Forchtenberg ruins

Forchtenberg ruins
Forchtenberg ruins (2008)
Creation time :	1210-1234
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Place:	Forchtenberg
Geographical location	49 ° 17 '16.5 "  N , 9 ° 33' 54.4"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '16.5 "  N , 9 ° 33' 54.4"  E

The Forchtenberg ruins are the ruins of a medieval hilltop castle near Forchtenberg in the Hohenlohe district in northern Baden-Württemberg .

history

The builder of the castle is considered to be Konrad von Dürn , who married Mechthild, a daughter of the last Count von Lauffen Boppo (V.), in 1210 (according to another source: around 1216/17) . With Boppo's death 1216–1219, Konrad came into the possession of the place Wülfingen am Kocher near the mouth of the copper , and he also received other property in the surrounding area.

To consolidate his property, Konrad built the castle on a mountain spur on the opposite bank of the Kocher, which was completed by 1234. In connection with the construction of the castle, there is also the foundation of the town of Forchtenberg located below the castle and first mentioned in 1298, in whose favor the older Wülfingen was abandoned. The castle and town were further expanded under Konrad's descendants and came to Kraft II von Hohenlohe shortly before the childless death of Konrad's grandson Ruprecht in 1323. The Hohenlohe family used the 92 meter long and up to 50 meter wide castle only temporarily as a residence (after 1367 for Ulrich von Hohenlohe for a short time after 1367) and as a widow's residence and then set up the seat of the Hohenlohe bailiffs and the storage facilities for the tithe there. During the Renaissance , the castle was expanded like a castle .

View into the large cellar, which was expanded after 1680

The facility was probably set on fire by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years War and largely destroyed. The official seat was then moved to the town of Forchtenberg, only the large vaulted cellar that had been preserved was expanded after 1680 and continued to be used to store the wine tithes. The tower still preserved today dates from the time of this cellar extension and was built with stones from the castle walls. In addition to the tower, there were once also fruit soils on the cellar.

The tower on the basement can be climbed

By 1800 the system was again in dire need of repair. In 1806 the Principality of Hohenlohe came to Württemberg through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , which also closed the Hohenlohe office in Forchtenberg. The necessary repairs were definitely not carried out, and in the end the Hohenlohe family lost all interest in the system and sold it to the court buyer Carl Müller for 33 guilders around 1850. In the period that followed, the owner changed several times, the facility was used as a quarry and was becoming increasingly dilapidated.

In 1929, the President of the Chamber, Kurt von Kleefeld, bought the facility and invested around 10,000 marks in its repair. Kleefeld intended to transfer the property to the city of Forchtenberg in a contract of inheritance after his death, but then emigrated due to his Jewish descent and died in 1934. The ruins came into the possession of a Mr. Schöppler from Esslingen. In 1937, the Forchtenberg master saddler Wilhelm Riehmann acquired the ruins and carried out further security measures. In the 1960s, the State Monuments Office supported safety measures on the south wall, which was in danger of collapsing.

In 1989 the city of Forchtenberg acquired the facility and carried out extensive renovation and security measures up to 1995 with financial support from the State Monuments Office in the amount of 1.3 million marks. The ruin has been open to the public since then and was used for various events. Since part of a wall broke off in July 2012, the castle had to be temporarily closed to visitors. As of February 2016, the facility is accessible again and the 11.5 meter high tower with its built-in metal staircase can be climbed again as an observation tower .

literature

• Alexander Antonow: Castles of southwest Germany in the 13th and 14th centuries - with special consideration of the shield wall . Konkordia Verlag, Bühl / Baden 1977, ISBN 3-7826-0040-1 , pp. 146-148.
• 700 years of the city of Forchtenberg . City of Forchtenberg, Forchtenberg 1998, OCLC 313517065 .

Web links

Commons : Ruine Forchtenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harald Drös: The eagle of the Heilbronn district - coat of arms of the Counts of Lauffen? In: Christhard Schrenk, Peter Wanner (Hrsg.): Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian history. Volume 37, (= Heilbronnica. 5; Sources and research on the history of the city of Heilbronn. 20). Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2013, p. 126. (online; PDF; 960 kB)
2. ^ Regina Koppenhöfer: Wall slips off the castle ruins. In: Hohenloher Zeitung. August 17, 2012, accessed December 23, 2012 . 
3. ^ Information from the Forchtenberg city administration dated February 2, 2016