Petershöhle (near Beuron)
| Petershöhle | ||
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 Entrance to the portal of the Petershöhle |
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| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, cave fortifications | |
| Conservation status: | small remains of the wall | |
| Standing position : | Unknown assignment | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Beuron | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 2 '47.1 " N , 8 ° 58' 40.5" E | |
| Height: | 730 m above sea level NN | |
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The Petershöhle is a high medieval cave castle of unknown class assignment southeast of the municipality of Beuron in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg , Germany .
Geographical location
Strategically favorable at 730 m above sea level. Located halfway up the slope of the Peterfelsen, the naturally washed-out limestone cave, one of the largest in the Upper Danube Valley, of the Jura rock of the Swabian Alb, could see the Upper Danube Valley for several kilometers.
The storm-free portal of the Petershöhle has a northern orientation and is located on the Danube facing side of the rock. It is freely accessible via a wooden staircase with 54 steps.
history
Due to the lack of documentary evidence and traditions, the few medieval ceramics found there must be used for dating. This trick suggests that the cave was used in the 12th and 13th centuries AD. Older ceramic finds are an indication of an earlier, Bronze Age , settlement. Ceramic remains from the Celts can also be found.
Under the medieval ceramics there were pieces of stove tile that speak for a longer-term use in contrast to the thesis of a cave dwelling only used as a short-term refuge . Continuous habitation is excluded.
According to current researchers, the residents of the cave castle at that time were less likely to be the nobility than the nearby Beuron monastery .
The Petershöhle is now owned by the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen .
investment
The cave castle has a 5 to 6 meter high rock step in front of it. Remnants of a front wall indicate a completely walled-up portal, which has a fortified pulpit-like projection on the western, right-hand front corner. The quarry stones obtained are of different sizes. In the lower part they are rather large in size (up to 1.6 by 0.6 meters), and from a height of 2.5 meters they are mortared in small pieces. The cave, with an elliptical base area of 25 to 26 meters in length and 16 meters in width, is between 9 and 10 meters in height. On the east side of the height there is a steep cave shaft about 5 meters behind the front wall as a light inlet.
There is no evidence whatsoever of interior development that would allow conclusions to be drawn about the original interior design.
The Petershöhle is accessed via a steep wooden staircase. Access would only be dangerous without stairs.
literature
- Christoph Bizer: Surface finds of castles in the Swabian Alb - A contribution to ceramic and castle research . Published by the regional council Stuttgart - State Office for Monument Preservation, Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2038-7 , pp. 330-332.
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages - floor plan lexicon . Special edition. Flechsig Verlag, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-88189-360-1 , p. 463.
- Günter Schmitt : Petershöhle . In: Ders .: Burgenführer Schwäbische Alb, Volume 3 - Donautal: Hiking and discovering between Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1990, ISBN 3-924489-50-5 , pp. 221-224.
- Hans Binder , Herbert Jantschke: Cave guide Swabian Alb. Caves - springs - waterfalls . 7th completely revised edition. DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2003, ISBN 3-87181-485-7 , p. 222 .
- Christoph Bizer, Rolf Götz: Forgotten castles of the Swabian Alb . DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-87181-244-7 , pp. 96-98.
- Uhl Stefan: Cave castles and cave fortifications in the Danube Valley between Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen . In: Blätter des Schwäbischer Albverein, No. 1, 1988.
