Gutenfels ruins

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Gutenfels ruins
View of the tower rock with remains of the wall

View of the tower rock with remains of the wall

Creation time : 1220 to 1250
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Place: Bubendorf
Geographical location 47 ° 25 '21 "  N , 7 ° 43' 36.7"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 25 '21 "  N , 7 ° 43' 36.7"  E ; CH1903:  621.75 thousand  /  two hundred and fifty-two thousand four hundred and fifty
Height: 480  m above sea level M.
Gutenfels ruins (Canton of Basel-Country)
Gutenfels ruins

The Gutenfels ruins are located in the Swiss municipality of Bubendorf in the canton of Basel-Landschaft .

location

The ruins of the Höhenburg are clearly visible in the Fluebachtal , a side valley of the rear Frenke on the road between Bubendorf and Arboldswil . It is located at 480  m above sea level. M. on a free-standing rock below (north) the mouth of the Arxhofbach in the Fluebach. The ruin can be easily reached, as a bridge crosses the Fluebach in the immediate vicinity and a forest path leads past the castle rock to the north and east. It can be reached on foot in around an hour from Bad Bubendorf train station.

investment

The complex of Gutenfels Castle can roughly be described as a triangle. On the north-west side, the castle is protected by vertical walls of the rock, while on the east and south side natural neck trenches , created by rock movements and erosion by the Arxhofbach, separate the complex from the neighboring hills.

Today's access in the southeast of the castle rock (from the forest path or rest area) probably corresponds to the original access to Gutenfels Castle. Climb to the footpath to the ruin on the hewn rock steps and at the site of the gatehouse (south of the steps) over the two-stage structure of the castle rock is clearly visible: The bailey was on an artificially leveled rocky terrace above it which was the main castle on a rocky hump. The castle gate, which was only the width of today's door and could hardly be passed by horses, led to the terrace of the outer bailey. Immediately after the gate was the entrance to the main castle, which was on the upper plateau.

The main castle consisted of a rectangular residential tower measuring around 11 by 12 meters with massive walls 2.5 meters thick. A good part of the foundations of this residential tower were carved into the rock. The tower, the height of which was hardly more than 15 meters due to the relatively poor masonry, was probably covered with a pent roof, as was customary in this area at the time. The residential tower was heated, tiles from a built-in stove were found during the excavations. A small building was built to the west of the residential tower, the function of which cannot be determined due to the lack of remains. Possibly it was also the foundation for wooden superstructures (stairs).

On the lower plateau there are remains of the Bering wall with a thickness of around 1.20 meters. Traces of a building over the outer bailey - at least up to 25 meters long and 15 meters wide - are present: A rectangular, mortared section of floor was exposed, which was probably created for a storage room. During the excavations, no remains of wooden structures were discovered, but these are not to be expected on solid rock and after such a long time (destruction of the castle in 1356).

South of the climb and east of the ring of the outer bailey was a gatehouse . This was listed with a wall thickness of approximately 1.30 meters and had a clear width of its irregular floor plan of approximately 2.5 to 4 meters. Shards, bone fragments and a layer of burn were found within the ground plan .

At the forest path or rest area east of the castle there is a relatively flat place. The soundings showed, however, that there were no economic buildings on this square. It must therefore be assumed that the castle courtyard was somewhere in the Fluebachtal, possibly on the site of a current farm. A “Hof Gutenfels” is mentioned at least in later chronicles .

Although the water supply is one of the central elements of a fortress, no cistern could be detected. This is probably because a small stream from the Arxhof runs directly past the facility and water could be brought into the castle from there. In the event of a military emergency, the tower's roof water was perhaps collected in wooden vessels.

The castle rock itself is clearly divided into two layers. The lower rock is harder and was not significantly removed by the Arxhofbach. The upper rock is soft and crumbly. Halfway up the entire system, between these layers, an accessible ledge leads around the rock on the northwest side. There are three caves on this ledge, which were washed out of the soft upper rock by the stream. Two of these have been visibly expanded; its use at the time of the castle is unclear. From the middle of the three caves - thanks to an artificial extension - it was possible to get to the so-called window in the hump of the core castle: This passage could have served as an escape route. In view of the many stories about secret passages and escape tunnels from castles, this would be one of the few existing installations. Tales are still told today that it was possible to enter a large vault in the rock from these caves. However, the existence of such a vault could not be proven.

history

Castle courtyard, in the foreground the rubble of the collapsed tower

The founding of the castle by the Lords of Eptingen is estimated - based on the ceramic finds - to be between 1220 and 1250. The first documentary mention of Guotenuelse Castle did not take place until 1303, when Peter von Eptingen attested to documents with this nickname (and in 1310 as Mr. Peter von Gutenfels ) in Rheinfelden. During this time, the Eptingers held the Gutenfels as a fiefdom from the Frohburgers .

After Peter von Gutenfels died in 1325, the castle was withdrawn as a settled fiefdom from Count Johans (Johannes von Frohburg) from Frohburg and pledged to his father-in-law Thuringia von Ramstein . According to the find material and a clear layer of fire, he had given up the castle: It was completely destroyed in the Basel earthquake and was not rebuilt. The lack of keys, gate fittings and similar parts in the finds suggests that the castle had been abandoned before, but since the excavations were based on soundings, this is not certain. Despite the destruction, it was bought by Hans and Ulrich von Eptingen in 1392 - now as their own property. A castle was an inseparable part of goods and rights, which promised an economic advantage despite the destroyed castle complex.

In 1411 the castle ruins (and the associated goods and rights) were sold by the Eptingians to the city of Basel , which set up a customs in the Talenge (this probably means the Reigoldswilertal and not the Fluebach valley, in which there was hardly any traffic).

A private, unprofessional and undocumented excavation was carried out in 1936 by Hans Martin together with a helper: After all, the discovered finds were handed over to the Canton Museum Basel-Landschaft in 1938. In May 1961 Karl Heid explored the castle and partially excavated it. In 1962 he then exposed the entire floor plan of the complex (including parts that Hans Martin had fortunately overlooked) and attempted a reconstruction and dating. A re-excavation followed from 1966 to 1969, which did not bring any new findings, but was able to clarify numerous details. Found objects from these excavations were numerous pottery shards, stove tiles, relief tiles, a few metal objects like horseshoes, nails and a Gertel , but in addition also a piece of a belt ornament made of copper and a finely crafted, gold-plated belt buckle copper heart shaped with two horses' heads and further processed architecture parts Sandstone (door or window frames). These finds show that Gutenfels Castle was small, but that its inhabitants enjoyed a very high standard for the times.

Since 2010, the ruins have been looked after by private individuals in consultation with the community of Bubendorf and the Office for Archeology of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft in order to prevent them from becoming overgrown and to preserve them as a complex.

literature

  • Andrea Heeb Perrig: Liberated Ruin. Baslerstab August 31, 2010, p. 7.
  • Werner Meyer : castles A to Z - Castle lexicon of Regio. Published by the Castle Friends of both Basels on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. Klingental printing works, Basel 1981, p. 100.
  • Karl Heid: The Gutenfels Castle. In: Baselbieter Heimatbuch. No. 9. 1962, pp. 121-134.
  • Carl Roth: The castles and palaces of the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. (Volume 4a, p. 116.), Birkhäuser, Basel 1932.

Web links

See also

swell

  1. State Archives Basel-Landschaft: AA 1001 documents (PDF file / 19.3MB). P. 15, certificate 0033.
  2. State Archives Basel-Landschaft: AA 1001 documents (PDF file / 19.3MB). P. 41, certificate 0149.
  3. State Archives Basel-Landschaft: AA 1001 documents (PDF file / 19.3MB). P. 55, certificate 0214.
  4. ^ Archives of the Baselland archeology on the Gutenfels ruins