Grevenburg

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Grevenburg
The ruins of the Grevenburg

The ruins of the Grevenburg

Creation time : 1350
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Place: Traben-Trarbach
Geographical location 49 ° 56 '47.9 "  N , 7 ° 6' 55.9"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 56 '47.9 "  N , 7 ° 6' 55.9"  E
Grevenburg (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Grevenburg

The Grevenburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle above the Trarbach district (Traben-Trarbach / Mosel) in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate and was the former residence of the Counts of Sponheim .

history

The castle was built in 1350 by Count Johann III. von Sponheim built and replaced the Starkenburg as the residence of the rear county of Sponheim . After the Sponheimers died out in 1437, it became the seat of the governor . In 1680 it was conquered by Louis XIV and expanded as part of the fortification system with the Mont Royal fortress as the center under the direction of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban .

After 1697, the outer fortifications of the castle were lost again as the fortress of Mont Royal. In the War of Spanish Succession 1701–1714, the French under Tallard conquered this fortress again in 1702, fended off a siege in 1703 and reinforced it again according to Vauban's plans, but without the three upper works. In 1704, the Hessian Hereditary Prince Friedrich defeated the fortified castle on the orders of the English general Marlborough . Then the Dutch occupied the damaged Grevenburg and left it to Trier in the peace of 1714 . Kurtrier repaired the battle damage from 1730 to cover Koblenz and the Rhine . After the French took it in the War of the Polish Succession in 1734 for the fourth and last time after a brief, severe siege under their later Minister of War Belle-Isle , it was blown up by the French in July 1734.

investment

Today only the western facade of the former commandant's house still exists, but several of the foundations of the castle complex have been preserved. The residential tower ( donjon ), which was about twice as high as the remaining west facade of the commandant's house, had four flanking corner towers. A similar building can be found at Gemünden Castle . The armory was next to it . The gateway next to it was flanked by two powder towers , one of which can still be seen. Before that, a wooden bridge led over the main trench, which is now leveled and used as a parking lot, to two outworks with their own rock trenches, the battlements of which are still partially preserved. Two casemate arches from the narrow barracks and a supporting arch from the officers' house stand above the large rubble heap of the high south wall . From there, flanked by towers, the defensive wall and moat branched off towards the city, as did the path to the fore and substations. Today there is a restaurant on the site, which is based on one of the four palace towers . A hiking trail leads from the bridge gate in the Moselle valley to the castle.

The Countess Loretta Foundation, based in Traben-Trarbach, aims to enable and promote the preservation and restoration of Grevenburg.

Castle views

  • Contemporary picture of Grevenburg from around 1734

  • A mural shows the Grevenburg in the undestroyed condition

  • Johann Hofmann, 1669

  • Drawing with information

  • Traben-Trarbach and the Grevenburg on the Moselle ( Karl Bodmer , 1841)

  • Remains of the commandant's house

  • Remains of the commandant's house

  • Aerial view of the Grevenburg

  • Site plan from 1734

literature

  • Heinrich Disselnkötter: The Grevenburg. A contribution to the history of Traben-Trarbach . Unchangeable Reprint of the edition Kreuznach 1899 with an addendum from 1934. Neuheisel, Traben-Trarbach 1989.
  • Giselher Castendyck: Castles, fortresses and ruins around Traben-Trarbach: with a small city guide . Traben-Trarbach 1985.
  • Christofer Herrmann: residential towers from the late Middle Ages on castles in the Rhine-Moselle region. Leidorf, Espelkamp 1995, ISBN 3-924734-14-3 , pp. 144 ff .: Zur Grevenburg ( Publications of the German Castle Association. Series A, Vol. 1), (At the same time: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1993).
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages. Floor plan lexicon. License issue. Bechtermünz-Verlag im Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-219-4 , p. 226.

swell

  1. ↑ a b fold-out brochure of the Traben-Trarbach tourist information center: Grevenburg ruins in the Sponheimer Grafschaft
  2. ↑ Leaflet from the Countess Loretta Foundation (title page)
  3. ↑ Leaflet from the Countess Loretta Foundation (p. 11)

Web links

Commons : Grevenburg  - Collection of images