Castell (Lower Franconia)

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the municipality of Castell (Lower Franconia)
Castell (Lower Franconia)
Map of Germany, position of the municipality of Castell (Lower Franconia) highlighted

Coordinates: 49 ° 44 '  N , 10 ° 21'  E

Basic data
State : Bavaria
Administrative region : Lower Franconia
County : Kitzingen
Management Community : Wiesentheid
Height : 317 m above sea level NHN
Area : 22.92 km 2
Residents: 811 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 35 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 97355
Primaries : 09325, 09383
License plate : KT
Community key : 09 6 75 116
Community structure: 7 districts
Address of the
municipal administration:
Rathausplatz 4
97355 Castell
Website : www.castell-gemeinde.de
First Mayor : Christian Hähnlein (Wüstenfelden voter group)
Location of the municipality of Castell (Lower Franconia) in the Kitzingen district
Landkreis Bamberg Landkreis Schweinfurt Landkreis Würzburg Landkreis Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim Wiesenbronn Segnitz Rüdenhausen Rödelsee Obernbreit Martinsheim Marktsteft Markt Einersheim Marktbreit Mainstockheim Mainbernheim Kleinlangheim Kitzingen Geiselwind Castell (Unterfranken) Buchbrunn Albertshofen Abtswind Willanzheim Wiesentheid Volkach Sulzfeld am Main Sommerach Seinsheim Schwarzach am Main Prichsenstadt Nordheim am Main Iphofen Großlangheim Dettelbach Biebelried Landkreis Haßbergemap
About this picture

Castell is a municipality in the Lower Franconian district of Kitzingen and a member of the Wiesentheid administrative community . The place is closely connected to the Castell dynasty, who have their headquarters here.

The special importance of Castell is based on the fact that it was the main town of the immediate imperial county of Castell until 1806 . Due to its earlier independence, Castell is also the seat of a deanery of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria .

geography

Geographical location

The community is located on the western edge of the Steigerwald in the Kitzingen district. The Casteller Herrenberg (397 m) is of cultural and historical importance because it is the nucleus of the Grafschaft Castell. Viticulture is practiced on the Herrenberg and Greuther Berg (457 m). The Sandberg near Wüstenfelden is the highest mountain in the Kitzingen district at 481 m.

Community structure

1 Greuth, Castell Friedrichsberg 1.jpg
Greuth and Castell from Friedrichsberg
1 Trautberg 3.jpg
Trautberg and to the right of it the Geiersmühle


Castell consists of seven districts:

Neighboring communities

Neighboring communities are (starting from the north clockwise): Abtswind , Geiselwind , Oberscheinfeld , Iphofen , Wiesenbronn and Rüdenhausen .

Protected areas

The Count or Burglinde in Castell

Several areas are under protection around Castell. Parts of the landscape protection area within the Steigerwald nature park extend to the immediate south of the village. In the southwest there is a fauna and flora habitat called "Vorderer Steigerwald mit Schwanberg". It is also a bird sanctuary. Stones were broken there in the past. A geotope at the so-called ball game quarry has been preserved.

In addition, four objects were declared natural monuments. These include the castle park in the north of the village and the so-called Tränksee between Castell and Wüstenfelden. East of the town stands as a solitary tree, a 100 years old Speierling , considered dickster Speierling Lower Franconia. The count or Burglinde stands near the Altcastell tower hill. Its crown has a diameter of 20 m.

history

The stair tower of the old Casteller Castle on the Casteller Schlossberg
The coats of arms of the client couple on the stair tower, Upper Castle: Count Castell on the left / Countess Hohenlohe on the right

Until the church is planted

Castell (from Latin Castellum , "castle") was first mentioned in 816 in the founding document of the Megingaudshausen monastery . The Benedictines took over the Münsterschwarzach Abbey in 877 after the death of the last abbess of the Carolingian monastery . The name Castell suggests that a castle complex already existed at this time, which was the ancestral seat of the noble Castell family of the same name . She also ruled over a large part of the parish. In 1091 Rupreth, the ancestor of the Counts of Castell, named himself after the place (Rupreth or Ruppert de Castello). From 1202 these noble free von Castell carried the title of count . From 1228 they added the addition dei gratia . Around the year 1266, two castle complexes were mentioned for the first time in a partition agreement between Count Hermann I and Heinrich II of Castell, the "castrum dictum" and the "purch ze Kastell". The front castle on Casteller Herrenberg was pledged in 1328 to the later Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach , so that the place was divided until 1684. The upper castle on the neighboring Schlossberg remained in the possession of the Counts of Castell. After both of the town's castles were destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525, the castle on the Herrenberg remained a ruin, of which nothing can be seen today. The Brandenburg administrative headquarters came to Kleinlangheim. Only the upper castle on the Schlossberg was rebuilt. The fortification was considerably strengthened in 1553 during the second Markgräflerkrieg. After the construction of the new baroque castle in the center of Castell, the mountain castle lost its use as the residence of the Casteller counts and gradually fell into disrepair, only the striking stair tower on the Steigerwald slope remained. Above its entrance is the year 1615 and the first letters of the names of those who renovated and expanded the castle from 1607 to 1615.

In the middle of the 16th century, Castell joined the Reformation . In 1684, Count Wolfgang Dietrich zu Castell succeeded in buying back the Brandenburg parts of the former county; In the newly acquired district he built the residential palace in the following years. About a hundred years later, in the years 1784–1788, the new church of St. Johannis was built.

After Castell had previously been the capital of the imperial county of Castell (with about 10,000 inhabitants), it lost its independence in 1806 due to the Paris Treaties ( Rhine Federation Act ). The county was subordinated to the Kingdom of Bavaria , the transition to Bavarian rule took place on September 26, 1806. In 1818 the political municipality of Castell was established.

20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the archives of the princes were organized by August Sperl ; the historian wrote a standard work on the history of the house of Castell.

In 1950, Christel Felizitas Schmid established the Casteller Ring community in Castell , which was named after the town. The Protestant order moved to the Schwanberg in 1957 , where its mother house is still located today.

Administrative community

Castell belongs to the Wiesentheid administrative community .

Desolations and incorporations

The Dürnitz desert was a small village in the area around Castell. It was abandoned in the 14th century. The hamlet existed west of the village of Bernbuch , which was also abandoned in the 14th century. On July 1, 1977, the previously independent communities Greuth and Wüstenfelden were incorporated .

Today's place

Princely castle in Castell
Blooming tulips in the Castell vineyards

Castell is the ancestral seat of the princes of Castell-Castell. The Princely House includes the Fürstlich Castell'sche Bank, Credit-Casse AG ( Castell-Bank ), which dates back to 1774 and is therefore the oldest bank in Bavaria, forest operations and the Fürstlich Castell'sche Domain Office (viticulture).

The special history of Castells is evident in the townscape and architecture. Of particular tourist interest are the church, the baroque castle with castle garden, the wild bath from the Renaissance and various stately houses.

Castell is known for viticulture , which has a long tradition there. In addition to small businesses, the Fürstlich-Castell'sche Domainamt in particular produces top-quality wines. The Casteller Kirchberg , Casteller Bausch and Greuther Bastel sites are valued by connoisseurs beyond Franconia . The preferred grape variety is the Silvaner grape , which was planted here for the first time on German soil in 1659.

Every year at the end of April and beginning of May, the Castell vineyards attract numerous visitors. The wild tulips (Tulipa sylvestris) show their lavish blossoms in the vineyards of the Steigerwaldort. The blue grape hyacinths form a special contrast in some of the grounds . In honor of the protected flowers, the Weinbergstulpenblütenfest, a morning pint in the vineyards, takes place.

According to tradition, the protected vineyard gauntlet is said to have been imported into Castell from the eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades.

politics

mayor

Christian Hähnlein (Wüstenfelden Voting Group) has been First Mayor since May 1, 2020 . He was elected in the runoff election on March 29, 2020 with 54.5% of the vote. His predecessor was Jochen Kramer (Free Voting Association) from May 1, 2002 to April 30, 2020.

Market council

The 2008 , 2014 and 2020 led to the following allocation of seats in the municipal council:

2008 2014 2020
Free community of voters Castell 5 5 5
Free community of voters in the district of Greuth 2 2 2
Wüstenfelden voter group 1 1 1
total 8th 8th 8th

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the municipality of Castell (Lower Franconia)
Coat of arms of Castell.svg
Blazon : "Square of red and silver, laid on a golden castle."
Foundation of the coat of arms: The current coat of arms was designed after a village court seal from the 17th century. With the crossing of silver and red, it is the main coat of arms of the Castell family and has been incorporated into today's coat of arms. The castle stands for the place name because a castle in today's spelling can also be called a fort . The coat of arms was approved by the Interior Ministry on November 17, 1964.

Culture and sights

Casteller County Church seen from the castle park

Buildings

See also: List of architectural monuments in Castell (Lower Franconia) and List of ground monuments in Castell (Lower Franconia)

Despite the small size of the village, Castell has some architectural sights. This also goes back to the rule of the Counts of Castell, who had the place expanded and rebuilt at all times.

St. John

The St. Johannes church is located on a terrace on the slope of the Herrenberg in the upper village. It was created in the 18th century by the agricultural inspector Joseph Albert and is characterized in particular by the combination of baroque construction elements with classical stucco. It is the main church of the Evangelical Lutheran deanery of Castell.

Castell Castle

The Castell Castle is still the seat of the family of the Princes of Castell-Castell. It was created at this point in the 17th century on the grounds of a village courtyard. Peter Sommer from Künzelsau could be won as master builder. The early baroque three-wing complex was the first of its kind in Franconia and was surrounded by an English landscape park in the 19th century, which today occupies large parts of the village.

Castle ruins

In addition to the castle in the village, the remains of the so-called upper castle exist on the Herrenberg above Castells . It had been the ancestral seat of the Counts of Castell since the 13th century and was left to decay after being destroyed in the Thirty Years' War . To date, only a stair tower has survived, traces of the terrain, however, indicate the size of the former facility.

In the Middle Ages there was another castle, which was originally owned by the counts, in front of the family's former seat. In 1328, however, the complex passed into the possession of the Burgraves of Nuremberg , who had their office in Castell administered from here. The destruction in the Peasants' War in 1525 ended the existence of the castle. Only the tower hill has survived from her today .

Wildbad

In 1399, Castell was first mentioned as a health resort with its wild bath . Its healing bitter water was so popular that the Wiesenbronn master builder Martin Haag was able to build a large bathhouse with Renaissance gables in 1601 . At the end of the 17th century, after the long war years, operations had to be stopped. The bath rooms in the basement under the cross vault supported by ten columns have been preserved to this day. The owners put the two-storey renaissance building into a new use. It served as a judicial and government office. The oldest bank in Bavaria, the Fürstlich Castell'sche Bank, Credit-Casse AG , was founded here in 1774 . Finally, August Sperl set up the Princely Castell Archives here from 1902 to 1907.

Say

The rescue of the young count

At the time of the Peasants' War, the rebels of the Unterland camped at Mariaburghausen Monastery , which they had plundered beforehand. A Count von Castell happened to be nearby with three of his noble friends and, dressed poorly, visited the farmers' camp. While the farmers were partying, a woman came with a small child in her arms. The count recognized him as his brother and exclaimed: "A castell!"

The peasantry now recognized the hated nobleman and tried to separate the woman from the child. The older Count von Castell and his friends saw the danger and took their swords. With great losses for the farmers, they were finally killed and their bodies sunk in the Main. However, one of the farmers had saved the young count. It should have been the last offspring of the sex.

How Iphofen got his Bürgerwald

A Countess zu Castell once got lost in a large wooded area on the slopes of the Steigerwald. When it was already night and it was starting to snow, the woman had still not found a shelter. Then she heard church bells far away and followed the sound. Soon afterwards she came across the town of Iphofen, whose St. Vitus Church had sounded. Out of deep gratitude, the Countess gave the city the forest. Even today the big church bell is rung at eight o'clock in the evening in Iphofen.

The water maids from the Gründleinsloch

The Gründleinsloch near Castell is the scene of several legends

As in nearby Greuth, there is also a legend in Castell that is related to the so-called source lake or Gründleinsloch . She assumes that the hole has no bottom and that it goes all the way to hell.

A Count zu Castell celebrated his wedding in the halls of the old castle on the Herrenberg. The loud music continued right down to the village after midnight. Then three maidens in white robes entered the hall and drew the attention of the guests to their extraordinary beauty. Many men wanted to dance with them and the party dragged on until the early hours of the morning.

When it was getting dark, the three women suddenly set out. When the rooster crowed and they were still descending the steep Herrenberg, there was horror on their faces. They quickly rushed down the mountain through the farms of the farmers and, when they reached the bottom, jumped into the so-called spring lake. The youths with whom they had danced ran after. As they looked into the water, a stream of blood came towards them from below.

Another variant of the legend moves the action to the night before the battle on Cyriakusberg in 1266. Seven ducklings disappear into the castle's fountain and reappear as the seven Norns at Gründleinsloch. Here they began to spin through the night and destroyed their work before dawn broke. Then all but two disappeared back into the Gründleinsloch. The next day five Counts of Castell were killed during the battle.

The gold digger

A man once wandered through the Main Valley . He had a thick satchel on his back in which he carried a hoe and a sieve as well as a little silver hammer. With these tools he examined the rocks he found on the edge of the river. So he came to Castell and found shelter for one night with a charcoal burner family in the forest between the village and Birklingen . The next morning the charcoal burner's children presented the stone collector with some golden stones that they had found at the bottom of the nearby stream.

His interest was piqued and he moved on towards the source of the stream. Here he began to dig on a large rock from which the water gushed. Soon he had collected several small bits of gold , but drove his pickaxe further and further into the rock. One day he came across a cave, but the entrance was still blocked by a pile of stones. This is where he wanted to push forward and continued his work.

One morning the gold digger woke up and found a little man sitting on a stone. He wanted to say hello to the little one, but he didn't answer him. Instead, he watched the gold digger doing his day's work. The little man waited for days without saying a word and watched as the entrance to the cave grew bigger and bigger. When only one stone blocked the entrance, the little man suddenly called out: “Don't do it! Please don't do it! "

The gold digger turned to the male and asked why he shouldn't do this. But the little man just repeated his request like a prayer wheel. Thereupon the grave cleared the last chunk aside. At that moment , the entire mountain that the gold digger had been working on exploded . The rock with the man sank underground. Today there is a small lake at the site of the legend . Gold was really found here in the past.

The Sulzemännle

As in the neighboring towns of Friedrichsberg and in the Dürnitz desert area on the slopes of the Steigerwald, there is also a story in Castell about the so-called Sulzemännle, which is supposed to lead hikers astray.

When the Stollburg was burned down during the Peasants' War, a maid rescued Count Wolfgang's youngest son from the flames. She wanted to reach the safe Castell with the child that night and ran through the Steigerwald. She was soon lost in the deep forest when she suddenly saw a swaying light approaching. The maid followed him and was soon standing in front of a small person with a long beard, wrapped in a cloak and carrying a lantern in front of him.

The male asked: "Where are you going?" And the maid Gret explained her request to him. The Sulzemännle said: “Well, you were very wrong about that. Come! ”The maid followed the little man with the sleeping child. After a while the three hikers reached the so-called murder cross near the spruce trees and the maid now knew the way. When she wanted to thank her rescuer, the male had disappeared.

The blue protection woman

Count Konrad zu Castell lived in the castle. He had a young wife and a young son. The emperor, however, was planning a military campaign in the southern areas and the count had to follow his master. This worried his wife very much and she said: "If you ever get into such distress in a distant country that you see no way out, then turn north, towards Germany, and call my name Imma three times!"

Count Konrad went to war and always thought of his wife, who had seen him off in the blue dress. The count excelled in battle and was soon one of the most famous generals in the emperor's army. But then he got lost and was separated from the imperial army. Now he was an easy target for his enemies. They captured him and locked him in a high tower, where he was held captive by a heavy iron chain.

The count was pronounced dead by his comrades after the emperor made peace with his enemies and returned across the Alps . But the count tormented homesickness . He often thought of calling his wife for help, but an inner voice warned him: “Don't do it, don't do it.” On a stormy autumn night , homesickness became too overwhelming and the count called out his wife's name three times in his desperation.

The dungeon was suddenly flooded with blue light and a ghostly apparition of his wife stood before Count Konrad. She broke his chains and led him out, where a Pegasus brought the count back to Franconia . When morning dawned, he found himself in front of his castle in Castell and wanted to see his wife. The tower guard, who recognized him, said, “Oh, you came home at the wicked hour.” Imma had passed away at the exact moment he called her name with the words “I'm coming”.

The blue patroness Imma also saved later Count Castell from dire need. Another legend is about Count Konradin, who stayed in Castell Castle during the Peasants' War . The blue patroness appeared to him and led him to a secret passage in the cellars of the castle, which led them to the stone quarries at Vogelwald. This enabled the Castell family to flee from the peasant heap.

Viticulture

Vineyards located southeast of Castell ( HDR image technology = high dynamic range image)

Today, Castell is an important wine-growing area in the Franconian wine-growing region . A total of eight vineyards without large vineyards exist around the village, the most important of which is the Casteller Schlossberg. In the 1970s, the vineyards were combined to form the Casteller Herrenberg site , but the marketing of the individual sites remained, so the site was closed in 2017. Castell is part of the Schwanberger Land area, until 2017 the winemakers were grouped together in the Steigerwald area. The gypsum keuper soils around the place are also suitable for the cultivation of wine, like the location in the Maingau climate zone, which is one of the warmest in Germany.

The people around Castell have been growing wine since the early Middle Ages . The Franconian settlers probably brought the vine to the Main in the 7th century. Most of the vineyards in Castell were first mentioned in 1266. In the Middle Ages, the region was part of the largest contiguous wine-growing region in the Holy Roman Empire. The people mostly operated part-time viticulture for self-sufficiency , at the same time export centers were already emerging, especially along the Main. In Castell, production was mainly for domestic use or the counts.

After the mediatization at the beginning of the 19th century, viticulture experienced a comprehensive decline. Above all, locations with less favorable climatic conditions were completely abandoned. In addition, the emergence of pests such as phylloxera made cultivation difficult . The Franconian wine-growing region was not able to consolidate again until the second half of the 20th century. The use of fertilizers and improved cultivation methods had contributed to this, as had the organization in cooperatives and the land consolidation of the 1970s.

The many small locations, the largest, the Casteller Bausch, covers just 30 hectares, today again characterize the landscape of the place. The most important winery in Castell is the Fürstlich Castell'sche Domainamt , which belongs to the Association of German Predicate and Quality Wineries . In 2014 the winery received the “Soil of the Year” award from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment. One of the oldest wine festivals in Franconia is the Casteller Castle Wine Festival , which takes place more than fifty times a year in the castle park at the end of July.

Vineyard Size 1993 Size 2019 Compass direction Slope Main grape varieties Great location
Bulk 15 ha 30 ha North, northwest 10-35% Müller-Thurgau , Silvaner free of large layers, Abtswinder shield
Feuerbach 4 ha not clear Northwest, north 15-30% Burgundy large-scale free
Mockery 5 ha 8 ha south 20-40% Silvaner, Riesling large-scale free
Kirchberg 1 ha 17 ha East, northwest, west 20-30% Silvaner free of large layers, Abtswinder shield
Ball game 17 ha 29 hectares Northwest, north 15-30% Müller-Thurgau, Rieslaner large-scale free
Reitsteig 1 ha 5 ha south 15-35% Burgundy large-scale free
Schlossberg 5 ha 5 ha South, southwest 30-60% Silvaner, Riesling, Rieslaner large-scale free
Trautberg 2 ha 5 ha south 15-30% Kerner large-scale free

Sons and daughters of the church

Ludwig von Jan (1807-1869) .jpg
Ludwig from Jan
Wolfgang Georg II. Count of Castell-Remlingen.jpg
Wolfgang Georg II of Castell-Remlingen


Since Castell was a residence of the county of Castell for a long time, several counts who later ruled were born in the castle.

literature

  • Hans Ambrosi, Bernhard Breuer: German Vinothek: Franconia. Guide to the vineyards, winegrowers and their kitchens . Herford 2 1993.
  • Hans Bauer: Old and new coats of arms in the Kitzingen district . In: Yearbook of the district of Kitzingen 1980. In the spell of the Schwanberg . Kitzingen 1980. pp. 53-70.
  • Castell - county and deanery . Portrait of a deanery district. In: Georg Güntsch (Ed.): Portraits of Bavarian deanery districts . Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1991, ISBN 3-87214-246-1 .
  • Walter Scherzer: The Reformation in the Grafschaft Castell . Christian Faith Past and Present. Ed .: State Church Archives (=  exhibition catalogs of the State Church Archives in Nuremberg . No. 10 ). Self-published by the Regional Church Archives, Nuremberg June 1981.
  • Johann Ludwig Klarmann: The Steigerwald in the past. A contribution to Franconian cultural studies . Gerolzhofen 2 1909.
  • Theophil Steinbrenner, Gerhard Wahler, Auguste Steinberger, Felix von Fokczynski (eds.): Intermediate lights. Traditional stories from the old county of Castell . Albertshofen² 1979.
  • Karl Treutwein : From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach 1987.

Web links

Commons : Castell  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. "Data 2" sheet, Statistical Report A1200C 202041 Population of the municipalities, districts and administrative districts 1st quarter 2020 (population based on the 2011 census) ( help ).
  2. http://www.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/orte/ortssuche_action.html ? Anzeige=voll&modus=automat&tempus=+20111113/233632&attr=OBJ&val= 1652
  3. a b c d e f g Jesko Graf zu Dohna (Ed.): In the footsteps of the Counts of Castell . Vier Türme GmbH, Benedict Press, Münsterschwarzach 2004.
  4. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer GmbH, Stuttgart and Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 747 .
  5. Castell - rural prince seat on the edge of the Steigerwald. Tourism - events calendar. Website of the municipality of Castell, accessed on November 23, 2012 .
  6. ^ Bauer, Hans: Old and new coats of arms in the district of Kitzingen . P.56.
  7. ^ Albert Schübel: The Wildbad zu Castell. With lists of names of bathers and wild bathers 1619–1649. Nuremberg 1935 (Family History Writings, 2).
  8. ^ Treutwein, Karl: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim . P. 45 f.
  9. Steinbrenner, Theophil (ed. And others): Zwischenlichten . P. 31 f.
  10. Steinbrenner, Theophil (ed. And others): Zwischenlichten . P. 15 f.
  11. Steinbrenner, Theophil (ed. And others): Zwischenlichten . P. 62.
  12. Steinbrenner, Theophil (ed. And others): Zwischenlichten . P. 79 ff.
  13. Steinbrenner, Theophil (ed. And others): Zwischenlichten . P. 84 f.
  14. ^ Ambrosi, Hans (among others): German Vinothek: Franconia . Pp. 50-52.
  15. ^ Government of Lower Franconia: Vineyards in Bavaria broken down by area , PDF file, accessed on May 16, 2019.
  16. ^ Ambrosi, Hans (among others): German Vinothek: Franconia . P. 237.
  17. Klarmann, Johann Ludwig: The Steigerwald in the past . P. 192.
  18. Klarmann, Johann Ludwig: The Steigerwald in the past . P. 192.