Hasenburg ruins (Grimmenstein)
| Hasenburg ruins | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alternative name (s): | Castrum de Diemtigen, Diemtigen Castle, Grimmenstein Castle, Berghubel (ob Styg) | |
| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | few remains of the wall | |
| Standing position : | Barons | |
| Place: | Diemtigen | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 39 '17.3 " N , 7 ° 34' 6" E | |
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The ruins of Hasenburg (also called Burg Grimmenstein or Burg Diemtigen ) are the ruins of a hilltop castle in the municipality of Diemtigen in what is now the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district of the canton of Bern in Switzerland . In the Middle Ages, the castle was the center of power over the Diemtigtal .
history
The Hasenburg is first mentioned in 1257. At that time, Heinrich I von Raron , the bishop of Sion , left the Diemtigen castle to Count Hartmann von Kyburg . The document mentions that he had acquired this castle from the Barons von Strättligen . Those are to be understood as the founders of the castle and the rulership of the valley in connection with the state development in the Diemtigtal. From 1307 the barons of Weissenburg are documented as owners of the Diemtigen castle and rule. However, the rule was exercised by a castellan from the Weissenburgers, as reported in a document from 1310 in which Burkhard von Balm is named as castellan von Diemtigen. In the period from 1328 to 1359 the noblemen Peter and Johannes von Grimmenstein appear in the Thun area . It is not clear whether they were castellans of Grimmenstein (Diemtigen) and therefore called themselves that, or whether they came to Thun from the Grimmenstein Castle of the same name in Oberaargau.
Under the barons of Weissenburg, Diemtigen got into the Weissenburg war against the city of Bern, which was disastrous for the barons . The Diemtigen Castle suffered no traditional damage, but the Diemtigen rule may have suffered from the raids of the victorious Bernese through the Lower Simmental. After the capitulation of the Weissenburgers in 1337, Bern made the money available for the barons' debts incurred during the war and in 1344 received, among other things, Diemtigen Castle as a pledge for 13 years. After Baron Johann II von Weissenburg was able to regain the rule, he left it to his sister Katharina, who was married to Thuringia I von Brandis . In 1353 the latter had to pledge the rule again temporarily to Bern due to high debts.
In 1368, Johann II, the last Baron von Weissenburg, died childless. His nephew Thuringia II von Brandis inherits his property in Lower Simmental, since his father had also died. Katharina von Brandis lived in her widow's residence in Diemtigen until her death . As a result, Mangold von Brandis lived in Diemtigen Castle until he had to cede half of the rule to the Lords of Scharnachtal in 1378 in a dispute in which the city of Bern intervened . Then the rule was administered by a joint bailiff of the two parties. In 1437 Wolfhard the Elder von Brandis sold his share in the Diemtigen and Wimmis lords for 1500 Rhenish gold guilders to Franz von Scharnachtal. Two years later he sold the entire rule to the city of Bern, which incorporated it into the Lower Simmental Castle. By 1450 at the latest, the castle was no longer inhabited, was left to decay and used as a quarry .
construction
The castle stood in an exposed location north of the village of Diemtigen. Access was from the south, where there was a striking keep . Behind it, a large, pointed northward tapered yard with extended Palas and farm buildings.
literature
- Erich Liechti: Castles, palaces and ruins in the Simmental. Wimmis 2006
- Albert Jahn: The canton of Bern, German part, described in antiquarian and topographical terms, with a list of the Helvetian and Roman antiquities and with reference to the oldest knighthood and church affairs, to the documented place names and the folk tales , Bern and Zurich 1850, p. 290 ff .
- Wilhelm Wellauer: News about controversial old castles in the Nidersimmental. In: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde , Vol. 2, Bern 1940, pp. 21–27
Web links
- Anne-Marie Dubler : Diemtigen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- The history of Diemtigen on www.diemtigtal.ch
- The Diemtigburgen website of the Diemtigen community
Individual evidence
- ^ Arbitration court between Burkhard von Balm and the Därstetten monastery , document in the Bern State Archives.
- ^ Peter von Grimmenstein , one of seven documents in the Bern State Archives.