Falkenstein ruins (Schramberg)

Falkenstein ruins
Upper Falkenstein ruins in February 2008
Creation time :	around 1150
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Free nobles
Place:	Schramberg
Geographical location	48 ° 12 '46.5 "  N , 8 ° 22' 51"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '46.5 "  N , 8 ° 22' 51"  E

The Falkenstein ruin is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the Berneck Valley in the south of Schramberg in the Rottweil district in Baden-Württemberg . It is considered to be the oldest castle in the Black Forest .

history

A local noble family from the village of Kappel near today's Villingen-Schwenningen probably built the castle here in the 11th century. It was first mentioned in 1030, when Duke Ernst von Swabia , who was considered a rebel and enemy of the Reich, fled to a certain castle called Falchenstein . He and his comrade in arms and friend Werner von Kyburg died on August 17, 1030 in a battle near the castle.

In 1250 the Lords of Falkenstein bought the neighboring Ramstein Castle .

At the beginning of the 14th century, the Falkenstein family split into the lines Falkenstein on Falkenstein and Falkenstein on Ramstein .

The Lords of Falkenstein had a strong influence in the Middle Ages as abbots, canons and canons in Strasbourg and in the monasteries of St. Georgen , Reichenau , St. Gallen and Einsiedeln .

Messrs. Jakob and Konrad von Falkenstein sold the castle and most of the possessions to Count Ludwig von Württemberg between 1444 and 1449 .

In the middle of the 15th century, Hans von Rechberg acquired the Falkenstein and Ramstein castles, had the Hohenschramberg castle built and with this founded the Schramberg rule. Falkenstein Castle was destroyed in 1491. In the 19th century the castle was bought and renovated by Commerce Councilor Arthur Junghans .

Today the castle ruins are looked after by the Falkenstein Citizens' Association.

Building description

Unterfalkenstein (outer bailey)

The castle consists of three parts, the outer bailey , a residential tower and the core bailey .

With the outer bailey, of which the wall remains, the castle was protected from the valley side. Between the outer bailey and the inner bailey there is a ditch through which an old staircase leads to the outer bailey. In the main castle, the remains of the palace can be easily seen.

The Falkensteiner Chapel

Falkensteiner Chapel (in the background upper Falkenstein castle ruins)

The chapel is in the valley below the castle on the other side of the valley.

In 1275, the Diocese of Constance recorded the first documentary mention of a community of souls in Valkenstein. It was a separate church under the patronage of St. Erasmus, which belonged to the Lords of Falkenstein and von Ramstein.

In the course of the Thirty Years' War , the chapel was destroyed by fighting between Swedish and Württemberg troops in 1634. Reconstruction begins in 1713. In the middle of the 18th century the chapel was consecrated by the suffragan bishop Johann von Fugger from Constance. Until 1787 the chapel belonged to the parish Lauterbach and is a locally important place of pilgrimage .

From 1860–1863 a family crypt was laid out in the Falkensteiner Chapel as a hereditary burial place for the Counts of Bissingen and Nippenburg .

The so-called Falkensteiner Lamentation is a lamentation group that is in the choir from 1515. It is a late Gothic work by the sculptor Conrad Rötlin from the former imperial city of Rottweil . It is considered to be one of the most beautiful lamentation groups in southern Germany .

literature

• Bernhard Rüth, Dorothee Ade, Cajetan Schaub (Ed.): Aristocratic seats between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb . Kommissionsverlag Belser, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-7630-2687-6 , pp. 41–44.
• Arthur Hauptmann : Castles then and now - castles and castle ruins in southern Baden and neighboring areas . Verlag Südkurier, Konstanz 1984, ISBN 3-87799-040-1 , pp. 140-144.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard Rüth, Dorothee Ade, Cajetan Schaub (ed.): Seats of the nobility between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb , p. 41