Engenstein Castle
| Engenstein | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creation time : | 15th century | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, spur location | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Standing position : | Local nobility | |
| Place: | Engenstein | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 29 '41.5 " N , 10 ° 51' 20" E | |
| Height: | 460 m above sea level NN | |
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The Engenstein castle site is a late medieval fortification of the Spornburg type at 460 m above sea level. NN in southern Thuringia . According to local tradition, the facility, located just south-east of the Engenstein district of the same name in today's municipality of Schleusegrund in the Hildburghausen district, is said to have sat on a steep slope called the "Röderwand" with rocky outcrops up to 20 meters high. A narrow supply path known as the “Eselsweg” led to the castle site in the Biebergrund, which is 40 meters below.
During the Thirty Years' War there was still a battle near the castle site, at the same time the frightened inhabitants of the foreland sought protection from the plundering and murdering army in the dense forests and gloomy narrow valleys of the upper lock valley . The geographer and historian Georg Brückner , who comes from the neighboring town of Oberneubrunn , notes in the second volume of his "Landeskunde des Herzogthums Meinigen" the relationship to the castle and the town of Engenstein:
- The original old castle stood on a rocky promontory of the Röderwand, which is still called the castle hill, the castle head and to which the donkey path ascends. It was destroyed in the Thirty Years War and in 1662 the church at Biberschlag was built from its stones. Opposite the inn there was already a little church in the Middle Ages, which was used for devotion by the residents and those passing by. It was canceled in 1577. The place obviously got its name from the narrow Thalpass, but not, as the legend would have it, from a noble virgin Angelica, who is said to have lived in the castle.
Strangely enough, the long-forgotten castle complex was included in the castle almanac by Friedrich Gottschalck . In the eighth volume, chapter 216 Engenstein, a Hildburghausen correspondent with the initials A. B. describes the history of the castle in connection with the neighboring mountain Hohe Warth. Accordingly, the castle was probably an outpost for the Hessberger , who also lived in the neighboring village of Biberschlag . The destruction is brought forward to the 16th century, a cannonade that took place during the Thirty Years' War is mentioned . Further assumptions concern a bailiwick in Engenstein, which no longer exists today and which could have served as the fore of the castle.
literature
- Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . 2nd expanded and revised edition. Jenzig-Verlag, Jena 2003, ISBN 3-910141-56-0 , p. 103.
- Oliver Heyn: "Granted by grace ..." - The forgotten manor Engenstein (1432–1799), in: Yearbook of the Hennebergisch-Fränkisches Geschichtsverein 28 (2013), pp. 67–88. ( ISBN 978-3-939611-86-8 )