Hunger Tower (Deutschfeistritz)
| Starvation tower | ||
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 "Hungerturm" ruin near Waldstein, seen from the north (2012) |
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| Creation time : | in the late 13th or early 14th century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | In stock, partly irregular quarry stone masonry | |
| Place: | Deutschfeistritz | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 13 '34.3 " N , 15 ° 17' 2.5" E | |
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The so-called starvation tower is in German Feistritz in the Steiermark preferred ruin a Gothic tower castle . He may as Vorburg to Burg Waldstein be considered, making this probably a possessing historical unity.
location
The ruins of the hunger tower are located south of Waldstein Castle. It stands there on the summit of the Schneiderkogel which rises above the cadastral community of Waldstein, which belongs to Deutschfeistritz . This crest drops moderately steeply to the north, south and west and turns into a narrow spur to the east. At this foothill you can find the remains of trenches and the stump of a tower hill castle that has now been abandoned .
history
Depending on the sources, a wooden structure was built in the 11th or 12th century where the castle is today. This was probably replaced by the current castle in the late 13th or early 14th century. It probably formed a property-historical unit with Waldstein Castle.
layout
The hilltop castle complex comprises an almost square, four-storey residential tower that is surrounded by a free-standing polygonal curtain wall. The tower is around 9.6 meters wide on the north side and around 10.2 meters wide on the other three sides. It is 15 meters high and has stone masonry . The masonry is around 230 centimeters thick at the bottom and decreases with increasing height. The tower has level alignment positions at intervals of 50 to 60 centimeters. The height of the leveling layers is exactly the same as the thickness of the corner blocks made of tuff . The original access to the tower was a high entry and is located on the east side at a height of around 5 meters. The entrance has, among other things, a gothic pointed arch portal made of hewn stones that is only partially preserved. Furthermore, you can still see the consoles and the fold of the earlier bascule bridge . In front of the entrance there are standing bridge piers onto which the bridge could be lowered. A footbridge probably led from these pillars to the northern part of the castle wall. Today the tower can also be entered through an extended light gap in the basement. In the south, the tower is supported by a massive wall pillar.
The floor behind the original entrance was roofed by a ribbed vault . Beam holes from a beamed ceiling are still visible above the vault . There is no indication of whether the vault was built later or together with the beamed ceiling. Furthermore, a staircase led to the upper floors, which was probably located on the north side of the floor. There is a slot of light on all four sides of the floors. There is a door above the former entrance that led to a bay window above the high entrance and is currently walled up.
The approximately one meter thick circular wall surrounding the tower resembles a slightly warped oval and was built from straight pieces of wall. The access is in the northeast and used to have a rocker bridge , of which the stone swivel joint is still preserved today. On the north side, the wall is reinforced by four supporting pillars. Five loopholes with flat arch niches were subsequently broken out of the wall . Some of the wooden supports for the muskets have been preserved on them. In the northern area a single slit of light with a stone lintel and a wall of house stones is visible. The courtyard was divided into two parts by a short wall with a gate. This connected to the residential tower in the northeast corner and is no longer preserved except for some parts of the shoulder arch portal . Above the wall there was presumably a wooden battlement , which could be reached by stairs from the main gate.
In the north-west a trench was dug out of a steep rock . Furthermore, a little northeast of the castle there are several section trenches as well as an oval hill, which presumably originate from the wooden previous building, a tower hill castle , of the hunger tower.
swell
- The hunger tower near Waldstein. www.burgseite.com, accessed on September 25, 2011 .
- Werner Murgg: Castle ruins in Styria . Ed .: Federal Monuments Office (= B . Band 2 ). Ferdinand Berger & Sons Ges.mbH, 2009, ISSN 1993-1263 , p. 60-61 .