Castelfeder

Castelfeder
Castelfeder seen from Mazon
height	405  m slm
location	South Tyrolean Unterland , Italy
Mountains	Fiemme Valley Alps
Coordinates	46 ° 20 '16 "  N , 11 ° 17' 23"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 20 '16 "  N , 11 ° 17' 23"  E
rock	porphyry

View from Castelfeder to the south: Neumarkt on the left , remains of the curtain wall in the center of the picture, Tramin on the right

Castelfeder is a 405  m slm high, multiply structured porphyry hill in the South Tyrolean lowlands between Montan , Neumarkt and Auer . Prehistoric , ancient as well as early and high medieval traces of settlement testify to its strategically favorable location. The fortification on the hilltop, which consists of various temporal layers, is also called Castelfeder and rises around 150  m above the bottom of the Adige Valley . Today the entire hill is a protected biotope .

history

Continuous settlement from the Bronze Age to late antiquity can be identified on Castelfeder . The archaeological finds include urn graves with grave goods from the second millennium BC. BC, which can be assigned to the Laugen-Melaun culture . Burnt victims' places were also verified.

The Roman road station Endidae, which according to the Itinerarium Antonini was north of Trento between Neumarkt and Auer , should not have been on Castelfeder. A location closer to the valley floor is more likely, for example in the Neumarkt district of Vill, where the remains of a Roman villa with floor mosaics were cut.

In the 6th century (probably between 555 and 567) a Byzantine fortress ( Kastron ) was built on Castelfeder to protect against the Teutons . It is unclear whether this is the Castrum Ennemase mentioned by Paulus Diaconus in 590 . The Byzantine complex was used until the 10th century. Missing finds from the following period suggest that the fortification was probably abandoned afterwards.

In the years after 1203 the noble free von Enn built a high medieval castle within the old complex with the permission of the Bishop of Trient. This was probably destroyed again in 1301.

The dating of the floor plans of more than 160 buildings is unclear.

Buildings

Antiquity

A striking feature of Castelfeder is the extensive curtain wall , which can be traced almost completely in its course in the east and south and has been preserved at a significant height in the south due to the so-called "Kuchelen". The inner wall has an archway that originally supported the battlement . In some places, narrow buttresses can also be detected towards the outside at irregular intervals. The wall is remarkably thin. For the most part, it does not seem to have a foundation on the rocks. Nevertheless, the masonry cannot be described as fleeting or even negligently built; rather, the aim was to achieve the greatest possible durability with the least amount of effort. The architectural features of this complex have repeatedly been compared to Byzantine fortifications, especially the great land wall of Constantinople .

The Barbara Chapel

The interior of the fortification seems to have been predominantly made of wood in antiquity. In any case, remains of various wooden structures could be detected during the excavations. The only stone building of the time was probably the St. Laurentius and St. Vigilius consecrated, later Barbara chapel, which can be dated from finds in its interior to the 6th century and was expanded in the early Middle Ages.

This first fortification seems to have been destroyed by a fire that can be found in the area of ​​the Kuchelen. In the 7th century, a burial ground was created in the area between the chapel and the Kuchelen. A second fire in the course of the 7th century finally affected the entire complex including the chapel.

Early middle ages

The "Longobard Tower"

Enclosing wall with employed building

In Carolingian or, at the latest, Ottonian times, traces of human activity can be found on the hilltop. The old, partly dilapidated Byzantine fortification was renewed and completely replaced in the west and north. The masonry appears more clearly layered, the wall thickness is more significant, and extensive sections of Opus spicatum appear in the masonry. The so-called "Longobard Tower" is assigned to this phase. In the north, the old surrounding wall was reinforced and a rectangular, two-story building was added, of which essentials are still preserved today.

This second fortification by Castelfeder also finds its archaeological record in finds, for example a disc brooch, which can be ascribed to the Köttlach-Karantanische Kreis, or a fragmented spiked spore.

High Middle Ages

The high medieval construction phase is difficult to distinguish from older layers, as they continued to use existing structures in large parts. The construction measures taken probably included various wall reinforcements and adaptations of existing buildings.

See also

• Castelfeder protest rally

literature

• Lia Niederjaufner among others: Castelfeder: a guide through nature, archeology & folk knowledge. Edited by the Committee for the Preservation of Castelfeder. Neumarkt: Effekt! -Buchverlag 2015. ISBN 978-88-9705-330-9 .
• Walter Landi: Castelfeder . In: Magdalena Hörmann-Weingartner (Ed.): Tiroler Burgenbuch. Volume X: Überetsch and South Tyrolean Unterland . Publishing house Athesia, Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-88-8266-780-1 , pp. 327-332.
• Hans Nothdurfter: Late antique and early medieval Bolzano and its surroundings from the point of view of archeology . In: Bolzano from the beginning to the razing of the city walls . Bozen 1991, pp. 105-113.

Web links

Commons : Castelfeder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Castelfeder biotope . Office for Landscape Ecology of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol (PDF file)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Protected biotope Castelfeder . Office for Nature, Landscape and Spatial Development, Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol
2. ↑ Armin Torggler: Remarks on early to high medieval ceramics in the Adige Valley ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.