Spiegelberg ruins (Freiberge)

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The ruined Spiegelberg is located on the rugged ridge of the 1,083 m high rocky ridge Arête of Sommêtres above the valley of the Doubs in the free mountains about 2.5 km southwest of Muriaux in the municipality and about 4.5 km southwest of Saignelégier in the district of Franches-Montagnes of the Canton of Jura in Switzerland .

location

View of the Doubs river from the rock below the Spiegelberg ruins (October 2008)

The summit ridge of the wooded Mont Miroir ( Spiegelberg ) is a narrow rocky ridge running in an east-west direction. This ridge, called Les Sommêtres , falls in the north to the deep forest gorge near Muriaux and the Le Theusseret power station on the Doubs. The south side is even steeper and slopes down to a ravine opening towards the Doubs. On the jagged and only a few dozen meters wide ridge, a footpath leads from Muriaux to the Arête des Sommêtres , where you can reach the Spiegelberg castle ruins via a staircase carved into the rock.

Today the ruin is a destination for mountain hikers and nature lovers. The view of the canyon-like narrow valley of the Doubs, the Jura and the French high plateau of Maîche, is impressive. A small tourist hostel is located directly below the castle ruins.

The attachment

The actual castle complex was almost 200 m long, but only 20–30 m wide. On the ridge east of the castle, deep cuts had been dug in the ridge crest 300 m and 250 m away, which could only be crossed by retractable wooden walkways. Behind the second ditch was a small place where horses could be parked. Then it went up a narrow, 35 m long staircase carved into the rock. There was a winding path that crossed another rock ditch with a drawbridge . A second, roughly 55 m long, irregularly carved steep staircase ended in front of the castle gate with the watchtower. Behind the gate there was a small courtyard and two residential and farm buildings. This was followed by a step terrace (garden) and the kitchen building, then the cistern . After all, you came to a small esplanade , to the top from where the access through another staircase by a moat surrounded the small castle with the once dungeon was possible.

history

The castle was probably built in the 13th century by Conon de Pleujouse . In 1315 at the latest it was the seat of the noble family Mireval (German: Spiegelberg), first mentioned in that year with Conon (also Cuenin) de Mireval († 1320) and wealthy in Elsgau . Soon afterwards, the castle was owned by the Duchy of Basel , and the lords of Spiegelberg and Muriaux became its feudal lords . How this happened is unclear, but the diocese had a donation from King Rudolf III. of Burgundy the sovereign sovereignty over the plateau of Franches-Montagnes (German: Freiberge) probably already since the year 999. The Lords of Spiegelberg then resided as Basel bailiffs at their ancestral castle until they moved to Solothurn in the 15th century , where they moved in 1541 died out in the male line.

The castle remained in the possession of the Principality of Basel until 1792 and was the seat of the governor of the Freiberge rule from the 14th to the 17th centuries. The small village of Muriaux developed below the castle around 1300.

The Basel Prince-Bishop Jean III. de Vienne (1365-1382) mortgaged the castle in 1382 to his cousin, the Admiral Jean de Vienne (1341-1396). His successor, Imer von Ramstein (1382-1391), pledged it in 1384, together with Porrentruy (German: Pruntrut) and Chauvilliers (German: Kallenberg), for 4,000 guilders to the city council of Basel and used the money to solve the admiral's pledge out. In 1388 Bishop Imer pledged the castle with the associated lordship and all rights for 7500 francs to Thiebaut VIII of Neuchâtel-en-Bourgogne . Humbrecht von Neuchâtel, Prince-Bishop from 1395 to 1418, left the castle and rule to his nephew Thiebaut. When Thiebaut refused to surrender it in 1424, Prince-Bishop Johann IV von Fleckenstein had the castle occupied by force of arms, as did the other castles, Roche-d'Or (German: Goldenfels), Saint-Ursanne (German: German: Sankt Ursitz) and Pleujouse (German: Blitzhausen, Plützhausen). Thiebaut then devastated Basel territory in a feud that lasted until 1425, but in 1426 concluded a peace brokered by a third party. The castle and dominion Spiegelberg as well as Saint-Ursanne and Chauvilliers remained in the possession of the prince-bishopric, and Thiebaut received 10,000 guilders. Since the diocese did not have this sum, the bishop had to pledge his new acquisitions to the city of Basel. Johann IV von Fleckenstein put a castellan on the castle, who administered the dominion of Freiberg.

During the Thirty Years War the castle was attacked and occupied by Swedish troops in 1636, and then by French troops. It was so devastated that it was abandoned and then fell into ruin. The seat of the bailiff was moved to Saignelégier (German: Sankt Leodegar).

At the time of the French Revolution (1789 to 1799), revolutionary citizens of Le Noirmont (German: Schwarzenberg), Muriaux and Saignelégier destroyed the remains of the castle in order to "destroy any trace of tyranny". What was left of the walls was gradually torn down by walkers and thrown down the mountain.

In 1840 the remains of a square tower and another building about 20 m long and 5 or 6 m wide were mentioned. The only way to get there was through wooden walkways that had been placed over the artificially created cuts in the ridge on the east side. Then you came to a very narrow path that led on a rock ledge over an abyss. The path ended with stairs that were very irregularly dug into the rock up to the entrance of the castle. You could still see the incisions of this entrance, but the top, the keystone formed from a large rock, had been thrown into the abyss. On the western side one could also see the remains of the cellars, which were also carved into the rock.

It was not until the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that the first serious efforts were made to protect the remains of the ruins and make them accessible to hikers, under the leadership of the then pastor of Le Noirmont. A footpath was laid, some remains of the wall were reinforced and the most dangerous places were secured with iron railings.

literature

  • Abbe A. Daucourt: Histoire de la Seigneurie de Spiegelberg ou des Franclies Montagnes. Porrentruy, 1902.
  • Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de géographie (editors): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 5: Switzerland - Tavetsch . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1908, p. 649, keyword Spiegelberg or Mont Miroir   ( scan of the lexicon page ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Other forms of the name were Muriaux, Mervaux, Merveaux, Murival, Mirival and Murval.
  2. ^ A Neuchâtel historian, Pastor Boyve, said, without citing his sources, that the Freiberg area was included in the donation made to the Bishop of Basel by Rudolph III. was made in 999 and that the delimitation of the area concerned was carried out in 1002. ( Jura: Schloss Spiegelberg or Muriaux )
  3. ↑ Thibault VIII. De Neuchâtel-Urtière (* 1387; † 1455), (also Thiebaud, Tiebaut, Diebald), Lord of Neuchâtel and of Châtel-sur-Moselle , Grand Master of France , Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
  4. ↑ Josephus Schneller: The Bishops of Basel: A chronological Nekrolog , Blunschi, Zug, 1830, p. 48

Coordinates: 47 ° 14 '12.1 "  N , 6 ° 57' 31.3"  E ; CH1903:  563660  /  231865