Jaufenburg

Jaufenburg viewed from above

The Jaufenburg is located above St. Leonhard in Passeier at the foot of the Jaufenpass in South Tyrol . Today the castle stands away from the main traffic routes, at that time at the intersection of the paths over Jaufenpass and Timmelsjoch . The oldest surviving part of the castle dates from the late 13th century.

Building history and architecture

The keep

The construction of the Jaufenburg tower still preserved today must probably go back to the second third of the 13th century. The keep was first mentioned as “turn under Jauven” in 1320. Originally the high entrance was on the second floor of the tower. Today you enter the castle three meters above ground level on the floor below. Traces of the former wooden steps can still be seen on the walls, as well as a brick step leading to a segmented arch niche. On the second floor you come across the already mentioned archway of the former high entrance. The former passage can also be seen, which led to the south-west palace , which is no longer preserved today . The third floor shows openings that were probably made in the 16th century. Remnants of former Renaissance paintings can also be seen here ; an indication that several floors of the tower were once painted with frescoes . The still preserved wall paintings by Bartlmä Dill Riemenschneider are on the fourth floor. The windowless south wall is completely painted, with the exception of a bald spot that is no longer preserved, as is the side window on the east wall and the window frame on the west wall. The paintings on the other walls of the 6.5 by 6.5 meter room have been almost completely lost. The tower was probably raised from the fourth floor in the 16th century, which is why all openings on the fifth floor can be dated to this century. Almost all of the openings found here served to defend the castle complex. "Six of the former eight recoil beams have been preserved in their original form on the fifth floor, including the associated wooden excavations."

The wall paintings

The wall paintings that have survived on the fourth floor of the keep can be dated to the 16th century and are some of the few surviving Renaissance paintings in Tyrol. They are attributed to Bartlmä Dill Riemenschneider , a son of Tilman Riemenschneider . Among other things, the artist painted the three-king altar from the Brixen Cathedral and left his mark on several Tyrolean castles. The paintings are supplemented by quotations from the Bible; It is surprising that some of these are quotations from the Luther translation of the Bible text , even though the commissioner for the paintings was a Catholic bishop, namely Christoph Fuchs von Fuchsberg . It is also astonishing that Christoph Fuchs had access to it as early as 1538, shortly after the Luther Bible was published. At the upper edge of the paintings there are coats of arms of various families, some of them married, including that of Mr. Fuchs von Fuchsberg . In the main part of the paintings you can see mainly religious motifs and also some putti . Three naked putti play in the window arch in the west, the east window is painted with the story of the Annunciation. Everything is framed by a painted balustrade in the lower area and two mock cornices in the upper area, in which the painter refers to his name with several attached scissors.

The rest of the castle complex

Inside the plant

Of the other buildings in the castle, only the remains of the wall have survived today. The complex essentially consisted of two palaces - the west or south palace and the east palace - as well as several farm buildings . As can be seen from older depictions, the Jaufenburg was once a very large and handsome castle complex that was only abandoned to decay after it was abandoned in the 18th century. The result was the complete destruction of the castle complex; only the keep remained. Pictorial and written sources show that the castle had its own chapel and several gardens. In addition to the farmhouses, the Jaufenburg owned a forge and the Pfistradalm (St. Anna).

The plant from the 18th century

After the Count Fuchs von Fuchsberg had to close the castle complex in the middle of the 18th century due to financial difficulties, it was initially administered by Baron Hieronymus de Battaglia , who was given the jurisdiction of Passeier. Hieronymus resigned from his job as court lord in the Passeiertal as early as 1762 and thus gave up Jaufenburg entirely. After the castle complex was badly damaged in the French Wars in 1809, Josef Haller von St. Leonhard bought it at auction in 1833, together with the Baumannhof below the Jaufenburg. The Pfistradalm came into the possession of the municipality of Latsch in Vinschgau at the auction .

The Jaufenburg was now used as a material depot and the removal of cut stones for buildings in the village accelerated the decline. In an inventory from the 18th century several baroque rooms are mentioned, none of which have survived today. After the Heimatschutzverein Meran had already requested a renovation of the castle complex in 1911, two conservators visited the complex in 1913 and informed the Imperial and Royal Central Committee in Vienna about the necessary restoration of the roof. When the Edamal erupted, the Heimatschutzverein renewed the damaged roof and saved the frescoes on the fourth floor. In 1995 the keep was extensively secured, after which the facility was opened to the public. An extensive renovation of the still preserved frescoes took place in 2000.

The residents of the castle

The Lords of Passeier

In 1363, Margarete von Tirol ceded Tyrol to the House of Habsburg . Even then, the gentlemen von Passeier were among the winners of the deed of transfer. The Passeier court, held by the Lords of Passeier, was first mentioned in 1290. The lords of Passeier died out in 1418 with knight Hildebrand in the male line. His daughter Barbara had already married Christoph Fuchs von Fuchsberg in 1385, so that after the death of the knight Hildebrand, the castle passed to Messrs. Fuchs von Fuchsberg.

The Lords and Counts Fuchs von Fuchsberg in the Jaufenburg

The Fuchs von Fuchsberg family consisted of three lines: the Freudensteiner line (until 1550), that of Lebenberg (which owned the Jaufenburg after the Jaufenburg line died out) and that of Jaufenburg. Many contemporary sources show that the lords of Jaufenburg were very powerful and rich for a long time. For example, Degen I. von Jaufenburg was Governor of Tyrol . However, Christoph II von Fuchsberg achieved a special position as Bishop of Brixen. He also commissioned the frescoes in the Jaufenburg. Carl Graf Fuchs the Younger went down in history as being particularly generous towards the valley population. After his death, however, his descendants had to take over a heavily indebted inheritance that was not compatible with their usual lavish way of life. The Fuchs, which has belonged to the count since 1634, celebrated intoxicating festivals at the expense of the valley population, one reason why the relationship with them deteriorated badly. In 1749 the Jaufenburg line died out with Sebastian Franz Fuchs and the castle fell into the possession of the Lebenbergers. When this line also died out in 1828, the castle came into the possession of the Haller, Baumann family in 1833, as already mentioned. The lords of the Jaufenburg were always court lords in the Passeier Valley. However, they often pawned this, which resulted in disputes with the valley population. Until the death of Carl Fuchs, however, the population under Messrs. Fuchs fared relatively well, and especially the church institutions in the Passeier Valley received many donations and gifts. This also explains the burial site directly below the altar of the parish church of St. Leonhard.

Holy Cross Church

At the foot of the Jaufenburg is the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, which also houses the oldest representation of the castle on the Jaufenpass. According to the legend, the church was built by Hildebrand Fuchs in 1531, who was in distress on his way home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and then took the vow to build a chapel there where his horse would give him a sign. This fell on its knees at the foot of the Jaufenburg, whereupon he had the Holy Cross Church built there. The chapel was built by Bartlmä Hueber , the marble lintel bears the engraved date 1531. Motifs of the Gothic wall paintings in the church are mainly scenes from the life and suffering of Christ. In the background of a scene in which the women tell the disciples about the resurrection of Jesus, one recognizes the oldest representation of the Jaufenburg complex. The folkloric interesting painting "The Way to Heaven and Hell" by Benedikt Auer the Younger from 1816, which was originally housed in the church, is now in the MuseumPasseier , where other works of art from the so-called Passeier School of Painting can also be found. In addition to this painting, there were many other sculptures and ornaments, as well as chalices and bells in the Holy Cross Church. Some of it was brought to the castle chapel in Schloss Lebenberg by the then owner, Count Josef Fuchs von Lebenberg, together with the altar stone in 1785 due to the church policy measures taken by Joseph II . In 1790 the same count handed over the church to the parish of St. Leonhard, who could only visit this church when the Waltnerbach flooded. The valuable figures of a crucifixion group from southern Germany from the Holy Cross Church are now on loan from the Diocesan Museum in Bressanone .

literature

Monika Mader: The Holy Cross Church . In: Market town of St. Leonhard in Passeier (ed.), St. Leonhard. Passeier. Volume I. Past and present . St. Leonhard 1993.
MuseumPasseier (ed.): The Jaufenburg. Building history, residents, paintings, Holy Cross Church, legends . St. Leonhard in Passeier 2003.
Albin Pixner: The Jaufenburg: castle ruins over St. Leonhard in Passeier . In: Arx. Castles and palaces in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol , year 2/2010.
Oswald Trapp : Tiroler Burgenbuch. Volume II: Burgrave Office . Athesia publishing house, Bozen 1980, pp. 146–151.

Web links

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

Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office

46.815178 11.252479Coordinates: 46 ° 48 '54.6 " N , 11 ° 15' 8.9" E