Fragsburg

Fragsburg
East view of the Fragsburg
Alternative name (s):	Fragsburg Castle, Freiberg Castle, Castel Verruca ( ital. )
Creation time :	14th Century
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Place:	Meran
Geographical location	46 ° 38 '19 "  N , 11 ° 11' 32.1"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 38 '19 "  N , 11 ° 11' 32.1"  E

Drawing by Wilhelm Humer , around 1894

The Fragsburg near Merano in South Tyrol is over 800 meters above sea level and around 500 meters above the Merano valley basin. The highest castle of Merano is located on the slopes of the Tschögglberg, which slopes down towards the Etschtal, in Freiberg, a little above Castle Katzenstein .

history

The hilltop castle is located in a place that was probably already inhabited in prehistoric times.

Documented the property was only in the 14th century: At the beginning of the century to a certain Jenl the court Tifrags have had in possession. After the court above Tifrags was awarded to a Hermann von Avelengo by the head of the St. Nikolauskirche and procurator of the St. Clarakloster on December 16, 1349 , the Meran burgrave Konrad von Schenna handed over the farm to the then procurator Ambach in 1351 .

The property was built as a castle in the 2nd half of the 14th century by Otto von Auer (Auer Castle near Dorf Tirol ). He and his wife received in 1357, according to other sources as early as 1356, from the Upper Bavarian Duke and Margrave Ludwig the Brandenburger the court on the Tyfrags including the mountain as a fief with the permission to build a castle on it. Ludwig himself had it from Klarissenkloster am Anger in Munich acquired. The castle built afterwards remained in their possession with small interruptions until the aristocratic family with Heinrich von Auer died out in 1479. In 1376 Hans von Auer set up the Holy Cross Benefice on the Fragsburg and furnished it with property in Avelengo , Hagen (in Untermais ), Obermais , Zenoberg and Algund . Since the Fragsburg is in the area of ​​the parish of Mais, he obtained permission from Stams Abbey , to which the church district had been incorporated since 1273. The foundation was confirmed by Duke Leopold II of Bozen on January 12, 1376. With his death in 1394, his sons-in-law Hermann von Liebenbergs and Sigmund von Villanders quarreled over the estate . Hermann had to cede half of the Fragsburg to Sigmund through a judge's verdict. In 1414 the castle was besieged by its own relatives, the Auer auf Labers .

During the Starkenberg feud in 1422, the castle fell to the Tyrolean sovereign.

For 1469, a short-term mortgage , possibly just pledging, of the Fragsburg to a Christoph Botsch is mentioned.

After 1479 the castle changed hands several times. Heinrich von Auer sent the fiefdom up shortly before his death in favor of Knight Arnold von Niederthor . This was followed by the von Niederthor fiefdom, until their extinction with Georg von Niederthor in 1556, who died in the castle. This was followed in 1563 by Balthasar Scheck von Niedermontan and Balthasar Scheck von Goldrain , regimental councilor, who bought the fief for 4,400 guilders . His daughter Magdalena married Hans Christian von Sarnthein . Friedrich probably inherited the Fragsburg from the two sons Karl and Friedrich. He is named as the owner from 1586. Only two years later, Christoph Bracken the Younger (also called Edler von Pracken , Prack zu Asch or Prack von Asch ) bought the castle for his family, and on May 15, 1592 it was entered in the Tyrolean aristocratic registers. The ownership passed to his cousin Matthias Philipp , with whose son Hildebrand Prack von Asch the line died out.

He was succeeded in 1616 by the lords of Mamming , a wealthy merchant family called Mamminger, who were ennobled in 1564 when they were accepted into the free imperial knighthood; they acquired the castle with Hilleprand von Mamming (also Hildebrand von Mammingen ) in 1615 from the nobles of Pracken. His sons Rochus and Ferdinand were Chamber Councilors and Truchses in the Innsbruck court . Rochus and Ferdinand's son Benedikt gained the dignity of imperial barons in 1672 and now called themselves barons of Steinachsheim zu Fragsburg and Rabland in the green field . Benedict was raised to the rank of count in 1695 and presumably had the Steinachheim residence (also Palais Mamming or Palais Desfours ) built in Merano , today's city ​​museum . The von Mamming were able to acquire the castle as an allod in 1805 or 1813 and hold it until 1830. In 1835, the castle came into the possession of the Austrian opera singer Julius Cornet (previously written as Cornet ), who was Braunschweig's court opera director at the time . After his death the property was sold to a farmer. A Baroness Pluhovsky and later Count Joseph von Trautmannsdorff bought it from him . Before 1894, Baron Erwin von Kettenburg came into possession of the castle. Around 1930 the castle came into civil private ownership.

description

The complex consists of a generous core castle with a kennel , a square tower and a palace that was expanded in the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as a small outer castle with a first castle gate, which forms a kind of courtyard . The special features of the furnishings include a two-story loggia , a two-story chapel , consecrated in 1376, with arched openings and marble columns on the upper floor. Ridge vaults and doors with white marble framing to the actual living rooms. The lintel beams with the coat of arms of the Niederthor family and the dates 1543, 1544 and 1546. Around 1930 there was a sundial on the tower with the year 1546. An elaborately wood-paneled knight's hall in a central location served as a dining room. On the Zwingertor with the annual inscription 1547, the gate of the outer bailey has two coats of arms with the inscription of Jörg von Niederthor and the year 1551.

In the 19th century the castle hill was unwooded and the castle with its crenellated castle wall was visible from afar. August Lewald's travelogues at the beginning of the second third of the 19th century provide a very beautiful representation of the castle, its condition and the life of its inhabitants . The book itself was written in the castle, as noted in the foreword.

Others

The Fragsburger waterfall

The castle plays a role in Felix Dahn's crusader novel The Crusaders: Tale from the thirteenth century , in which the castle is described as a kunkellehen .

The Hotel Castel Fragsburg (also called Jagdschloss Fragsburg ) is located southwest below the castle and is not identical to it.

About 15 minutes' walk from the Fragsburg is a hydrological natural monument , the Sinichbach waterfall , also called the Fragsburg waterfall (see list of natural monuments in Merano ).

Web links

Commons : Fragsburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office

literature

• Beda Weber : The state of Tyrol: with an appendix: Vorarlberg. A handbook for travelers , Verlag der Wagner'schen Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1838, pp. 406-407
• Beda Weber: Meran and its surroundings , Verlag der Wagner'schen Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1845, p. 136 ff
• Rudolf von Granichstaedten-Czerva: Brixen, imperial principality and court , Vienna 1948, therein a. a. P. 304 f. and 339
• Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando , Max Reinisch: Selected Correspondence, 1885 to 1954 , 1989, p. 189
• August Lewald : Tyrol: From Glockner to Orteles, and from Garda- to Lake Constance, 1833–1834 , Volume I, Munich 1835, pp. 131–139
• Cölestin Stampfer: Palaces and castles in Meran and surroundings , Verlag der Wagner'schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1894, therein: Schloß Fragsburg : pp. 172–176
• Oswald Trapp : Tiroler Burgenbuch. Volume II: Burgrave Office . Publishing house Athesia, Bozen 1980, pp. 213–222.
• Josef Weingartner : The Art Monuments of the Etschland (South Tyrol) , Vol. 4, Vienna-Augsburg 1930, pp. 111–112

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} P. C. Stampfer: Palaces and castles in Meran and surroundings , p. 174
2. ↑ ^{a b} Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Reinisch: Selected letters, 1885 to 1954 , p. 478
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Beda Weber: Das Land Tirol. With an attachment: Vorarlberg. A Handbook for Travelers , p. 407
4. ^ ^{A b} Hannes Obermair : Tirolensia in the National Museum in Prague. In: Preservation of monuments in South Tyrol 1991–1995. Edited by the National Monument Authority of Bolzano. Folio-Verlag, Vienna-Bozen 1997, pp. 277–290, here: pp. 280–282.
5. ↑ Thomas Bitterli-Waldvogel: South Tyrolean Castle Map . Bolzano 1995, p. 59
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Josef Weingartner: The monuments of Etsch country (South Tyrol) , Vol 4, Vienna, Augsburg 1930. P.111 - 112
7. ^ ^{A b} Johann Jakob Staffler : Tirol and Vorarlberg: in 2 parts , Volume II, Innsbruck 1846, p. 644
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} P. C. Stampfer: Palaces and castles in Meran and surroundings , p. 175 f.
9. ↑ RVG C: Brixen, Imperial Principality and court , p 304
10. ^ With Johann Jakob Staffler: Tirol and Vorarlberg: in 2 parts , p. 644, the year 1616 is mentioned. Staffler refers to the Innsbruck fief archive.
11. ^ Beda Weber: Meran and its surroundings , Innsbruck 1845; therein: The Counts of Mamming p. 92 ff
12. ^ Daniele Lorenzi: Castles and palaces in Trentino and South Tyrol . Milan n.d., pp. 141-142
13. ↑ Comparison image: Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office
14. ↑ August Lewald: Tyrol: Vom Glockner zum Orteles, and from Garda- to Lake Constance, 1833-1834 , Volume I, Munich 1835, pp. 131-139
15. ↑ www.fragsburg.com