Rifenstein ruin

Rifenstein ruin
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Reigoldswil
Geographical location	47 ° 24 '2.8 " N , 7 ° 42' 5.9" E Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '2.8 " N , 7 ° 42' 5.9" E ; CH1903: six hundred nineteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-five / 250030
Height:	610 m above sea level M.

The Rifenstein ruin is located near Reigoldswil in the Waldenburg district in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland .

location

The ruins of the Höhenburg are located between Reigoldswil and Titterten at 610 m on a ledge on the southern slope of the Rifenstein ( 723 m ).

investment

The shape of the rock divides the ruin into three parts: the residential tower on the top of the rock, a walled terrace in the east and overbuilt gullies in the west.

Originally, at the entrance from the opposite slope, there was a bridge over a rock spur in front, which enabled access to the castle. A legend tells that once during a siege, the attacking warriors stormed over the bridge so numerous that it collapsed under the great burden. Although a legend - such a coup had to be carried out by the attacker at the time for economic reasons with only 5 to 20 people - the topic has a real core: the interest of the neighbors in the appropriation of such small goods was quite high (see below ).

If you go through the gate you come to the walled terrace. The wall follows the irregular line of the rock edge. In the lower southern part of the terrace there was very likely a cistern. Here the original wall has been almost completely destroyed, and what you can still see today has been rebuilt afterwards. The ascent to the residential tower from here is brand new. Originally there was only one connection to the built-up rock gullies at this point. The narrow path led over a walled up ramp around the rock outcrop and not over a bridge. On the overbuilt rock gullies you can find chiseled beam bearings and various parts of the wall, which come from a roofed wooden building complex.

From here it was originally possible to enter the residential tower via stairs. The tower forms an irregular square with a diameter of 11 to 16 meters and is surrounded by a 2 meter thick wall. The entrance to the tower was on the opposite side of today's entrance. Many large and unworked stones were used for the wall of the tower. On the tower it had a wooden structure with about three upper floors and a wooden roof.

history

The history of the castle and the Rifenstein family is still very unclear. The excavations should be continued in 2009 and 2010 in order to obtain more information and to preserve the ruin threatened by decay. The archaeological finds that have been discovered so far prove that the castle was used between around 1200 and 1350. In the written records, the castle and the knightly Rifenstein family are only rarely mentioned. B. in documents of the Schönthal monastery from the year 1145. The probability that this document is forged is quite high, because at that time - without a functioning legal system in today's sense - the use of manipulated documents was an essential instrument to gain further Acquire goods. If the rock on which today's Rifenstein stands had already been used for a fortress around or before 1200, this would have to correspond to a previous building that had disappeared; the remains of the wall still visible today cannot be dated before the 13th century.

The poor sources mentioned above suggest that the Rifenstein family owned little land - probably their own property cleared themselves - and was not very influential. There are several attempts by the nearby Ramsteiners to acquire goods and the rights associated with them in the Reigoldswilertal. Presumably they were successful in the case of Rifenstein or the Rifensteiners were even part of the Ramsteiners, because in 1394 Thuringia handed over the Rifenstein Castle and some of the rights still associated with it (e.g. the court of Reigoldswil and Lauwil) Duke Leopold of Austria and receives it back as a fief . This procedure corresponded to a procedure customary at the time to withdraw the goods and rights from the access of other sovereigns - in this case the Bishop of Basel .

There are only conjectures about the downfall of the Lords of Rifenstein:

One says that the knight of the castle never returned from a crusade. As a result, the family died out and the castle was left to decay. This tradition must be classified as very unlikely, because, as mentioned above, there was great interest from other noble families and the bishop in the Reigoldswilertal, so that the property would have been taken over immediately.
Another, much more likely possibility is that the castle was damaged in the Basel earthquake in 1356. The reconstruction was then no longer tackled either due to lack of funds from the owner or because the aristocratic interests were shifted in the direction of the city of Basel - the castle dying in the region was already in full swing at the time.

ruin

The sculptor Jakob Probst from Reigoldswiler wanted to buy the ruin and convert it into his studio and residence. But his uncle Leo Zehntner was the mayor at the time and was able to prevent Probst's plans. The ruin was first extensively renovated in the 1930s. From 2003, the Baselland archeology department developed a renovation concept for the owner, the Reigoldswil community. After the financing was secured, the ruins were cleared of vegetation and the walls were comprehensively renovated (nine tons of stones and 3,440 kilograms of mortar were required, which had to be brought to the construction site by helicopter). This means that the ruin (as of 2014) is accessible again.

literature

Werner Meyer : Castles from A to Z - Burgenlexikon der Regio . Published by the Castle Friends of both Basels on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. Klingental printing works, Basel 1981, pp. 124–125.

Individual evidence

^ [1] Archeology Baselland: Annual Report 2010, accessed on June 24, 2014

Web links

Castle world: Rifenstein Castle