Isenburg (Saxony)

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Isenburg
Ruins of the Isenburg with donjon

Ruins of the Isenburg with donjon

Creation time : 12th Century
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Hartenstein and Bad Schlema -Wildbach
Geographical location 50 ° 38 '1.7 "  N , 12 ° 40' 27.2"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 38 '1.7 "  N , 12 ° 40' 27.2"  E
Isenburg (Saxony)
Isenburg

The Isenburg is the ruin a Höhenburg in Westerzgebirge between Hartenstein and the Aue bath Schlemaer district torrent high above the valley of the Mulde in Saxony .

history

During the settlement of the Ore Mountains , a weir system was built on the rock spur that rises at the mouth of the torrent in the Zwickauer Mulde . Archaeological finds show that the complex was already there in the 12th century. The name Isenburg goes back to the name Eisenburg and either refers to the iron mining that took place nearby ( see also : Bad Schlema visitor mine ), or it had the meaning of iron in the sense of impregnable .

Little is known about the history of the Spornburg and its violent destruction. Secure documentary mentions are not available. The traditions - the first description was made in 1738 - refer to the Isenburg as a robbery castle , old castle or iron castle , from which the name is derived. However, there is no medieval source for this. The castle was destroyed in the 14th century and not rebuilt. From the 15th to the 17th century, the ruins probably served as a shelter for the local population during armed conflicts. Around 1750 the remains of the castle were blown up in order to build the Wildbacher church with the stones .

In 1934, participants in the Reich Labor Service exposed the remaining parts of the ramparts. The foundations of the curtain wall and the remains of the round keep were restored in 1993.

Barely 200 meters east of the Isenburg, on the neighboring spur above the east side of the Zwickauer Mulde, there is the Vogelherd Niederschlema , another small former spur castle .

Description of the plant

West view

A distinction is made between a bailey and a lower and an upper castle, and there was also a cistern . The system encloses an area of ​​51 × 33 meters, the tower has a diameter of about 9 meters at the base with a wall thickness of 3 meters. The only easily accessible west side of the castle was additionally protected by a moat . The inner and outer shell are made of horizontally layered quarry stone , while the core is lined with layers of stone ( Opus spicatum ) offset like a herringbone .

Viewing possibility

A 30-minute walk from the Hartenstein train station is recommended for a visit to the ruins . Stein Castle is only about 200 meters from here . Here the Zwickauer Mulde is crossed, then the path leads to the left, through the Poppenwald parallel to the Mulde upstream. After a short but steep ascent, which is called gentle Heinrich , the path forks:

the right one leads past the Wildbacher church and is quite comfortable. After about 700 m the ruins are reached.

the left path runs through a wild, romantic, narrow path on the steep bank of the Mulde to the destination. This path is known as the Raubrittersteig and is one of the most beautiful hiking trails in the Muldental.

The Prinzenhöhle is located very close to the Isenburg, but on the opposite bank of the Mulden . Further up the river in the direction of Bad Schlema, visitors come to a radium source after about a kilometer .

Legends about the Isenburg

The old woman

Many years ago a girl served as a maid in an estate next to the rectory in Wildbach. One day an old woman came over and asked the maid to follow her to the castle walls, which were already in ruins. Here she showed the girl a previously hidden room in which she lived. The old woman demanded that the girl clean up here. As a reward she received 2 groschen. This was repeated many times. And every time the girl swept the woman's living room, she received the same amount. That way she was able to amass some money. - The farmer's wife had noticed, however, that her maid had more money than she had received for her services on the estate. She took advantage of the girl's absence to check her room and found the many pieces of twig penny. In response to urgent questions, the maid told us why she had received the coins. But from that time on, the old Frau von der Isenburg never appeared again.

The white woman

In the 15th century, when the Isenburg had already disintegrated, the residents of the neighboring village of Stein told the legend of a white woman who was up to mischief in the ruins of the castle. A woman dressed in white is said to have been seen there several times. In particular, they asked the daring squire Georg König for help in clearing up the apparition. One evening Georg König snuck into the forest to hunt wild animals. To escape an impending storm, he hurried home in the almost total darkness. The storm had started, however, storm and lightning accompanied Georg and showed him that he had unknowingly approached the castle ruins. The horror stories about the castle were known to him, but he overcame himself and entered the remains of the castle because he was looking for protection there. To his astonishment he found a solid door and was now in a covered and dark room. While orienting, he knocked over a vessel and soon afterwards heard a woman's voice: “Who's here? Who is disturbing my peaceful calm? ”After he had overcome his first horror, he watched a fire being lit and saw a beautiful, strange-looking young woman with a short, shiny sword knife in her hand and a black cat beside her. But the woman, who Georg thought was the legendary white ancestor, asked him to tell him how he got into the castle. She rewarded him with a sweet drink and made him promise not to tell anyone about the encounter. But he should always deliver part of his hunted prey to her. The white dressed woman also asked about the conditions in the area and especially about the Hussites , who were to be found in many places here. - When the storm was over, Georg went home and told his old aunt Barbara about his adventure, which revived the legends of enchanted knights and princesses. If - in their opinion - the woman in the castle ruins is not the ancestor, but an enchanted creature, he is threatened with great misfortune if he does not keep his promise. - After many years, marauding Hussites made sure that the residents of Stein fled to the castle ruins. Only the miller David König, the aunt Barbara and the squire Georg with his cousin Gottreich Jentsch stayed in the village. They hoped for the promised protection of the white woman, to whom Georg had brought parts of his hunt several times. On this very day another sacrifice was due. And the white woman asked him about the situation; When she found out about the Hussite fright, she promised: "I will save you when the Hussites come and then say goodbye, never to return". Georg, who liked the beautiful young woman and who had also given him to understand that she liked him, asked the white woman for her hand. She promised to appear at the mill the following morning and, when she was welcome there, to become his wife. With this good news, he immediately told the assembled family members about his happiness. Some of Steiner's relatives were supposed to be picked up from the castle and the hidden forest camp that night for the expected wedding. The next morning, however, the Hussites were already in the village and set fire to all buildings, including the mill. Aunt Barbara now fervently called the ancestor for help. Suddenly the wild horde stopped, because a voice in the Bohemian language spoke to the Hussites. A woman in a white flax dress could be seen, which George and his entourage ran happily towards. “It's the white ancestor! She will save us! ”The young woman stayed behind in the mill and was married to Georg. Her name was Andjola Wallenta, and she had fled a former Hussite detachment after that group had been crushed in the area. She fled into the walls of the Isenburg, where she had lived from then on with her remaining household items and her knowledge of nature. - Georg König lived happily ever after with his wife in the mill, of which he became the tenant. The mill was and is the property of the Schoenburg rule at Stein Castle.

illustration

According to this legend, the wood sculptor Jesko Lange created an approximately two-meter-high figure made of oak for the 2019 wood sculptor symposium in the city of Aue-Bad Schlema , which was set up on September 21, 2019 at the Heimatstube on Kirchplatz. The woman was driven from the place in front of the fire brigade to the place of installation on a festively decorated horse-drawn carriage from the Wildbach volunteer fire department . The procession was accompanied by a folk festival with a marching band, medieval performances and food and drink. At the same time, actors recited the legend. The organizer was the Heimatverein Wildbach.

The ghostly dwarf on the Isenburg

The robber baron, Konrad von Kauffungen , who lived in Stein Castle in the 14th century , committed numerous atrocities in his area, so that the devil broke his neck and condemned his spirit. He had to frighten the surrounding area and visitors to the Isenburg ruin in dwarf form as far as Sankt Nimmerlein. Among other things, a corridor running underground under the hollow that connects Stein Castle with Isenburg should serve this purpose. However, nobody has seen the dwarf so far, and an underground connection has not been found.

literature

  • Matthias Donath : Castles in the western Erzgebirge , Meißen 2010, p. 57f.

Web links

Commons : Isenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Stefan S. Espig: Legends and stories. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Press release from the Aue-Bad Schlemaer town hall from September 19, 2019: The White Woman in Isenburg .