Göskon ruins
| Göskon ruins | ||
|---|---|---|
 Ruins of Göskon Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Göskon Castle Gösskon Castle Refuge Obergösgen Obergösgen Castle |
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| Creation time : | 9/10 Century: earthwork
10/11 Century: castle |
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| Castle type : | Erdburg | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Barons | |
| Place: | Obergösgen | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 22 '0.8 " N , 7 ° 57' 38.7" E | |
| Height: | 392 m above sea level M. | |
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The Göskon ruin was an earth castle ( earthwork with ramparts and tower) in the area of the municipality of Obergösgen in the Swiss canton of Solothurn . It is located between the villages of Obergösgen and Niedergösgen next to a canton road and the Aare Canal. The facility is difficult to see because the area is overgrown with bushes. Only the remains of earthworks and walls remain from the complex.
introduction
The establishment of the refuge can most likely be traced back to the Iron Age . Of the five refuges in the area, the one in Obergösgen is the only one that is located on the water, and therefore the only one of its kind in Switzerland.
The construction of the keep is likely to have taken place in the earliest times of castle building. The castle was the original seat of the Barons von Göskon. After the castle was built in Niedergösgen (1230), the family castle was sold. The nobles and knights of Rubiswyl , von Stoffeln and von Hallwyl are documented as the later owners of the castle in Obergösgen .
The castle was neither destroyed in the great earthquake in 1356 nor in the Gugler War in 1375, but demolished in 1471. The stones carried away for the construction of the Aarau city church .
Location and facility
The ruin is located at 392 m above sea level. M. at that time (before the correction of the Aare around 1870) sharply protruding " headland ", which was 20 m above the water directly on the Aare. This had completely washed away part of the eastern flank. This is proven by the ruined and unilaterally crashed castle ruins. Today, the correction of the Aare, which now flows further south, has eliminated the undercutting, and this abandoned arm of the Aare currently only forms a swamp area.
On the mountain side, the castle was originally protected by three ramparts and ditches. These were destroyed when the Aare Canal was built around 1914. The washing away by the Aare and the weathering of the underlay led over the centuries to the walls being deeply buried, so that the entire southern wall collapsed and the eastern side wall hung completely in the air. What is still preserved today resembles a mighty armchair with its sides and backrests (the three preserved walls).
The tower was subsequently built into the earthwork . The floor plan of the tower was square. The outer dimensions are 9 m, clear width 3 m, wall thickness also 3 m. The height of the preserved walls varies from 4 to 6 m. The foundations of the square tower, of which only the castle consisted, were originally placed on the solid layer of gravel. Due to the massive masonry, a 2 to 3-story tower is to be expected. Inside there was wall cladding made of tufa blocks from a water cistern.
The first investigations into the ruins began in 1903, and excavations and conservation (partial reconstruction) took place in 1986/1987. Accordingly, there was first an earthwork of the 9th / 10th. Century. Then came the first fortification with a tower, which was built after 1200. Bronze Age ceramics and some Roman finds are also found in the finds. Around 1954 a Neolithic arrowhead was found near the ruins . During the construction of the new road, which passes close to the refuge and bridges the Stegbach with a 13 m high filling, one came across some early Germanic graves on the other side of the Stegbach, in the protruding plateau.
Göskon Castle was an early medieval keep. It is known that the first castles consisted only of a residential tower , and since the small castle hill did not allow a later expansion of the castle, we have here one of the few castles that remained in the simple uranium plant or was abandoned early.
About 3 km north-west is the Castle Wartenfels ( Lostorf ), about 3 km east of Castle Falkenstein ( Niedergösgen ), and also approximately 3 km southwest of the Säli the New Wartburg (also Sälischlössli called) on the territory of the municipality Starrkirch-Wil at Olten , to name just a few of the palaces, castles and ruins in the vicinity.
history
Obergösgen Castle is one of the oldest in the area. Its structure as a simple keep , placed under the protection of the refuge walls, could reach back to Carolingian times . Among the owners of vassal castles of the Frohburgs - such as Wartenfels Castle , Hagberg and Wartburg near Olten , Aarburg , Hägendorf - the Free von Göskon actually appear almost the earliest (1161, Ifenthal 1145). It is obvious that mastering the waterway on the Aare played a role in the construction of the castle. The beach rights on the Aare, known as the Grundrühre , as well as the escort of ships on the Aare were specifically mentioned as property of the Göskon rulers when they were sold in 1458.
Very little has been written about the history of the castle. Johann Rudolf Rahn mentions the demolition of the castle in the medieval art monuments of the canton of Solothurn and notes that Göskon Castle was never mentioned in a document. In contrast, Walther Merz published an important document from the Aargau State Archives in 1380 in the Anzeiger für Schweizerische Altertumskunde 1899, p. 31, which names the castle and its possessions.
owner
Even if no document mentions the castle in Obergösgen as the property of the Barons von Gösskon, it is certain that the castle was the original family seat of this dynasty . The name Gösskon ( Cozinchova, Gozequovon, Gozekon, Gosincon, Goezchon, Goessikon etc.) can originally only have belonged to the castle and the current village of Obergösgen , because Niedergösgen , the later seat of the family, was called before and long after it was built the local castle always Bötzach. In 1229 Gerhard I. von Gösskon asked the Schönenwerd Abbey for permission to build a castle on the Bötzach rock in the abbey area.
In the files of the Schönenwerd Monastery (Book of the Dead, Zinsrodel etc.), Bötzach is still mentioned well into the 14th century. B. the Stiftshof zu Bötzach . In 1899 the castle there was called by both names: "Burg und Burgstall zu Bötzach, which one speaks of Niedergösskon". Verena von Bötzach appears among the nuns of the Schännis monastery in Aarau in 1367. After the construction of the castle in Bötzach , the name of the owner was gradually transferred to the new castle and, in contrast to the previous family castle, was called Niedergösgen Castle , as it was later called Falkenstein Castle after 1383 , after the transition to this family.
The church sentence of Obergösgen also speaks for the ancestral castle in Obergösgen , which is always specifically mentioned in documents as the property of those of Gösskon. Niedergösgen, however, did not have a village church and remained in the church in Stüsslingen until recently (1838) . The church sentence of Obergösgen must have belonged to the Free von Gösskon long before 1230, when they were granted the manorial rights in Obergösgen.
In the same way, the blood court remained in Obergösgen, even under the rule of Solothurn. The gallows probably stood in the Gilgenhölzli (Galgenhölzli), opposite the castle. The Free von Gösskon did not appear in a document until the 12th century. The following must also have lived at Gösskon Castle:
- Bernerus de Gozequovon , who appears as a witness among the free in 1161
- Mr. Erhart of Göschon and sin sün G. and H. , which in Urbar appear from St. Urban 1224th
- Gerhart I, who appears in 1226 as lord and among the free and also in 1227 as Dominus de Gozekofen .
Walther Merz writes about the exact documentary evidence:
«This Gerhart I is the builder of Niedergösgen Castle, one of the few castles whose construction is precisely dated (1229–1230). As a friend of Rudolf von Habsburg, he seems to have played an important role in his feud and is threatened with the papal ban after the attack on the Magdalenenkloster in Basel (1254). Soon after the castle was built in Niedergösgen, he was enfeoffed with the Kastvogtei of the Werd monastery . A well-rounded possession of the Gösskoner is not yet verifiable at the time of Gerhart I (the Hof zu Niedergösgen and zu Stüsslingen still belong to the monastery). In addition to Obergösgen, where he was the landlord, he seems to have held individual estates far and wide, after sales and donations etc. from his next successors, both in Aargau ( Seon , Suhr , Reitnau , Muhen etc.) and in Sissgau ( Gelterkinden ) and especially in the right bank Werder office, which still belongs to the Aargau, was under the administration of Austrian officials. According to a note in the Solothurner Wochenblatt (1821, p. 377) he was the owner of the Kastvogtei Olsberg and thus a vassal of the Counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg . "
This results in a peculiar double position: the ancestral castle and the new castle in Bötzach are located in the Landgraviate of Buchsgau , and the Gösskoners actually appear as vassals of the Froburgers . As castvogt of Olsberg and Werd, however, Gerhart I is also a vassal of the Habsburgs and seems to have had a much closer relationship with them. As the Gösskoner owned both sides, the Aare was gradually eliminated as the border between Buchsgau and Aargau . Around 1394 z. B. as belonging to the office Werd in the Habsburg Urbar , II, p. 747, the villages Werd, Gretzenbach , Walterswyler , Tennikon , Tullikon , Obern-Gösskon , Nidern-Gösskon and Stüsslingen named. Around 1380 the same area was named as the pledge of the Dukes Leopold and Albrecht das Ampt ze Göskon . By the time Solothurn bought the Gösskon rule in 1458, it had been enlarged , mainly by the Falkensteiners , to include Winznau , Trimbach , Ifenthal , Erlinsbach , Kölliken , Savenwil and Uerkheim .
These hints show that for Baron Gerhart I, already wealthy and influential, the simple Bergfrid in Obergösgen had become too cramped and uncomfortable. Reconstruction and expansion did not allow the peculiar location of the same. The strong, splendidly situated, cozy castle on the rocky promontory at Bötzach ( Niedergösgen ), on the other hand, was able to satisfy his demands.
Inheritance
The assumption that the abandoned ancestral castle in Obergösgen has now been abandoned to decay turns out to be a mistake, because the documents mentioned at the beginning prove that the castle was still inhabited 150 years later.
Knight Rudolf von Hallwyl, the great-grandfather of the hero von Murten, and knight Konrad von Stopfein discussed the trousseau of their children, Rudolf von Hallwyl and Anna von Stoffeln, in a document in 1373. Thereafter, the fiefs of Rubischwyl, today's Rupperswil near Aarau, fell to Rudolf von Hallwyl as a marriage tax . These fiefs, however, formed the castle at Obergösgen; Estates, court, twing, spell, people and church set to Ober-Entfeiden; the estates, court, Twing, Bann and people from Hirzstall, Otwissingen and Lempach, the Hof zu Schwabenstall and the Burgstall zu Lenzburg. Rudolf had to give his father-in-law 600 florins , those of Trostburg and Rinach 300 florins . to pay. For this, father Rudolf gave him 500 florins and his mother Lisa Münch 400 florins .
Konrad von Stoffeln inherited the castle in Obergösgen including the goods mentioned above from his sister son Johann von Rubischwyl.
In the year 1380, July 19, Mrs. Anna von Stoffeln and her husband, Rudolf von Hallwyl, appeared with his father on the court day under the Sarbach in Lenzburg. The wife Anna asked the court that Heinrich Schultheiss zu Lenzburg was chairing it in place of Duke Leopolds, to declare the community of property with her husband for the above fiefs, which also happened. She referred to the above marriage speech and named the castle of Obern-Gözkon, court, Twing, Banne, people and goods of Ober-Entfelden, Othmarsingen, Hirschthal and Leimbach (four Aargau villages) as her married property. The other goods mentioned above no longer appear.
Thus three owners of the castle in Obergösgen are subsequently documented, Konrad von Stoffeln and Rudolf von Hallwyl. Egidius von Rubiswile, father of Johann von Rubischwyl and husband of Margarete von Stoffeln, can be assumed as the owner, perhaps also other ancestors.
An important circumstance was that among the goods of the Rubiswilers, the marriage tax of Anna von Stoffeln, apart from the castle in Obergösgen, no goods in the Gösgen rule are mentioned. The whole, fairly significant property is located in Aargau, not far from Rubiswyl . Also important is the fact that there is no real castle in Rubiswyl itself. Presumably the lords of Rubiswyl bought the abandoned castle in Obergösgen as their residence from the Gösskonern people.
But that the heir of the castle, Rudolf von Hallwyl, lived in it for a long time seems very questionable. In 1379, one year before he was accepted as a marital partner in the possession of the castle, he bought Neu-Wartburg Castle ( Sälischlössli near Olten) from Wernher von Büttikon. The family remained in its possession until 1539, while all documents about the castle in Obergösgen are now silent. It is not known how the ancestral castle fell back to the rule of Göskon. It is not specifically mentioned in the purchase letter of 1458, but it must have come to Solothurn with the rule, because in 1471, 13 years after Solothurn bought the Gösgen rule, the ruins were given away by the Solothurn people to Aarau for demolition and the stones by raft led to Aarau to build the city church. Solothurn also gave some relics , vertebrae and an arm of St. Mauritius along with 37 other particles of bodies from the Theban Legion .
Follow-up story
The remaining, buried foundation walls have gradually fallen into the depths since then. The ruins hidden in the bushes were forgotten, so that the Walser map of the canton of Solothurn from 1766 no longer even knows its name and mentions it as Hagnau Castle (from the hamlet on the other side of the Aare).
legend
In contrast, the folk tale has preserved the memory of a former resident of the castle. On a white horse, in green hunter's costume , the so-called Schlossgrüen is supposed to ride through his property at night, up to the Lostorf border, where the fields are still called “im Zwing” today, then down to the ferry on the Aare, to the hamlet of Schachen, which still belongs to Obergösgen cross without paying the ferry fee. He is said to have met many nocturnal hikers on the previously lonely, probably somewhat eerie path past the castle. This legend of the castle green does not seem to be one of the generally widespread castle legends , but rather, with its more pronounced local character, may indicate a certain personality.
Video clip
swell
- ETH Library : Refugium and Obergösgen Castle, by A. Furrer, Schönenwerd.
- Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology of the Canton of Solothurn
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The three larger refuges in Niederamt are Effenberg, Obergösgen and Dickenbännli near Olten, the other two very small refuges are the one on the Hennenbühl (Rothacker municipality) and the one in the forest between Kölliken and Weid: Anzeiger für Schweizerische Altertumskunde , Volume 12/1910, Issue 4.
- ↑ Die Schlosskirche ( Memento of the original from September 27, 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.
- ↑ Solothurner Wochenblatt , 1821, p. 371.
- ↑ Aarau Chronicle by Schmid-Hagnauer
- ↑ erroneously from 'P. A. Schmid is referred to as pastor of Obergösgen in Church Records of the Canton of Solothurn .
- ↑ Urkundio IL, p. 114
- ↑ Aargovia, VI, p. 158
- ↑ The main content of the document is published in the Anzeiger für Altertumskunde , 1899, p. 31 by Walther Merz , who draws attention to its importance for legal history. About the von Stoffeln, who owned three castles in the Hegau, see Rüeger: Schaffhauser Chronik , IL, p. 973, about the von Hallwyl and Rubischwyl Walther Merz: Die Burganlagen und Wehrbauten des Aargau , p. 222 u. 467.
- ↑ Document from 1333, Oct. 12, Baden, Aarau State Archives, Königsfelden
- ↑ Jahrzeitbuch Aarau, Aarauer Chronik von Fisch, Stadtrechte II, p. 160 and Oelhafen, p. 59
