Hohenurach Castle
| Hohenurach Castle | ||
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 View from below of the ruins of Hohenurach Castle |
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| Creation time : | 1030 and 1050 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, summit location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Bad Urach | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 29 '36 " N , 9 ° 22' 42" E | |
| Height: | 692 m above sea level NN | |
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The castle Hohenurach located about 40 kilometers southeast of Stuttgart in Bad Urach in the district of Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg .
Geographical location
The ruin is a former summit castle at 692 m above sea level. NN . It is located about 250 meters above the Ermstal and the city of Bad Urach and is now a popular destination.
The ruin itself is not cultivated; However, there is catering at the foot of the mountain and at the nearby Urach waterfall .
history
Origin and heyday
The castle was built between 1030 and 1050. The builders were the Counts of Urach . These came from the East Franconian area near Würzburg . Count Egino IV von Urach was married to Agnes von Zähringen and inherited his property through the death of his brother-in-law, Duke Berthold V. von Zähringen. His son Egino V now called himself Count von Urach and Lord of Freiburg im Breisgau Castle . In 1239 the castle was pledged to the Counts of Württemberg . In 1254, the Counts of Fürstenberg - the Counts of Urach had now split into the Freiburg and Fürstenberg lines - initially sold half of the castle to Württemberg. Eleven years later, the Counts of Württemberg became joint owners. In 1428 a fundamental renovation and expansion of the castle took place under Count Ludwig I of Württemberg . After the division of Württemberg through the Nürtingen Treaty of January 25, 1442, Ludwig expanded Urach into the residence of his part of the country. After the reunification of Württemberg-Urach with Württemberg-Stuttgart by the Münsingen Treaty of December 14, 1482, Ludwig's son, Count Eberhard V (later Duke Eberhard I), moved the residence of the united state back to Stuttgart. There Eberhard had his allegedly insane cousin Heinrich von Württemberg arrested. Shielded from the outside world, Heinrich lived with his family on Hohenurach from 1490 until his death on April 15, 1519. In 1498 his second oldest son Georg I von Württemberg-Mömpelgard was born there.
Expansion to a state fortress
After Eberhard , Heinrich's first-born son, Ulrich , became the new Duke of Württemberg. When it lost its land to the Swabian Confederation in 1519 and regained it just as quickly 15 years later, it was obvious that the old Württemberg defense system, consisting of 50 venerable hilltop castles, was fragile. They had all been overrun, and the previously unconquered Hohenurach Castle had failed in a disgraceful way and capitulated. Thus, from 1535 to 1555, the castle was expanded into one of a total of seven state fortresses. Duke Ulrich alone built around 22,000 guilders between 1535 and 1550. The practical test was not long in coming when, at the time of the Schmalkaldic War in 1547, the imperial armies under the Duke of Alba raised and forced the castle to surrender. The occupation tried everything to negotiate, and messengers were sent to Stuttgart to be heard by the imperial ambassador. But the latter urged obedience to the emperor. After the handover, the enemies of the facility played along badly. Duke Christoph spent a total of 19,087 guilders for restoration from 1550 to 1556.
During the Thirty Years War the fortress was under siege for eight months by imperial troops.
Siege in the Thirty Years War
Shortly after the Battle of Nördlingen was born on August 30, 1634 the old style of the Saxon Lieutenant Colonel Gottfried Holtz Müller on command Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar laid with 150 dragoons to Urach. At that time, the Württemberg captain and Urach forester Georg Albrecht von Bettendorf and his 50-man Landwehr were in command of the castle.
When the Imperial Colonel Walter Butler and his dragoons, reinforced by two additional regiments, surrounded the city and stormed the wagon castle near Dettingen an der Erms , the old-style siege of the city began on October 21, 1634. During the fighting in the Ermstal, Bettendorf lost 30 of his people in addition to 94 Dettinger citizens and had to hand over the command to Holtzmüller, who ordered him to sideline. In any case, Holtzmüller disliked Bettendorf's Landwehr because, as he later reported to Duke Eberhard , he had no use for it. After a twelve-day siege, Holzmüller had to give way to the superior forces and fled to Hohenurach with his loyal followers, some high-ranking city officials and the city treasury in their luggage.
Walter Butler was assigned to siege Schorndorf . The imperial drew new forces. The systematic blockade of the fortress began with Baltasar Mora . A total of 2,154 soldiers were quartered in the villages. The great suffering began for the population, because Holtzmüller was determined to defend the fortress, which was supplied by the imperial city of Ulm , to the last man. In order to steal food and ammunition, he undertook daring raids that took him to the Fildern . Hostages were taken everywhere and high ranzions extorted from the population . Finally the village of Upfingen , which refused to receive grain, sank into the flames. But slowly the food supplies were running out.
On April 15, 1635, the neighboring Hohenneuffen joined the Ulm expedition, the aim of which was to smuggle 60 quintals of flour through the imperial blockade ring. It was led by Captain Martin Sperbitz from Ulm. With his 50 dragoons he appeared before Hohenurach, reinforced by 30 Neuffen musketeers. By an agreed sign, Holtzmüller fell out with his own at the same time. A heated battle began between Holtzmüller's and Sperbitz's troops on the one hand and the imperial soldiers entrenched at the foot of the mountain. 35 imperial soldiers were killed and the rest of them were driven out of the entrenchments. Holtzmüller and Sperbitz recorded no losses of their own, but Holtzmüller lost his eyesight when he was shot in the face.
It was only when the peace of Prague became apparent in May 1635 that the forces of the defenders gradually began to wane. The injured Holtzmüller handed over command to his brother, Ensign Johann Holtzmüller. On July 10th, Gottfried managed to make his way to Neuffen with 30 men, where he was rejected by the Württemberg captain Johann Philipp Schnurm . After an uncomfortable night on the moat bridge, Holtzmüller moved to Ulm.
In addition to Nuremberg (July 17), other Protestant imperial cities decided to surrender (including Ulm and Memmingen). In addition, at the beginning of July, Württemberg's second strongest mountain fortress, Hohenasperg , opened handover negotiations with the enemy. And since no help was to be expected from Duke Eberhard in Strasbourg, the starving crew of Hohenurach surrendered on July 24, 1635 and withdrew with "underguns without baggage", but "with great vigor and tenacious perseverance". While they surrendered here with honor and even received imperial escort until Ulm, Schnurm (on Hohenneuffen) and Konrad Widerholt (on Hohentwiel ) were still determined to firmly resist. An imperial garrison was placed in Urach Castle, half the company of Gallas's lieutenant Weißweil, who, through their good behavior, were able to earn the thanks of the citizens of Urach.
But the peaceful coexistence between the occupiers and the indigenous population soon came to an end when Count Otto Reichstruchsess von Friedberg-Scheer was given the command of the fortress. Count Otto had also become chief bailiff of the Achalm pledge , a rulership group that had only recently been separated from the motherland of Württemberg and incorporated into the Upper Austria-Tyrol . These territorial transfers led to constant disputes over forest rights and taxes between the Württemberg and Tyrolean officials in Urach and Pfullingen . Conditions resembled civil wars, officials were kidnapped and mistreated, and raids by traveling forest workers even resulted in deaths.
The citizens of Urach therefore pulled out all the stops to allow them to keep the imperial lieutenant Weißweil longer. They wrote a request to Oberkommissar Beuerlin in Heilbronn , but it was rejected. Count Otto's regime lived grayishly. Grazing hordes of horsemen involved the entire peasantry in a guerrilla war (see: Elenhans ). The count tried himself with his own volunteer corps and thus formed a counterpoint to Konrad Widerholt, who above all tyrannized the main place of the pledge, Pfullingen, with constant raids. In 1646, Friedberg-Scheer called 30 Fröner from the Urach district for three weeks to mend the trades and cut stockades before the terror ended. Friedberg-Scheer was deposed and handed the fortress over to the Bavarian captain Johann Schabinger . After the peace agreement , the Bavarians withdrew in September 1649. Hohenurach Castle and the Achalm pledge were returned to the Duchy of Württemberg. Duke Eberhard gave Schabinger a brilliant testimony on his dismissal and particularly praised his fairness and “best understanding”.
The citizens of Urach now applied to "blow up the fortress and ruin it with fire", because in their eyes the castle was a constant source of unrest. Instead of being demolished, however, Hohenurach was fundamentally repaired by Eberhard from 1663 to 1669 and was even extended by external works .
Abandonment and decay
In 1694 parts of the castle were destroyed by a lightning strike in the powder tower of the large kennel . The castle lost its military value and was soon only used as a prison. In 1761 the fortress was finally given up. Part of the castle was then demolished for the new construction of Grafeneck Castle . For this, too, laborers from the villages were brought in and field work was neglected. The demolition work, which began in the summer of 1765, proceeded rapidly. Roof tiles and other building materials were rushed to Grafeneck in horse and ox carts. Everything "iron works", for example iron doors, gates and grilles, ovens, boilers and cannons, was bought by the owner of the Urach iron hammer, the Kommerzienrat Friedrich Rheinwald.
Rheinwald also took over the live ammunition. He first put it into the running water of the Erms , believing that the powder would be washed out or at least rendered harmless by the moisture. But when he wanted to melt down the ammunition a few years later, he had an unpleasant surprise: The bombs and grenades went off, "smashed and collapsed the melting furnaces, knocked out walls, windows and iron bars". Two hammer smiths were seriously injured in the accident.
After the official demolition work had ended, Urachers broke unjustifiably usable stones from the fortress walls for decades and rummaged through the rubble for hewn stones. The last official demolition work dates from the year 1815, when some parts were torn down and transported away to building materials for the construction of the foal stable belonging to the Rutschenhof (demolished in 1828).
Between 1860 and 1870, Philipp Freiherr von Hügel , the head of the Urach Forestry Office, had the undergrown and therefore almost inaccessible fortress ruins repaired so that tourists could visit them safely.
description
The system has the shape of a sharp triangle with the approximate edge lengths of 280 meters, 230 meters and 110 meters. It is one of the largest, most powerful and most important castles in southern Germany. It was divided into three sections, which are lined up in terraces one above the other:
On the lower castle was the pre-fortification, a triangular parapet hewn from the rock , where the chapel also stood. This area is now overgrown by vegetation and is no longer accessible. The Upper Castle was a square bulwark with strong walls and a gun tower (Upfinger Turm) that covered the main southern entrance. This single entry into the castle was secured by a long outer structure and three gates. Finally, via moats and drawbridge, past the guard house, you got directly to the bulwark and from there to the highest terrace of the Inner Castle, the actual castle. The castle courtyard (with two fountains) was an irregular square. It has been moved from two main buildings. On its western flank was the great powder tower . The Schlossberg itself was protected by a circumferential kennel facing northeast of the city of Urach (small kennel) with three gun turrets. In the west (large kennel) there was another powder tower, which today, like the surrounding wall, has completely disappeared. At the northern corner of the facility, the Dettinger Tower looks down to the valley. Just like the Upfinger Tower, it was used as a dungeon.
In the last few years the ruin has been in extremely poor condition. From the summer of 2011, the castle and the access route had to be closed for some time. The safety of the visitors was no longer given because parts of the castle threatened to collapse. The reason given was the harsh winter and the associated frostblasting of the walls. In 2012, extensive renovation work took place in the extensive castle area. The castle ruins are now accessible again.
Since 2015, the state of Baden-Württemberg has been carrying out security measures in four construction phases, but also archaeological investigations, which should continue until 2024.
Imprisoned personalities
- Heinrich von Württemberg , father of the future Duke Ulrich von Württemberg . After the death of his father, Ulrich V. von Württemberg-Stuttgart , in 1480, Heinrich tried against his brother Eberhard VI. To assert inheritance claims against the county of Württemberg-Stuttgart. After he failed to do this, his cousin Eberhard im Bart had him arrested in August 1490 . An alleged mental illness served as the reason for the arrest. Eberhard im Bart was in 1492 by Emperor Friedrich III. intended to be his guardian. Heinrich and his wife were imprisoned at Hohenurach Castle until his death in 1519.
- The philologist and poet Nicodemus Frischlin (1547–1590) was imprisoned at Hohenurach Castle because of a pamphlet he had written against the Württemberg court . On the night of November 29th to 30th, 1590, he was killed trying to escape. While abseiling from the fortress wall, he fell and broke his neck.
- Matthäus Enzlin , Württemberg privy councilor , was a. a. charged with corruption, embezzlement, abuse of office. It was clear to Enzlin that he would not only face the death penalty as a result, but also torture, which is why he made a confession and swore primal feud . By doing so, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. After Enzlin made several attempts at liberation from the Hohenneuffen fortress with the help of his relatives , he was moved to Hohenurach Castle in 1609. Here Enzlin tried to press himself out of prison by threatening to reveal state secrets. In 1613 a second trial was opened against Enzlin, in which he was then sentenced to death, mainly for breaking the original feud. On November 22nd, 1613, the judgment was carried out publicly on the market square of Urach by beheading.
literature
- Günter Schmitt : Castle Guide Swabian Alb, Volume 4 - Alb Mitte-Nord: Hiking and discovering between Aichelberg and Reutlingen . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1991, ISBN 3-924489-58-0 , pp. 209-224.
- Eberhard Fritz: Urach and the Hohenurach in the Thirty Years War. Local events as a mirror of European power politics . In: State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg and Klaus Gereon Beuckers (ed.): Urach. A castle, a city, a residence (Scientific Contributions of the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg, Volume. 2). Regensburg 2014. pp. 125–135.
Web links
- Travel destination Hohenurach with pictures
- Current status description
- 3D model of Hohenurach Castle
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Martin Maurer: Hohenurach as an example of a Württemberg state fortress
- ↑ Schmurns report hsta Stuttgart, A91 Bu 33 fascicles Neuffen
- ↑ The Thirty Years War in personal reports, chronicles and reports : Achilles Baron Precipiano de Soye
- ↑ Chronicle of the Truchsessen von Waldburg. Part two in supplements, continuation and treatises, p. 374. Kempten 1784
- ↑ The Pfeiferturm. Contributions to local history. Supplement in Brettener Nachrichten in August 1949: captain and commandant. Johannes Schabinger (1620-1654) by Karl Friedrich Schabinger Freiherr von Schowingen
- ^ History of the within the present borders of the kingdom ... by Carl von Martens , Stuttgart 1847
- ^ History of the Achalm and the city of Reutlingen: in their ..., Volumes 1–2 by Carl Christian Gratianus, Tübingen 1831
- ↑ Files of the Main State Archives Stuttgart, A91 Bü 33 (Faszikel Hohenurach and Neuffen). In addition, trial files (maleficent matters) against Holtzmüller from 1640–1644 in the State Archives Ludwigsburg A 209 Bü 1715
- ↑ The end of a proud castle. SWP by Walter Röhm August 11, 2015
- ^ The knight castles and mountain castles of Germany, Volume 5 by Kaspar Friedrich Gottschalck, Halle, 1821.
- ↑ The Swabian Alb and its nature. Hohenurach castle ruins from December 6, 2012
- ↑ The Swabian Alb and its nature. Security measures at the Hohenurach castle ruins 2015-2024, as of the end of 2016
- ^ Klaus Graf : Prisoners on Hohenurach in: Archivalia of June 27, 2013.