Harchenburg

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Harchenburg
Alternative name (s): Old castle
Creation time : Early middle ages
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Burgstall
Place: Leingarten - Schluchtern
Geographical location 49 ° 7 '36 "  N , 9 ° 4' 36"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '36 "  N , 9 ° 4' 36"  E
Height: 296.5  m above sea level NN
Harchenburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Harchenburg

The Harchenburg , also called the Old Castle , is an abandoned spur castle at 296.5  m above sea level. NN high mountain spur of the Heuchelberg in the Schluchtern district of the Leingarten municipality in the Heilbronn district in Baden-Württemberg . The two-part former castle complex is probably an early medieval refugee castle with ramparts and ditches with a total length of 185 m on an area of ​​1.1 ha, 50 to 70 m above the surrounding valley floor.

Research history

"Harchenburg" is mentioned as a place name in a document from 1444. The first mention by name as a castle comes from the late 18th century. In 1901 the Heilbronn antiquity researcher Alfred Schliz dealt with the Harchenburg in more detail for the first time. He undertook small digs and made a sketch. The inner fortification seemed to him to consist of a dry stone wall covered with earth ; he thought it was a ring wall from the Bronze or Hallstatt Age . He found stones and mortar in the wall of the fortifications. The Harchenburg was for him the medieval installation of an aristocratic castle in a prehistoric ring wall. In 1910, GA Kolb dated the Harchenburg, like Alfred Schliz, to the High Middle Ages , but he did not see it as an aristocratic castle, but a refuge . In 1937 Günter Beiler thought the entire complex was an early medieval refuge. In 1957 the Heilbronn rector Wilhelm Mattes tried to answer questions about the time and function of the castle through archaeological studies. Apart from a few Roman and medieval finds and a few modern sandstone slabs , he discovered nothing. Mattes saw in Harchenburg a refuge fortress that the surrounding towns of Schluchtern , Schwaigern and Großgartach had put together and used because of the Hungarian invasions in the 10th century . In 2001, Rainer Kunze considered a castle built in the 11th century, during the investiture controversy , to be likely because the crescent-shaped moats of the Harchenburg typologically belong to the Salier period (1024–1125). In the relevant literature and archives there is no reference to the possible builder of a noble castle. The local literature therefore - like Wilhelm Mattes - considers the Harchenburg to be a refugee castle built in the 10th century. In the list of cultural monuments in the Heilbronn-Franken region , Harchenburg is listed as a prehistoric or early medieval rampart in 2003 .

description

At the narrowest point of the ridge that connects the Harchenburg with the Heuchelberg, the pre-fortification, now a very flattened moat, testifies to the securing of the access to the mountain spur. In a south-westerly direction, at a distance of 150 meters, there is a 10 to 14 meter wide, slightly curved section of fortification consisting of a wall and a ditch in front of it . It secured access to the outer bailey . On the south and north slopes, the wall connects to a perimeter fortification designed as an embankment. With an inner surface of around 70 meters in length and around 55 meters in width, the outer bailey meets the 20-meter-wide section fortification of the main castle , which was probably originally surrounded by the fortifications of the outer bailey, the ring wall mentioned at Schliz. With its round-oval shape, the inner surface of the main castle is 85 meters long and up to 50 meters wide. The wall of the section fortification connects on the north side to the slope fortification, which ends after about 40 meters. Up to the top of the mountain and on the south side, the edge area of ​​the facility has been changed by renovations and numerous excavations in modern times.

literature

  • Christoph Morrissey, Dieter Müller: The Harchenburg near Leingarten-Schluchtern. In: Christoph Morrissey, Dieter Müller: Wall systems in the city and district of Heilbronn. The castle monument near Heilbronn, the Michaelsberg near Gundelsheim, the Frankenschanze near Leingarten-Großgartach, the Harchenburg near Leingarten-Schluchtern, the Hörnle near Brackenheim-Dürrenzimmern (= atlas of archaeological terrain monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 2: Prehistoric and early historical fortifications. H . 17). Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2087-5 , pp. 53-68.

See also