Emmendorfer
The von Emmendorfer family is an old German aristocratic family.
The gender
Above Unteremmendorf in the Altmühltal there are three castle stables (archaeological term for castle sites) on which three lines of the Lords of Emmendorf sat. Each of these lines had its own coat of arms.
In 1119 the dynasty of the Eichstatt ministerial family , Konrad von Emmendorf, was first documented. From 1186 to 1206 another Konrad von Emmendorf was treasurer of the Bishop of Eichstätt . From 1299 to 1321 Euphemia von Emmendorf ruled as abbess of the Benedictine monastery of St. Walburg in Eichstätt , in 1361 Albrecht Emmendorfer as Vogt of Rain and 1383 to 1387 Friedrich Emmendorfer as Vogt of the Willibaldsburg in Eichstätt. Before 1380 Konrad Emmendorfer, a prince-bishop's court official, was buried in the Peterskirche in Eichstätt; the Emmendorfer coat of arms in the church has not been preserved. Another Friedrich Emmendorfer was employed as a carer by Duke Ludwig the Bearded in Ingolstadt in 1422 at Wackerstein Castle . In 1426 a Seifried Emmendorfer is mentioned as pastor of Kipfenberg in the Altmühltal. In 1444 the Emmendorfer were still sitting as nobles in the Hirschberg court .
The Emmendorfer held their possessions as a fiefdom of the Eichstätter bishop. The noble family had already died out in all lines when Leonhard Absberger (1419–1448) zu Rumburg was enfeoffed with the Emmendorfer fief by the Eichstätt bishopric . With the extinction of the Emmendorfer, their castles also fell into disrepair. The feudal complex that had passed to the Absbergers' line from Rumburg was considerable: it comprised properties in Unter- and Oberemmendorf, Irfersdorf , Aschbuch , Neuzell , Pfraundorf , Haunstetten , Beilngries , Kaldorf , Litterzhofen and Berching , as well as the Tafern- and Church day rights (= market rights at the church fair) to Röckenhofen , Herrnsberg (there also the smithy) and Günzenhofen . In 1555 the heirs of Erasmus von Absberg, who died in 1540 without male heirs, still held these fiefs; after that they fell back to the Eichstätt bishop.
The castles of the Emmendorfer
The castles of the three Emmendorf lines, of which there are no structural remains, stood on dolomite rocks , which today bear the names Hubertusfelsen, Torfelsen and Saufelsen. The names of the castles themselves are not known; one can only speculate about their appearance. Only walled tower-like buildings stood on the rock outcrops washed out by the original Danube and had a relatively small surface area. The small castles were each secured against the hinterland of the Alb plateau by a semicircular or quarter-circle ditch carved into the rock. The entire Altmühlbogen from Kinding to Hirschberg Castle via Beilngries was visible from the castles .
The oldest of the three castles may have been the one on the peat rock . The rock gate, with a span of 6.3 meters and a clearance height of six meters, was created naturally by a rock fall and, as a narrow natural bridge, offered relatively easy access to the castle. A 25-meter-deep accessible cave located below in the rock bank was probably integrated into the castle, as was a second cave, ten to 15 meters to the west, which still has remains of walls at the entrance.
The Saufelsen is 200 meters to the east . 40 meters in front of the ditch of the castle located here, a ditch leads - somewhat sloping and protected by an outer wall - to a water point. The Burgstall is almost square; the foundations of the Bering are still visible on the eastern front.
About 1000 meters west of the Torfelsen is the Hubertusfelsen , which was probably the youngest of the three castles. The southern and higher half of the castle stables may have been the site of the presumed castle tower.
→ Main article: Burgstall Hubertusfelsen
Others
The rock gate is touched by the Altmühltal panorama path. From Unteremmendorf a marked path leads up to the rock gate and on stairs through it.
See also
literature
- Information board of the Kinding market at the Torfelsen
- Brun Appel, Helmut Rischert and Karl Zecherle: Castles and palaces in the district of Eichstätt , Eichstätt 1981, p. 40
- Helmut Rischert: The castles in the Anlauteral (2). Rumburg reign . In: Collective sheet of the historical association Eichstätt 76 (1983), especially p. 25
- Stefan Zaenker: Cave excursion in the Altmühltal Nature Park (part 2). In: Der Grottenolm 4/1994, pp. 4–8
- Helmut Rischert: The Castle Trail around Kinding (brochure, available from the Kinding municipality )