Gupferter Berg
| Gupferter Berg | ||
|---|---|---|
 The tower hill seen from the southeast |
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| Alternative name (s): | The Gupferte, Wasen | |
| Castle type : | Local mountain | |
| Conservation status: | Well-preserved, little destroyed house mountain complex | |
| Place: | Retz | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 43 '58.3 " N , 15 ° 59' 7" E | |
| Height: | 240 m above sea level A. | |
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The Gupferte Berg , also called Der Gupferte and Wasen , is a former medieval local mountain in the municipality of Retz in the Hollabrunn district in Lower Austria . Today it is home to dry grassland of national importance with an occurrence of the semi-shrub Radmelde ( Bassia prostrata ), which is very rare in Austria .
geography
The Seebach flows through a wide and around 25 meters deep valley east of Unternalb towards Ragelsdorf . On the southern slope of the valley, around 2.4 kilometers east-south-east of Unteralb, the Gupferte Berg juts out into the valley as a mighty, 15 to 20 meter steep mountain tongue. A ditch running in the northwest direction or a dry valley separate the headland from the plateau adjoining in the west. The plateau of the local mountain is around 240 m above sea level. A. .
geology
The soils of the Gupferten consist of loam and clay . Measurements on the growth sites of the subshrub Radmelde indicate very dry, decalcified, silty to fine sandy Chernosems and brown earths . Calcite was found in some places .
nature
The Gupferte Berg is known for the occurrence of the subshrub Radmelde ( Bassia prostrata ). This species has its main distribution area in southern and southeastern Europe as well as in central and western Asia and is considered a postglacial relic of the central Asian semi-deserts . During the post-ice age, the species was able to expand its range far to the west due to the climatic conditions. In the course of the post-glacial reforestation of the landscape, it was again displaced by more demanding species and could only hold its own in a few, extremely dry locations. The population at Gupferten extends to about 1800 m² and is located on the southwest, southern and eastern flanks of the local mountain. A small subpopulation can be found on the western side knoll. On the southwest flank there is a Festuca valesiaca - Stipa capillata dry grass, on the east flank, on the apex and on the hilltop a Festuca valesiaca dry grass.
There is or was a risk from burning of the dry grassland and invasive robinia . While historical photos show that the entire Gupferte used to be free of trees, today the lower and middle areas of the slopes are planted with robinia that have been introduced from North America . This unnatural, monotonous forest to since the time of World War II made and with Umtriebsphasen of around 30 years in the forest trees exploited. The black locust stands right up to the dry grass areas with the occurrence of the subshrub Radmelde and acutely endanger them.
history
The headland stretching into the valley offered favorable opportunities to build a small castle with a view to the north and west. The headland was separated from the plateau to the east by a wide ditch and the excavated material was used to fill an almost circular cone. This core plant is around 6 to 8 meters high and its platform measures 15 to 16 meters in diameter. A trapezoidal earthwork was placed in front of the tip of the headland. On the northern steep slope, a few meters below the platform, there is an elongated terrace around 9 to 12 meters wide, which presumably housed residential buildings. To the east on the plateau there is said to have been a Gutsmeierhof, which was connected to the castle by a drawbridge. Remains of the bridge pillar are still preserved in the ditch.
The facility belonged to the derelict Radoldsdorf settlement, which was located in the direction of the Unteralb. Presumably the settlement was founded by a Radold who also had the house mountain built. Documents attest to this settlement, which was initially subject to a ten-fee fee according to Göttweig Abbey , and which was deserted together with the castle in the 14th century. The still intact manor was in 1405 by Count Johann III. Hardegg was given to the Dominican monastery in Retz and destroyed during the Hussite Wars .
According to a legend - also applied to other places - the hill was raised by the Huns to bury their ruler Attila in a golden, silver and iron coffin. In order to recover these supposed treasures, the "N.-ö." was created in 1872 at the suggestion of the Retz city secretary, Puntschert. Gupferten-Berg-Examination-Aktiengesellschaft ”was founded and 200 guilders of share capital were collected. This was used to finance an improper excavation that severely damaged the earthworks. A wide trench was driven into the tower hill from the east and widened there in a crater shape, so that today there is only a 1 to 2 meter wide edge of the platform. The excavation was thrown into the neck ditch and is still there today. Only a few rotten wooden beams and bones were found, which were of no interest to the treasure hunters. In 1889 Ignaz Spöttl carried out another, this time archaeologically motivated and professional excavation. a. A stone setting reinforced with wooden beams, which apparently served to consolidate the earth that had been poured in when the system was built. Traces of settlement and high mediaeval ceramic remains were found on the eastern foreland. In 1988 ceramic fragments were found in the area of the former estate and dated to the 14th and 15th centuries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Wolfgang Holzner et al .: Austrian dry lawn catalog. “Steppes”, “heaths”, dry meadows, poor meadows: existence, endangerment, possibilities of their conservation. In: Green series of the Federal Ministry for Health and Environmental Protection , Volume 6, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-900-649-065 , p. 121, object ÖK 22/13
- ^ A b c d Hans P. Schad'n: The local mountains and related fortifications in Lower Austria. In: Prehistoric Research 3; Vienna 1953.
- ↑ a b c d Peter Biskup: Studies on the biology and ecology of the highly endangered subshrub (Bassia prostrata) in Austria as a contribution to the development of protective measures (diploma thesis at the University of Vienna), Vienna 2008 [1] (PDF; 19 MB)
- ^ Manfred A. Fischer, Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .
- ↑ Manfred A. Fischer: Relicts of the Ice Age to Early Ice Age Loess Vegetation , in: Heinz Wiesbauer and Herbert Zettel: Hohlwege und Lössterrassen in Niederösterreich , Vienna 2014, ISBN 3-901542-42-6
- ↑ Arndt Kästner, Manfred A. Fischer: Portraits of selected rare Austrian vascular plant species (IV): (31) to (41) , in: Verein zur Erforschung der Flora Österreichs (Ed.): Neilreichia , Volume 6, 2011, ISSN 1681-5947
- ↑ a b c Entry about Gupferter Berg auf NÖ-Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, University of Salzburg , accessed on February 18, 2018
