Ringwall Schwedenschanze (Heiligenstadt in Upper Franconia)

Ringwall Schwedenschanze
Creation time :	Early medieval
Castle type :	Höhenburg, ring wall
Conservation status:	Castle stable, ring wall and moat remains preserved
Place:	Heiligenstadt in Upper Franconia - Oberleinleiter - "Burgholz" corridor
Geographical location	49 ° 53 '9.6 "  N , 11 ° 8' 7.7"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 53 '9.6 "  N , 11 ° 8' 7.7"  E
Height:	525  m above sea level NN

The large ring wall of Schwedenschanze is an abandoned early medieval hilltop castle on a 525  m above sea level surrounded by the Leinleiter in the west . NN high hilltop, in the local forest department "Burgholz". It is located around 540 meters north-northeast of the center of Oberleinleiter in the Upper Franconian community of Heiligenstadt in Upper Franconia in Bavaria , Germany .

No historical or archaeological information is known about this hill fort; there are currently no finds that could date the complex. According to the typology of the fortifications, the division into a fore and a main castle and the name Schwedenschanze, which in Mainfranken only occurs in installations from the early Middle Ages, this Schwedenschanze at Oberleinleiter is also dated to the Carolingian - Ottonian period. Only a large part of the ring wall with a partial outer ditch has been preserved from the complex. Today, the site is protected as a ground monument number D-4-6132-0052: Early medieval circular wall and a late La Tène depot find.

description

The ring wall is located on a hilltop or spur dome that drops steeply to the west and north, about 140  meters in altitude . The two remaining sides of the summit slope only a few meters flat to an adjacent plateau, so that these sides were most at risk from an attack.

The roughly triangular surface of the fortification, which extends in length from northeast to southwest and has an acute angle at the northeast tip, does not form a straight flank on the opposite side, but is slightly curved outwards so that the shape of the Plant closer to a deltoid . The length of the Schwedenschanze is about 170 meters, with 120 meters it has the greatest width.

The best preserved and most heavily fortified part of the complex was in the southeast at the transition to the plateau. Here, a 175-meter-long and slightly curved section wall crosses the entire mountain spur, which is still around one meter high and eight meters wide. It used to be a trench , which today is only preserved in the southern and central part of the section wall. This trench is still 0.8 meters deep and four meters wide. The less strongly fortified flanks of the system connect to the slope edges of the spur on this section wall. At the southern tip, the fortification bends around 90 degrees to the northwest and then runs north after two thirds of the route. This side is the worst preserved, shortly after the southern tip the wall flattens out completely to form an edge of the terrain, which is also no longer recognizable at the western tip. In the northern course, the wall then begins again, turns to the northeast, and thus forms the northeast flank, which is also slightly curved outwards. The wall is largely preserved on this side, only in the west it is exposed in several short places. At the eastern point, this flank meets the section wall again at a small rock formation at an acute angle. At this point there is also a short ditch on the north flank; it probably protected the access to the eastern part of the fortification, which is shown in a wall gap a few meters west of the eastern point.

The complex is divided by an arched wall into a higher eastern main castle area and a much larger western outer castle area . A gate is also assumed for the western outer bailey, it was possibly on the sanded western tip of the Schwedenschanze.

literature

• Rainer Hofmann (edit.): Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 20: Franconian Switzerland . Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0586-8 , pp. 170-171.
• Björn-Uwe Abels : Guide to archaeological monuments in Bavaria, Franconia Volume 2: Archaeological Guide Upper Franconia . Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-8062-0373-3 , pp. 138-139.
• Klaus Schwarz: The prehistoric and early historical monuments in Upper Franconia . (Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory, series B, volume 5). Verlag Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz 1955, pp. 80–81.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source description: Björn-Uwe Abels: Guide to archaeological monuments in Bavaria, Franconia Volume 2: Archaeological Guide Upper Franconia , p. 139
2. ↑ List of monuments for Heiligenstadt (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 145 kB)
3. ↑ Location of the ring wall in the Bavaria Atlas
4. ↑ Source description: Björn-Uwe Abels: Guide to archaeological monuments in Bavaria, Franconia Volume 2: Archaeological Guide Upper Franconia , p. 138 f.