Wall hexagon (Dossenheim)

Wall hexagon
Floor plan of the entire facility
Alternative name (s):	Waldsberg, Einsiedel
Creation time :	possibly 11th century, 14th century extended
Castle type :	Spurburg
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Standing position :	unknown (probably lower nobility)
Construction:	Foundation walls in stone ( Odenwälder sandstone , porphyry ), half-timbered
Place:	Dossenheim - Wolfsgrund
Geographical location	49 ° 26 '40.3 "  N , 8 ° 41' 12.5"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 26 '40.3 "  N , 8 ° 41' 12.5"  E
Height:	255  m above sea level NHN

The remains of the tower house

Floor plan of the tower house

The so-called Wall Hexagon , also called Waldsberg , is seen as the remnant of a medieval manor house, which emerged from an early fortified castle-like property, southeast of Dossenheim in the Rhein-Neckar district in northwestern Baden-Württemberg .

Location and nature

The remains of the wall on the Badische Bergstrasse on the western edge of the Odenwald lie on the boundary between Dossenheim and the Heidelberg district of Handschuhsheim, just in the Dossenheim area in the forest Wolfsgrund won . A wide forest path leads past to the east and north , from which you can hardly see the ruins, however, as the terrain is overgrown and there is thick undergrowth along the way . In the northeast are the "Three Oaks", which can be reached via a hiking trail. The Leferenz quarry begins a few dozen meters north of the wall hexagon . In the south you meet the Höllenbach after a few hundred meters . The ruin lies at a height of about 255  m above sea level. NHN , on the western slope of the Hohe Nistler , which is strongly flattened at this point.

Little is visible of the walls ; some of the remains are barely recognizable or only a few dozen centimeters high. In addition, the whole area is overgrown, it hardly differs from the rest of the forest. The outer wall forms an irregular hexagon, which gave the property its current name, Wall Hexagon .

In the forest maps from 1790 and 1841, the castle site is named as "(Die) Einsiedel" . ^{(P. 134)}

investment

Since there are no written records about the court, one can only guess what it once looked like. It probably comprised several buildings, which were surrounded by a not too powerful stone wall. In the middle stood a multi-storey tower house with a basement, a combination of stone and half-timbered parts and a younger extension.

The core building, which was probably two or three storeys high, had a floor area of ​​9.70 m × 8.00 m (No. 1 and 4 in the floor plan), the wall thickness was 1.00 m. There was a 2.00 m deep basement (No. 2) with a floor space of approx. 2.00 m × 2.00 m, which could only be reached via a ladder. Above a loose wall (No. 3) in the north-east corner of the main room (No. 4) there were traces of fire on the walls, which is why a first fireplace is seen there, and later there was probably a tiled stove. At least one additional floor is considered likely, it will have been reached via a ladder, as no stair foundations were found and the spatial conditions were very cramped.

An eastern extension from later times (No. 7) is characterized by two special features: a 1.90 m deep pit with an area of ​​approx. 1.00 × 1.00 m (No. 5), which was partially carved into the rock , as well as a brick hearth (No. 6) on the east side.

A later southern extension (No. 8) also housed the main entrance to the building, which was designed as a staircase (No. 9) due to the sloping terrain. At the southern point of the enclosure wall, post marks were found, which indicate a half-timbered building (No. 10).

history

According to the excavation results of 1932, the tower-like fortress house was initially dated to the 11th century and was associated with the beginning of the castle building, it was also interpreted as a refuge for the two neighboring villages. Since the abandoned village of Hillenbach (also Hillinbach or Höllenbach ) on the stream of the same name was assumed to be only a few hundred meters away, a connection could not be ruled out. There is no documentary evidence of whether there are connections to the old castle , wrongly called Kronenburg , a multiple castle from the same period, only a few hundred meters away.

Later expansion (defense) and use as a mansion was based on the excavated finds in the second half of the 14th century .

The fortified manor was probably the seat of a noble castle man , dependent on the Schauenburg . It was later abandoned with no evidence of struggle. The task could be related to the construction of new Burgmannen houses in the Schauenburg around 1420/31.

The exact use of the courtyard / castle stable has not been clarified, the name Wal (d) sberg indicates a Fronhof . Without written evidence or recent archaeological research, this question must remain open.

Excavations

The ruin was discovered in 1932 and explored through an excavation . Several ceramic parts were found and it was found that the walls were still more than a meter high in places. The main building was excavated down to the basement area. The ceramic finds are assigned to stove tiles of various types. The quality and decorative shaping of the tiles (flower tendrils and animals) show that the small facility probably had at least two high-quality ovens, which is not a matter of course for such early to high medieval facilities. In addition to pot shards, several pieces of iron - including at least one hatchet , remnants of a knife, a sickle, two drills, a Gothic key, a file, small parts attributed to a horse curb and remnants of horseshoes, probably for (foot) donkeys - a stone cross was also found. However, none of the parts of the building can be assigned to a chapel. Possibly it was an atonement cross . Interesting is the discovery of a bronze ring, the probably Latin inscription S. ANTONIVS HJUTAME of which is interpreted as S. ANTONIUS ADJUTA ME : Saint Antonius help me . ^{(P. 140 ff.) It} is not known where the finds are today. In addition to the inner main building, post inserts were excavated on the short south wall section of the hexagon, which are interpreted as extensions of a half-timbered building . ^{(P. 139 f.)}

At first the facility was interpreted as a refuge for the Dossenheim population, but this was later refuted. The wall hexagon is now largely owned by the community of Dossenheim.

Only a more recent archaeologically detailed examination and follow-up examination of the finds from 1932 could allow a better dating and description of the castle stables.

literature

• Hans Buchmann: Castles and palaces on Bergstrasse , Theiss, Stuttgart 1986.
• Christian Burkhart: The "Wall Hexagon" in Wolfsgrund near Dossenheim . In: Unser Land , Heidelberg 1997, pp. 64–71.
• Christian Burkhart: The nameless "castle" on the western slope of the Hoher Nistler between Handschuhsheim and Dossenheim , in: District Association Handschuhsheim e. V. Yearbook 1997 , Heidelberg 1997, pp. 47-67.
• Rudolf Conzelmann: Dossenheim. The story of a 1200 year old mountain road community. Municipal administration, Dossenheim 1966, OCLC 311569268 .
• Uwe Gross: Medieval ceramics between the Neckar estuary and the Swabian Alb. Comments on spatial development and temporal structure. In the series: Research and reports on the archeology of the Middle Ages in Baden-Württemberg, published by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Stuttgart Regional Council, 1991, 226 p., 84 fig.
• Heimatverein Dossenheim (ed.): Dossenheim. A traditional mountain road community in the course of its history , Dossenheim 2005.
• Ludwig Schmieder: A newly discovered castle in Wolfsgrund near Dossenheim , in: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter , Volume 34 (1933), No. 8-10, pp. 133-146. ( Online )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Map of the State Monuments Office
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Schmieder: Mannheim history sheets
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Heimatverein Dossenheim 2005, pp. 162–163.
4. ↑ cf. the Regesten 365, 511 and 716 from the years 768 to 771 of the document book ( Lorsch codex ) of the former Abbey of Lorsch
5. ↑ Heimatverein Dossenheim 2005, p. 162 (picture caption)
6. ↑ Conzelmann 1966, p. 37.