Auersburg ruins

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Auersburg ruins
View from the entrance to the east (May 2018)

View from the entrance to the east (May 2018)

Alternative name (s): Auersburg
Creation time : around 1120
Castle type : Hill castle, hillside location
Conservation status: Enclosing walls, remains of the tower, moat and rampart
Standing position : clergy
Place: Hilders
Geographical location 50 ° 35 '19.8 "  N , 9 ° 59' 49.2"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 35 '19.8 "  N , 9 ° 59' 49.2"  E.
Auersburg ruins (Hesse)
Auersburg ruins
View of the curtain wall and man-sized loopholes
Basement access

The Auersburg ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle in the Hilders municipality in the Fulda district in Hesse . Today the facility serves as a shelter and viewing platform.

location

The ruin is surrounded by forest on the southwest slope of the 757 m high Auersberg in the Rhön , at the end of a popular hiking trail north of Hilders. Built on a slope in front of the building, which was unfavorable from a defense point of view, it was probably only intended as a mansion or office from the start.

history

Although first mentioned in a document in 1214, the origins of the castle are much further back. The area around Hilders came around the year 914 through an exchange of goods from the Fulda monastery to Regenher von Weid, who probably built the first castle on the Auersberg. Around 1120 it was renovated or rebuilt in the style of a small knight's castle, presumably by the Hennebergers , who had meanwhile acquired the area, as a mansion for a younger brother or as an official residence for one of their bailiffs. After that, their history in this border area between several rival spiritual and secular rulers was extremely changeable.

In 1214 a gentleman von Nithardshusen (= Neidhartshausen) from the Henneberg family sold the complex to the Fulda monastery, which gave it to its own followers as a fief. In 1270 the castle was demonstrably owned by the von der Tann as a Fulda life .

After the Fulda abbot Bertho IV. And the Würzburg bishop Berthold II. Von Sternberg had reached an agreement to settle a feud about their border area that had been fought in 1282, Auersburg found itself in the possession of Würzburg in 1290 . (A Würzburg pastor had already been active in Hilders since 1255.) Soon afterwards, around 1325, the castle was bought back by the Hennebergers, who had been canons and burgraves of Würzburg until the middle of the 13th century. Count Berthold VII von Henneberg-Schleusingen, who was prince in 1310 , took advantage of the high debts of the bishopric, the disputes between the clergy and the Würzburg citizens, and the dispute between Hermann II. Hummel von Lichtenberg and Otto II. Von Wolfskeel about the bishopric about the castle however, left it to decline.

In 1342 Bishop Otto II von Wolfskeel bought back the castle and the Auersberg office, and Hilders became the seat of the Würzburg bailiff ( Hilders office ). Prince-Bishop Albrecht II of Hohenlohe had the dilapidated castle completely rebuilt as an official palace in 1354 in order to secure the border of his territory against the Hennebergers. In 1419 Johann II von Brunn , Prince-Bishop of Würzburg and Duke of Franconia, had to pledge the newly built Auersberg Castle to the von Eberstein brothers and the von der Tann family. This pledge was renewed in 1454. In 1477 this led to considerable disputes between the notorious Ebersteiners, who were notorious for feud, and the Lords von der Tann, which ultimately had to be settled by Prince-Bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg .

During the Palatinate Peasants' War , the inner buildings were set on fire and destroyed by peasants passing through in the week from April 17th to 25th, 1525. The castle was only poorly repaired and was only partially habitable afterwards. It was not until 1579 that Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn had the habitable part repaired again. At the same time, the gentlemen von der Tann lost their share in the office and central court, but retained the hunting and fishing rights in the Auersberg office as tenants. However, only six years later, in 1585, the official seat was moved to Hilders. During the Thirty Years War , the decaying castle served the locals several times as a place of refuge.

In 1686 the remaining inner buildings were demolished and the complex was practically used as a quarry. Only the surrounding walls remained. Around 1790, the outer wall was also torn down in order to obtain building material for new buildings such as the parish church in Hilders. The fields and meadows laid out in front of and behind the castle since 1722 were abandoned and forested.

In 1803 the Auersberg ruins and the Hilders district came to Bavaria as part of the secularization . In 1848 the royal Bavarian government banned the further removal of stones. The entrance was uncovered and the front part of the interior cleared of rubble. The first castle festival was celebrated in the tidy ruin. Further clean-up work began in 1865.

After the war of German unification, the Hilders area with the Auersberg castle ruins came to Prussia in 1867.

From 1876 onwards, clean-up and maintenance work was carried out seriously and systematically by members of the Rhön Club (Hilders / Tann section). The first repairs to the masonry were also carried out in this year. On June 24, 1879, the restored entrance, a wooden observation tower and access to the rest of an old vaulted cellar and the inner castle were inaugurated. Other major repairs were carried out in 1914, 1932 and 1940, and between 1957 and 1969. The wooden observation tower from 1879 was replaced by a massive staircase, missing masonry was added and the wall was grouted. In 2007 and 2008 the wall was renovated by the State of Hesse, the observation tower from 1969 was completely rebuilt.

investment

Of the polygonal ruins, only the surrounding wall with its loopholes on the attack side remained. The eastern side of the attack is separated from the slope by a neck ditch . A dungeon had the castle may never, and only one tower rest on the access side of the castle is still preserved. Except for a basement, all other buildings have disappeared. Remnants of the wall and the ditch can still be seen. Inside the castle there is a memorial to the Roman poet Julius Türck.

Say

There are various legends about the Auersburg, such as the ghost of the Auersburg and that of the last Auersbergers .

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 204.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 181-183.

Web links

Commons : Ruine Auersburg (Rhön)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/deutschland/hessen/dieletztauersberge.html