Ehrenburg (Brodenbach)
| Ehrenburg | ||
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 The Ehrenburg in May (2009) |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castrum Eremberch 12th century, Eerenborgh 16th century | |
| Creation time : | as Stauferburg at the beginning of the 12th century. | |
| Castle type : | Mountain castle on a mountain spur | |
| Conservation status: | Ruin. Double tower with shield wall and ramp tower weitghd. receive | |
| Standing position : | Imperial Knight. Ministeriale | |
| Construction: | Slate rubble | |
| Place: | Brodenbach | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 12 '39 " N , 7 ° 27' 19" E | |
| Height: | 230 m above sea level NN | |
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The Ehrenburg is the ruin of a spur castle at 230 m above sea level. NN near Brodenbach with a rather eventful history. It was built on a rock spur in the Ehrbachtal , a side valley of the Moselle . Once the fortified center of a small imperial rule with possessions between the Lower Moselle and the Middle Rhine, it is now a cultural monument with a variety of events.
history
The Ehrenberg was probably owned by the Trier church as early as the early Middle Ages with an escape and defense system . The oldest, still preserved parts of today's Ehrenburg - the upper castle - are the remains of a "permanent house", a rectangular residential tower. The first half of the 12th century is assumed to be the beginning of construction work for this initially small Stauferburg. In 1161 the castle appears for the first time by name as "Castrum Eremberch" in a conciliation document of the Staufer Emperor Friedrich I called Barbarossa. This document confirms that his young half-brother, Count Palatine Konrad von Hohenstaufen, has renounced rights to two churches in the Archdiocese of Trier and participated in the city administration of Trier. The opposing party, Hillin von Fallemanien , Archbishop of Trier, is to transfer the Ehrenburg, which is important for securing the Moselle crossing between Brodenbach and Hatzenport and the surrounding imperial estate, to the Count Palatinate to compensate . This complicated legal claim, which caused many a dispute, existed until the end of the Electorates of Palatinate and Trier at the end of the 18th century. The presumed builders of the castle, the lords of Ehrenberg , servants of the Cologne and Trier churches and the Rhineland Count Palatine, first documented as witnesses in 1189. The castle becomes the seat of an inheritance and is divided or divided into thirds over several generations. The Ehrenberg coat of arms showed a left-sloping, golden bar in a blue field. Since the middle of the 13th century, a second, younger family (Friedrich-Linie) has accompanied the sloping beam of Kreuzchen, around 1480 also by golden lilies.
In 1331 the imperial ministerial owners of the castles Waldeck , Schöneck , Eltz and Ehrenburg united to form a federation. In the Eltz feud , they fought against the territorial policy of the Trier Elector Baldwin of Luxembourg . Five years later, the fighters committed themselves to peace in the Eltzer Atonement and had to recognize the supremacy of the Kurtrier .
In 1397 the last Ehrenberger was in feud with the Trier Elector Werner von Falkenstein and destroyed more than 200 houses in his city of Koblenz . In return, the castle was besieged by the citizens of Koblenz, using a cannon (a rarity at that time). A year later Johann von Schönberg was enfeoffed with castle and lordship, in 1426 Cuno von Pyrmont and von Ehrenberg , 1526 Philipp von Eltz , 1561 the Quadt von Landskron and 1621 the House of Hoensbroech (Dutch: Van Hoensbroeck). During the Thirty Years War , the Spanish occupied the castle from 1640 to 1651. In 1668 the Ehrenburg became the fief of the Barons von Clodt.
On November 1, 1688, French soldiers under Louis XIV occupied the castle in the course of the War of the Palatinate Succession and blew up parts of the castle a year later on April 30, 1689; the chapel was completely spared and was not given up until the next century. The castle was no longer the permanent residence of the lords of the castle when the male Ehrenbergers died out at the end of the 14th century. For the subsequent lords of the castle, the Ehrenberg castle and dominion were only part of their fiefdom and property. The last imperial knightly lord of the castle, Freiherr Benedikt von Clodt, Herr zu Landscron, Ehrenberg, Hennen, Grimberg, Meill and Thomberg lived as the electoral court president at the end of the 18th century , most likely in the Ehrenberger Hof on Münzplatz in Koblenz.
In 1798 the castle became the property of Freiherr vom Stein , in 1831 it was inherited by the House of Kielmannsegg and, through the von der Groeben family, in 1924 by the Count of Kanitz ( Cappenberg Castle ). The Ehrenburg has been privately owned since 1991 and has been maintained and rebuilt from private funds by the non-profit Freundeskreis der Ehrenburg eV since 1993.
Coats of arms of the owners and fiefs of the Ehrenburg in a chronological listing
Cuno von Pyrmont and von Ehrenberg, 1446. Detailed view from the former window of the Carmelite Church Boppard on the Rhine
Imperial Baron vom Stein 1821 by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Therese vom Stein 1820 by Philipp Veit . As married Countess von Kielmannsegg, she inherited the Ehrenburg after the death of her father in 1831
Coat of arms of a knight of the Ehrenburg
The families von Ehrenberg and later von Pyrmont were, as feudal men of the Rhineland Count Palatine, the imperial knightly lords of the Ehrenburg for several generations. At the end of the 14th century, a Cuno von Pyrmont married the granddaughter of the last Herr von Ehrenberg and added that of the Ehrenberger with the sloping beam and interspersed paw crosses to his coat of arms with the sloping jagged bar.
Coat of arms of Cuno von Pyrmont and Ehrenberg . Detail from a late Gothic sandstone votive cross from 1446 in Brodenbach
Coat of arms of the noble family of Pyrmont from the castle of the same name in the Elz Valley . In the Votive Cross coat of arms, square 1 and 4
Coat of arms of the noble family von Ehrenberg , who presumably built the Ehrenburg at the beginning of the 12th century. had built. In the Votive Cross coat of arms, square 2 and 3
Coat of arms Pyrmont-Ehrenberg (left) and Johann II. Von Baden, Bishop of Trier (right) in the middle of the 15th century. In the choir of the former local church St. Katharina von Treis ad Mosel
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investment
Gate tower (outer bailey)
The bridge over a man-made ditch spans, through the standing still half full, two-storey tower gates in the outer bailey . The neck ditch separates the rock spur that supports the castle from the main rock massif and protects the gate tower that leads into the interior of the castle.
Burghof (outer bailey)
The adjoining buildings on the north side of the courtyard were called Egilshaus and Eymutshaus . They were destroyed in the course of a feud with the Koblenzers in the 14th century. The bakery and the castle pottery now border the castle courtyard, as does the knight's hall in the castle's former stables .
Kennel and Breach
In the lower kennel , a large breach opened in the curtain wall until 2010 . This Burgbering surrounds the castle in a total length of over 300 meters. In the Zwinger there used to be farm buildings, workshops and stables that were blown up during the Palatinate War of Succession. Up to now there has been a siege scenario with rams, cranes and a large siege tower in the breach . These buildings were created and designed in 2004 by members of the Freundeskreis der Ehrenburg eV. The breach was closed in the course of the expansion of the castle hotel. A two-story building now houses eight hotel rooms. The rock floor of the Zwinger is now covered with natural stone slabs and extends the space to a large terrace for gastronomic use. There is also a small forge in the kennel.
Bailiwick
This area is used by the castle hotel as a holiday apartment. The foundations of the original buildings that have been preserved have been supplemented in recent years. Nowadays, the hotel sauna built into the rock is located in the basement.
Bastion tower: ramp, parapet, casemate and plateau
The bastion or ramp tower, built at the beginning of the 16th century, with its walls up to four and a half meters thick, is a unique Renaissance fortress . Inside, the ramp to the tower plateau winds up in a spiral . At the loopholes previously stood cannons to defend the castle. There is a large chimney shaft in the core of the tower. Special openings ensured that the huge powder smoke from the guns could escape. A parapet in the upper turn was built in as an additional safeguard: anyone who wanted to go up the ramp had to pass the guard on duty.
Palas and vaults (upper castle)
The Palas was the residential and representative building of the Knights von Ehrenberg. This oldest part of the castle was built around the middle of the 12th century. A two-story castle chapel , the keep and other rooms were later built . The vaults of the upper castle lie on two levels under the palas. These vaults, which were partly cut into the rock, served as storage rooms and wine cellars .
Keep (upper castle)
The two-tower keep, probably built in the middle of the 14th century, towers over the Ehrenburg plateau around 20 meters high. According to the latest research, both towers were built in different phases. An explanation for the almost simultaneous construction of two towers has not yet been found. In addition to their military function, they certainly also served to keep supplies. Since two Ehrenberg families shared the castle mansion until the 1370s, this could explain the construction of two towers. Possibly it was also the unmistakable demonstration of power by two lords of the castle, the Rhineland Count Palatine, the Bishop of Trier and / or the Lords of Ehrenberg, similar to a situation like at Thurant Castle over Alken . The guard rooms with their own fireplaces and smoke extraction inside the tower indicate the former use: Here the tower keepers kept an eye out in all directions. In the somewhat slimmer southern tower was a dungeon that was only accessible through a fear hole in the guard room. This double tower should of course also be the last refuge of the Ehrenbergers in the event of an enemy storm.
The double tower is now accessible as a lookout tower . From the plateau above the bastion tower, a passage in the shield wall of the keep leads to its west side. From here, a 15-step stone staircase leads to the former hall next to the northern tower, the high entrance of which is accessible via an external staircase on the side of the tower. Inside, a spiral staircase leads up to the viewing platform , which extends over both parts of the tower. The exit to the platform is protected from the weather by a wooden superstructure.
Marstall (outer bailey)
The horses were housed in the former stables during the age of knights. In its ruins, Graf von Kanitz began building a gastronomic establishment in 1967, today's knight's hall and five hotel rooms in the Ehrenburg below. The guard room is connected to the stables towards the south-east.
Pictures of the castle
1. Detail from a map by Arnold Mercator (born 1537). Copper plate around 1600
2. Detail from a colored copper engraving by Theodor Verhas (1811–1872). Around 1830
3. Detail from a woodcut "Moselle Pictures" by Rudolf Cronau (1855–1939).
4. Photo view from the southwest before restoration work began in the 1960s
On Figure 1 .: One of the oldest images of the Ehrenburg is shown on a map of the "Lower Archbishopric Trier", engraved in copper by Arnold Mercator at the end of the 16th century for the Elector Lothar von Metternich von Trier. 1689 printed and published by Nicolaus Person . A realistic representation of the castle was not intended. The depiction with tower and walls was only intended to be a sign of one of the many fortified structures in the electoral territory. To fig. 2: A copper engraving from the early 19th century represents many castle images that illustrated the travel descriptions of the Rhine and Moselle romanticism. Just like his contemporaries Karl Bodmer or G. Arnould , Theodor Verhas wanted to show the Ehrenburg as a romantic, proud ruin, presumably after a fleeting sketch or narrative. He had probably only seen the castle from a distance. During the final production of the picture in the home studio, the striking double tower became a towering, angular donjon. To Fig. 3 .: In a dramatic and gloomy decay, but still very realistic, Rudolf Cronauer showed the castle to illustrate a Moselle travel description of the late 19th century. To Fig. 4: A photo from the 1950s clearly shows the division of the castle into the early upper castle from the 12th-14th centuries. Century (left) and ramp tower (right) from the end of the 15th century. Today's stables with hotel are still in ruins. The battlements of the ramp tower and keep are dilapidated and overgrown with bushes and shrubs. The "Weinberg im Burgfrieden", already mentioned around 1500, was given up in the late 1950s.
trail
Below the Ehrenburg in the Ehrbachtal, a 16 km long hiking trail leads from Brodenbach to Emmelshausen .
"The level of difficulty is low, crossing the Ehrbachklamm briefly requires some undemanding climbing skills."
literature
- B. Hirschfeld: The Ehrenburg on the Hunsrück. In: Koblenzer Heimatblätter. 17-20 / 9/1931, Koblenz 1931.
- Gustav Schellack, Willi Wagner: Castles and palaces in the Hunsrück 4th edition. 1979, ISBN 3-88094-271-4 , pp. 17-18. (= Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 37)
- Günter Stanzl: Revitalization of medieval adventure spaces. The Ehrenburg near Brodenbach . Monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate Yearbook 2004, Mainz 2004, pp. 23–24.
- Olaf Wagener, Achim Wendt: The castles on the Moselle . Koblenz 2007, ISBN 978-3-935690-59-1 , pp. 127-167.
- Elmar Rettinger Ehrenburg (castle). In: Historical local lexicon of Rhineland-Palatinate of the Institute for historical. Regional studies, University of Mainz . On the Internet at www.regionalgeschichte.net
- Ulrich Mehler: Small castle guide of the Ehrenburg . Freundeskreis der Ehrenburg, 2008.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-422-00382-7 , pp. 239-240.
Web links
- Internet presence of the castle
- Entry on Ehrenburg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun