the ground up

Remnants of the castle wall can no longer be determined today. During excavations by amateurs in the 1980s, a wall foundation about 20 meters long and 1.30 meters thick was uncovered along the neck ditch, of which nothing was to be seen in 1995. This wall move probably belonged to the former curtain wall that enclosed the entire castle grounds. No other parts of the curtain wall can be seen. In modern times, a narrow L-shaped stone setting is dated, which lies directly behind the neck ditch or the wall that was exposed in the 1980s. There are no other building traces.

Coincidental finds and excavations in the 1980s revealed medieval ceramic shards, burnt wattle clay and fragments of roof tiles in the castle area. This castle was then dated to the first half of the 14th century.

history

The only documentary mention of the castle comes from December 17, 1327. In this document the provost of the Johannesberg monastery transferred property in Kerspenhausen, Hilperhausen and near Waldenfels ( et sample Waldenfels ) to his monastery .

These goods previously belonged to the brothers Heinrich and Craft von Waldenfels. It is assumed that the von Waldenfels family were Ministeriale of Hersfeld Abbey , who named themselves after Burg. The location and type of the castle also indicate a ministerial castle. The von Waldenfels family is no longer mentioned in the following. The abbot of Hersfeld, as the feudal lord of the property, left the property to his provost after the presumed extinction of the owner. Since in the following time no more castle is mentioned, but only belonging property, the castle seems to have been abandoned in the 14th century.

In 1455 a "guth zcu Wallesfelsch occasionally halfway to Kirspenhusen and Mengeshusen" is mentioned. Here dean Wigant and the conventual Arnolt of the Johannesberg monastery enfeoffed the Cort Ottmann with the estate.

literature

  • Barbara Händler-Lachmann (ed.): Culture, history, historical sites, monuments, forgotten places and museums in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district , pp. 203–204, Hessian Institute for Teacher Training Branch Bad Hersfeld, 1995, ISBN 3-9804841-0 -6
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 187.
  • Klaus Sippel: Wallenfels Castle near Mengshausen , guide sheet to the former castle complex and other castle locations in the Niederaula community, Hersfeld-Rotenburg district, Archaeological Monuments in Hesse, Volume 103, State Office for Monument Preservation, Wiesbaden 1993

Web links

Individual evidence