Three exes

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The Three Exes, photo from the southwest (1900)
The three exes, photo from the east (2013)
Die Drei Exen, photo from the northeast from the Rhine plain (2011)

The three exes (also Hoh Egisheim , French Haut-Eguisheim or Les Trois Châteaux d'Eguisheim ) are a hilltop castles group in the Vosges mountains in the Upper Alsace ( Haut-Rhin , France ). The group consists of Dagsburg , Wahlenburg and Weckmund Castle .

Geographical location

The group of castles on the 575  m high Schlossberg is named after the municipality of Eguisheim ( German  Egisheim , 3 km north-northeast). However, only the Dagsburg lies on its boundary, the other two castles are in the boundary of the municipality of Husseren-les-Châteaux (German: houses , 1 km southeast).

The three exes - from northwest to southeast Dagsburg ( ⊙ ), Wahlenburg ( ⊙ ) and Weckmund Castle ( ⊙ ) - were not built at the same time, but in close proximity on the same ridge. Such an arrangement of several castles in a group is often found in the Vosges, for example at Dreistein on Odilienberg near Obernai , on Schlossberg near Reinhardsmunster and at the Hohkönigsburg / Oedenburg group of castles near Orschwiller .

history

As early as 1016, Pope Leo IX was mentioned in his biography . , who was called Bruno von Egisheim before his papal office , mentions a castle on the Schlossberg which, according to the current state of archaeological excavations, dates from the 10th or early 11th century and was therefore older than any of the three castles whose ruins are still standing today . At this original castle belonging Pankratius chapel and at least a large rampart , the remains of which can be detected in the northwest and the southwest corner of the plateau; it must have been significantly larger than the later complete system.

In 1144, after the Counts of Egisheim died out, the northern part of the plateau fell to the Counts of Dagsburg, who from then on called themselves Counts of Dagsburg-Egisheim . They built the north castle of the three exes, which they also named Dagsburg, on the existing walls or wall remnants. The southern castle complex was built a short time later and probably as a reaction to the construction of the Dagsburg. It was not until 1200 that the south castle was divided again and a second keep was built.

In 1225 the dynasty of the Counts of Dagsburg-Egisheim, who had become one of the most powerful noble houses in Alsace, died out. Thereupon the bishops of Strasbourg seized a large part of the legacy, including the Dagsburg on the Schlossberg.

literature

  • Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: The castles of Alsace - architecture and history . Ed .: Alemannisches Institut Freiburg i. Br. Band 1 : The beginnings of castle building in Alsace (until 1200) . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-422-07439-2 , pp. 342-357 .
  • Fritz Bouchholtz: Castles and palaces in Alsace . Wolfgang Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-8035-8024-2 .
  • Nicolas Mengus, Jean-Michel Rudrauf: Châteaux forts et fortifications médiévales d′Alsace . Dictionnaire d′histoire et d′architecture. La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 2013, ISBN 978-2-7165-0828-5 , pp. 137-138 (French).
  • Christian Wilsdorf: Le château de Haut-Eguisheim . In: Session. Archéologique de France Congress . tape 136 , 1978, ISSN  0069-8881 , pp. 154-175 (French).

Web links

Commons : Three exes  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Biller, Bernhard Metz: Beginnings of the noble castle in Alsace in Ottonian, Salian and early Staufer times . In: Horst Wolfgang Böhme (Hrsg.): Castles of the Salierzeit, part 2: In the southern landscapes of the empire . Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1991, p. 245-284 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 2 ′ 20 ″  N , 7 ° 16 ′ 23 ″  E