Ring wall in the Ottmaringer wood

The ring wall in Ottmaringer Holz is a smaller Hungarian fortress near Kissing in the Aichach-Friedberg district in Swabia . The ramparts are located about 150 meters north of today's Mergenthau Castle on the Lechrain.

history

As with most of the early medieval or older ramparts, there is no written or oral tradition of the history of the Burgplatz.

The moats and earth walls that are visible today are interpreted by the preservation authorities as being from the Hungarian period . A Hungarian period of the earthworks was already assumed in 1955 by Barthel Eberl in his treatise on the Lechfeld Battle.

As a reaction to the Hungarian invasions of the 10th century, several large protective castles were built in the diocese of Augsburg , such as the Haldenburg near Schwabmünchen or the Buschelberg near Fischach . In addition to these large castles built on the highest order, the landlords and village communities built numerous smaller ramparts for their own protection. Often this happened through the expansion of older prehistoric or early historical fortifications or settlement areas. Widukind von Corvey already speaks in his chronicle of smaller hill fortifications on the Lechrain, from which the fleeing Hungarians were wiped out after the battle on the Lechfeld (955). These fortifications are said to have been particularly occupied by Bohemian troop contingents.

See also : Section fortification Rederzhausen , Vorderer Schlossberg (Mering) , Hinterer Schlossberg (Mering)

description

The Wallburg is protected in the west by the steep slope of the Lechrain and in the south by an incision in the terrain, which was certainly also divided off. Below the approximately three meter high wall crest runs a ledge, probably a bench or a backfilled ditch. The former main gate is located in the southwest corner. A natural incision forms a V-shaped gate lane, the wall jumps out like a bastion on both sides. The wall height is up to seven meters here.

In the north and east, the moat is only one and a half meters high and is cut twice by a modern timber removal route.

A crescent-shaped, flattened inner wall with a trench is attached to the inner, southern gate cheek. The approximately 30 meter long, still approximately half a meter high wall is likely to go back to a predecessor system of unknown time. On an imprecise plan photograph published by Barthel Eberl (1951), further remains of this moat are documented, which can no longer be clearly identified in the area today. According to the plan, the older section of the fortification ran in an arc to the northwest. However, the course of the received part is not correctly reproduced here.

The floor plan of the castle is polygonal with rounded corners (approx. 170 × 165 meters). The kinked rampart in the southeast indicates another gate. The modern timber removal route could well mark an older rampart opening here. However, as early as 1989 in his treatise on the south-west German Hungarian walls, Wilhelm Schneider pointed to the "bastion-like" wall course of some of the Hungarian fortifications, which occasionally reminds one of modern fortifications.

The relatively low earthworks in the east of the complex were probably also preceded by thorn hedges or tree traps as obstacles to approach. Such fortifications are difficult to prove archaeologically .

The ring wall is separated from the nearby Mergenthau castle stable by the cut in the terrain . The earthworks of this large, originally Guelph castle have largely been preserved around today's castle property and together with the ring wall form an impressive ensemble.

The ring wall was measured together with the castle stable in 1975 by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation and topographically recorded.

The State Office for Monument Preservation lists the ground monument as an early medieval ring wall under monument number D 7-7631-0061.

Damage 2013

In the course of forest work (road construction) at the beginning of 2013, the foot of the rampart on the west side was pushed off to a height of one meter. The former gate area and the southwest area of ​​the ramparts are particularly badly affected.

literature

• Barthel Eberl: The Hungarian Battle on the Lechfeld (Gunzenlê) in 955 . (Treatises on the history of the city of Augsburg. Issue 7) Augsburg 1955.
• Kissing community: Kissing - past and present . Kissing 1983.
• Wilhelm Schneider: The southwest German Hungarian walls and their builders . (Work on Alemannic Early History, Book XVI). Tubingen 1989.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation: Entry ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Coordinates: 48 ° 19 ′ 0.1 ″  N , 10 ° 59 ′ 40.2 ″  E