Houbirg
The Houbirg is a mountain near Happurg in Middle Franconia with a lost Celtic oppidum of the same name. Remains of the walls, some of which are ten meters high, have been preserved, with a length of 4.5 kilometers enclosing an area of almost one square kilometer. In addition, a prehistoric site, a castle stables and a tunnel complex built as part of the U relocation testify to the history of the elevation.
etymology
The name of the mountain and the fortress, on which the name of the municipality of Happurg is based, goes back to bergen (retreating to the mountain for defense).
history
prehistory
The Abri Hohler Fels , located south of the plateau, has bone finds from animals from the last glacial period , which date to the Paleolithic . Likewise were artifacts found equal and later time position. It is known that the area was populated in the Middle Bronze Age (from around 1600 BC).
Iron age
In the Hallstatt and early Latène periods (approx. 500 BC to approx. 330 BC) there was a Celtic oppidum on the plateau , of which the remains of walls and moats are still visible today. The facility is located on the mountain plateau at an altitude of 486 to 617 meters in a strategically favorable position above the side valleys of the Pegnitz valley . At that time it was one of the largest ramparts in southern Germany. Ceramic shards and bronze brooches as well as glass beads were found from that time . The Houbirg was inhabited until about the turn of the century . After a long break, it was not settled again by Teutons (probably Juthungen ) until late antiquity around 400 AD . The complex is part of a series of hilltop castles dating from the Migration Period in the area to the right of the Rhine.
middle Ages
After a further desolation , glass fragments and several simple pearls indicate a new settlement in the early Middle Ages (6th / 7th centuries). The Burgstall Hacburg is located on a hillside . The high medieval spur castle , apart from a neck ditch , is almost completely gone.
Modern times
In 1944 and 1945 the Dogger tunnel system was built in the Houbirg . It was built under inhumane working conditions by inmates from the Hersbruck subcamp , a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp . A BMW aircraft engine plant was to be built in the 3.9 kilometer long tunnel system at the end of the war , but it was never completed. 4000 of the 9000 forced laborers used were killed during the construction work .
See also
Web links
- Leisure tips Houbirg (PDF; 162 kB)
- Research by Houbirg and Doggerwerk
literature
- Tobias Springer: Happurg: The Houbirg . In: Alfried Wieczorek (Hrsg.): Excursions to archeology, history and culture in Germany, Volume 52: Nuremberg and Nürnberger Land - excursion destinations between Pegnitz and Franconian Alb . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2368-2 , pp. 153-156.
Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 33 ″ N , 11 ° 29 ′ 11 ″ E