Grimmenstein Castle (Gotha)
| Grimmenstein Castle | ||
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 The city of Gotha with Grimmenstein Castle |
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| Creation time : | Castle around 1000 to 1100, conversion to a fortress in the 16th century. | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Remnants in newer parts | |
| Standing position : | High nobility | |
| Place: | Gotha | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 56 '45 " N , 10 ° 42' 16" E | |
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The castle Grimmenstein was a fortress-like developed hilltop castle , predecessor of the castle Friedenstein in Gotha . It was probably built in the 11th century and finally demolished in 1567 .
history
The Grimmenstein Castle was first mentioned in 1215. The complex was designed as a fortress similar to the Veste Coburg . Its main purpose was initially to secure the medieval imperial road Via Regia , which passed here from the Rhine to Silesia . It also served as the seat of the Thuringian landgraves Albrecht and Balthasar in the 13th and 14th centuries .
In 1526, Elector Johann von Sachsen and Landgrave Philipp I von Hessen signed the original treaty for the Torgau Bund between Hesse and Electoral Saxony as the first Protestant association on Grimmenstein . With the formation of the Schmalkaldic League , to which Electoral Saxony, now under Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous , also belonged, the castle was expanded and reinforced according to the latest fortification system and thus became the main fortress of the Protestants in Central Germany. She played an important role in the dispute with the Catholic Emperor Charles V.
With the victory of the imperial troops in the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547 was Schmalkaldic war decisively and Johann Friedrich, about the already in 1546 the imperial ban was imposed, captured. As a result of the Wittenberg surrender , which was then signed, General Lazarus von Schwendi was commissioned by imperial order to defend the Grimmenstein Fortress. On June 1, 1547, the castle tower was blown up by 700 soldiers with military precision, the rondelles removed and four breaches made in the ramparts. However, the residential and garrison buildings inside the complex were preserved.
Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle , son of Elector Johann Friedrich I, took over the administration of the Ernestine lands together with his brother Johann Wilhelm after the battle of Mühlberg and the capture of his father and after the death of his father in 1554 he became sole owner with the agreement of his siblings Regent of the Ernestine possessions. He moved into his residence on the Grimmenstein, which had been re-fortified and expanded with imperial permission since 1552. Johann Friedrich endeavored to regain the electoral dignity that had been lost by the Wittenberg surrender . He used the help of the influential Franconian knight Wilhelm von Grumbach . He was enemies with the Würzburg bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt and found in Johann Friedrich the Middle an ally in the fight against the bishop. Despite the controversial reputation of Grumbach, who was ostracized by the emperor, Johann Friedrich consented to his offer and gave him refuge and protection in the Grimmenstein Fortress. In response, the emperor imposed an imperial ban on the Duke of Gotha and later expelled Johann Friedrich II from the country.
In December 1566, Elector August I of Saxony led an imperial contingent of 10,000 foot soldiers and 6,000 horsemen against the fortress Grimmenstein. Because of the renewed fortifications, a storming of the city was not possible, whereupon a three-month siege followed. Separated from the Saalfeld mint, there was no need for cash supplies. To cover the inner-city spending, a coin had to be erected on the Grimmenstein and emergency cliffs had to be struck. Gradually the rural people, the ducal occupation army and finally the city people gave up the resistance, so that on April 14, 1567 Johann Friedrich the Middle had to open the fortress for the opposing troops and himself had to go into imperial captivity.
The imperial general was commissioned by the emperor to place Gotha under imperial administration and to completely grind down the Grimmenstein fortress . On June 23, 1567, just two months after the surrender, the razing of Grimmenstein and its ramparts was completed. A gilded copper statue on the top of the high tower was removed beforehand and taken to Dresden. The destruction was so thorough that the area was only used as pastureland until the new residential palace was built in 1642. Only a few fragments of the Grimmenstein survived above ground (apart from a few remains of the wall), which had been secured from the demolition of the fortifications, including the Renaissance portal from 1553 of the castle church, which was later installed as a spoiler in Friedenstein Castle. Parts of the current portal, such as the combat stones and the framing scrollwork , are ingredients from 1644. The underground casemates of the castle, which can be viewed in sections today, are partly from the old fortress, and the remains of the fountain and the fountain house in the courtyard can still be viewed Grimmenstein's.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Schnabel: Ritter Wilhelm von Grumbach , URANIA Culture and Education Association Gotha eV, 2012
literature
- Karl Kohlstock: Entdeckungsreisen in der Heimat (Book 2. Gotha viewed as a fortress from the outside. The town hall) , published as a reprint by Verlag Mdo, Waltershausen 2000.
- Detlef Ignasiak: Ernst the Pious. Duke of Saxony-Gotha, A picture of time and life (Central German miniatures, volume 5) , Quartus-Verlag, ISBN 3-931505-89-8
- Franz Haarmann: The House of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha (German Princely Houses, Issue 21) , Börde-Verlag, Werl 2006, ISBN 3-9810315-5-5
- Museum for Regional History and Folklore (Ed.): Gothaisches Museums-Jahrbuch (Volume 6) , Hain Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-89807-048-4
- Udo Hopf: Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha , Gotha City Administration, Department for Press, Public Relations, Twinning and Culture, Gotha 2012, ISBN 978-3-939182-48-1
Web links
- Reconstruction drawing in the medieval state by Wolfgang Braun