Upper Baliken ruin

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Upper balikes
Tower remains

Tower remains

Creation time : around 1200
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Place: Forest ZH
Geographical location 47 ° 16 '26.9 "  N , 8 ° 53' 50.9"  O Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '26.9 "  N , 8 ° 53' 50.9"  E ; CH1903:  710381  /  two hundred thirty-six thousand nine hundred and forty
Height: 650  m above sea level M.
Upper Baliken ruins (Canton of Zurich)
Upper Baliken ruin

The Obere Baliken ruins are located below the former pilgrims' house "Zum alten Schwert" in the south of the Blattenbach near Wald in the Swiss canton of Zurich .

Along with Bernegg Castle, Baliken is an example of one of the clearing castles that were built in the 12th and 13th centuries in the region around the forest without ever gaining any historical significance. The ending of the name in -ikon (“at the courts of the people of X”) refers to an (expired) Alemannic settlement from the early Middle Ages.

investment

The ruins of the hill fort are at 650  m above sea level. M. on a round hill with a diameter of almost 30 meters.

During excavations in 1936, the remains of a pentagonal tower wall were discovered, which is unique for this region. The wall thickness is about 1.5 meters, one side is a good 5 meters long. Access was from the north via a wide moat , the entrance is assumed to be on the south side.

It could have been a residential tower covered by a wooden cliff . A stable could have been attached to the south of the tower. It is conceivable that it was surrounded by a curtain wall, even if no traces of it have survived.

history

View from the valley side

Since there are neither written evidence nor archaeological finds, it is not possible to determine exactly when the castle was built; a time around 1200 or a little earlier is assumed. The construction may have been related to the Way of St. James , which passes above the castle. The complex was abandoned or destroyed by the 15th century at the latest.

Under Baliken

The Unter Baliken facility stood about 800 meters southwest of Ober Baliken; directly northwest above the houses in the Grundtal on a hill between the railway and the road. It was surrounded by a double moat . No remains of the wall are visible today. Part of the northern foreland fell victim to the construction of the railway cut.

literature

  • Castle map of Switzerland. Edited by the Federal Office of Topography and the Swiss Castle Association, 2007 edition.
  • Hermann Fietz: The art monuments of the canton of Zurich, Vol. II: The districts of Bülach, Dielsdorf, Hinwil, Horgen and miles. Basel 1943
  • Werner Altorfer (Ed.): Around the Bachtel. Kunz-Druck, Wetzikon 1983.

Web links

Commons : Burg Baliken  - Collection of images, videos and audio files