Holsterburg

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Holsterburg
Excavated remains of the Holsterburg

Excavated remains of the Holsterburg

Alternative name (s): Holthusen
Creation time : 1191
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Burgstall, foundation walls
Standing position : Noble lords / noble free
Construction: Limestone masonry
Place: Warburg
Geographical location 51 ° 28 '35.2 "  N , 9 ° 10' 17.8"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 28 '35.2 "  N , 9 ° 10' 17.8"  E
Height: 179  m above sea level NN
Holsterburg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Holsterburg

The Holsterburg , also called Holthusen , is a Niederungsburg , built in 1191 and destroyed in 1294, which was abandoned and is located southeast of Warburg in North Rhine-Westphalia .

history

The castle was built in 1191 by the brothers Hermann and Bernhard Berkule near the village of Holthusen , first mentioned in 1170 , in order to control the associated farms and the road from Warburg to Kassel . In 1224, the Prince-Bishop of Mainz, Siegfried II von Eppstein, claimed the castle, which the Lords of Berkule had given as a fief to the Cologne Prince-Bishop, Philipp von Heinsberg .

However, the growing oppression of the peasants involved in the building of the castle meant that some peasants tried to flee to the newly founded town of Warburg. Around 1240, the old town of Warburg therefore had to undertake to accept the knight Hermann Berkule's farmers only with his consent. But this peace did not last long, because in 1245 the Holthusener fired again at the old town with arrows. By building the hilltop castle Burg Calenberg , the Knights Berkule were able to expand their power even further.

On November 6, 1294, the sovereign, the Paderborn bishop Otto von Rietberg , finally concluded an alliance with various cities to ensure peace. The bishop assured that he would do everything in his power to protect those who were involved in the destruction of the castle, the men of the castle's occupation prisoner or who had been executed, from vengeance, damage, arson or other stalking. Those who would attack the cities with arrows were threatened with sanctions. Then the castle was stormed and destroyed by warriors from Warburg , Marsberg , Höxter , Fritzlar , Hofgeismar , Wolfhagen and Naumburg . Some of the captured knights were executed. Johann Berkule submitted to the bishop, who made him one of his castle men in Warburg . Around 1300, Calenberg Castle also fell to the Paderborn bishop Otto, who occupied it with his followers.

excavation

View into the exposed interior of the castle
Exposed remains of the wall

The overgrown hill of the former Holsterburg in the Diemeltal was previously classified by experts as a so-called moth . During a survey in 2010, a corner cuboid came to light on the edge of the hill. In the summer of 2010, an excavation team from the Medieval and Modern Archeology Department of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association under the direction of Andrea Bulla began excavating the castle complex. Since then, excavation campaigns have been carried out annually. From 2015, the archaeologist Kim Wegener led the excavations on the Holsterburg. With the conclusion of the excavation campaign in 2017, the archaeological excavation work on the Holsterburg was officially declared over.

As part of the work, the archaeologists found an octagonal system from the Staufer period with a 1.70 meter wide two-shell limestone wall , in the course of which plastered blocks up to 1.38 meters in length had been processed. The segment walls are made of high quality smooth blocks, the corner connections are made of excellently crafted large blocks. The two wall shells are connected by press mortar made from sand and rubble. Overall, the wall encloses an area of ​​428 square meters, with a diameter of 26 meters. There were three buildings inside. After its destruction, the Holsterburg was covered by a mound of earth, probably also for symbolic reasons, to erase the Berkule family and their ancestral seat from the memory of posterity. Under the hill, the complex has been preserved as it was in 1294.

The octagonal castle is the only one of its kind in Westphalia . Comparable, but somewhat later, octagonal ring structures were the Tübingen Castle Kilchberg and the Alsatian castles Egisheim , Guebwiller and Wangen ; The famous Castel del Monte was not built until a few decades later .

The finding of a limestone canal, which is integrated flush with the inner shell in the curtain wall , attracted a lot of attention . It was probably part of a heating system. Until the excavations, it was assumed that it was a moated castle . New archaeological investigations of the LWL archeology for Westphalia have meanwhile refuted this. During the excavation campaign in 2017, a one-piece double comb made of ivory with artistically carved motifs was found. It is dated to the third quarter of the 12th century and is considered a liturgical crest.

literature

  • Rainer Decker: The history of the castles in the Warburg / Zierenberg area . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History 93 (1988) pp. 9–48. Hofgeismar / Zierenberg also appeared separately in 1989.
  • Sandra Wamers: There is a hidden castle gem between Warburg and Calenberg . Neue Westfälische Bielefeld, October 29, 2010.
  • Walter Strümper : Archaeological excavations at the Holsterburg, on the history of the Lords of Bercule; The waiting room, no. 150 summer 2011, pp. 10–12
  • Sandra Wamers: Warburg's rediscovered castle . Neue Westfälische, Bielefeld February 5, 2011 ( alternative ).
  • Andrea Bulla; Hans-Werner Peine: Octagonal defense architecture from the Staufer era: the Holsterburg near Warburg . In: Burgen und Schlösser vol. 53 (2012) No. 4, pp. 199–208.
  • Gerd Braun: Archeology with compasses and ruler - On the planning geometry of the Holsterburg near Warburg in Westphalia, a contribution about the use of perfect numbers and regular polygons in castles and churches in the Middle Ages. In: Burgen und Schlösser in Sachsen-Anhalt, Issue 24 (2015), pp. 39–92.
  • Hans-Werner Peine, Kim Wegener: News about the Holsterburg . In: Archeology in Germany 6/2015, p. 52.
  • Hans-Werner Peine, Kim Wegener: About fires and recreational activities - the 2015 excavations on the Holsterburg . In: Archäologie in Westfalen-Lippe 2015 (2016), pp. 132–136.
  • Hans-Werner Peine, Kim Wegener: On the representative exterior facade of the Holsterburg near Warburg (North Rhine-Westphalia). An octagonal curtain wall from an archaeological and architectural perspective , castles and palaces , issue 3/2017, pp. 149–165
  • Hans-Werner Peine, Kim Wegener: The Holsterburg near Warburg. Testimony of innovation and conflict in: Matthias Wemhoff , Michael Rind (Ed.): Moving Times - Archeology in Germany. , Petersberg, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7319-0723-7 (exhibition catalog), pp. 410–411
  • Winfried Dolderer: Das Steinerne Diadem , in: Monumente 1/2020, pp. 52–55, online at: monumente-online.de

Web links

Commons : Holsterburg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Document No. 6, Warburg City Archives
  2. ^ "Excavations on the Holsterburg are coming to an end" in Archäologie Online from December 28, 2017.
  3. ↑ http://www.nw-news.de/lokale_news/warburg/warburg/4807115_Wehrhaft_Burg_mit_Warmluftheizung.html
  4. ↑ Extraordinary find on the Holsterburg ( memento of the original from October 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Archäologie.online from July 1, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archaeologie-online.de