Spielberg castle ruins

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Spielberg castle ruins
The castle complex with its Romanesque keep

The castle complex with its Romanesque keep

Alternative name (s): Spilberg
Creation time : 12th century
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: ruin
Place: Langenstein
Geographical location 48 ° 14 ′ 40 "  N , 14 ° 28 ′ 13"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 40 "  N , 14 ° 28 ′ 13"  E
Spielberg castle ruins (Upper Austria)
Spielberg castle ruins

The Spielberg castle ruins (also known as the Spilberg ruins ) are located around one kilometer southwest of Langenstein in the Perg district in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria .

location

Today in the municipality of Langenstein located ruin was once an important Wasserburg on an island in the Danube . Today it is located in a meadow landscape , the Schlossau , approx. 600 meters from the banks of the Danube.

Spielberg and the northern bank of the Danube, Matthäus Merian: Topographia Germaniae 1679

description

The stronghold has a 35 meter high Romanesque pinnacle tower and is surrounded by a 16 meter high wall. The castle complex covers an area of ​​around 7500 m 2 . The former water castle of Spielberg is still washed around by the Danube during floods.

history

Antiquity

A Roman watchtower as part of the Danube Limes is said to have stood on the site of the castle in ancient times . Numerous Roman gravestones salvaged from the structure of the castle ruins by a prisoner detachment from the Gusen I concentration camp in 1941/42 underscore the close historical connection to Roman times. The Danube port of the former Roman Danube Fleet ( classis Lauriacensis ) of the Lauriacum legionary camp is only about 1 kilometer from the castle rock. The strategic importance of the square is evident from its historical border location (northern border of the Roman Empire, eastern border of the Carolingian Empire) and the proximity to an ancient Danube crossing opposite the mouth of the Enns , which could be secured from here.

middle Ages

The actual Spielberg Castle is said to have been built by the Lords of Perg and Machland and came to Otto III after the death of Otto von Machland in 1148. von Lengenbach (1130–1192), who was canon over the possessions of the Regensburg Bishopric in the Duchy of Austria from 1188 . In 1159 Spielberg was a fiefdom of the Passau Monastery . The discovery of coins from the Archdiocese of Cologne from the years 1156 and 1167 underlines the early importance of the fortress, which was then located on the border between the Duchy of Bavaria and the newly founded Duchy of Babenberg .

In the territorial arable land of the Otakare (1197–1230) possessions of the Spielberg rule between Abhaben (municipality Luftenberg ) and Stein (today Langenstein ) are mentioned. In 1230 Otto V. von Lengenbach (1195–1236) still owned the Spielberg Castle as a Passau fief as Domvogt of Regensburg. In 1236, Spielberg came to Frederick II of Babenberg, the controversial , and thus to Austria, after Otto V. von Lengenbach had died in a dispute with the Duke because of the illegal appropriation of possessions of the Garsten Abbey in Riedmark . In 1259 a Dietrich von Spielberg was mentioned in a document. Between 1273 and 1291, Eberhard von Spielberg also sold the castle and town of Enns to King Rudolf I of Habsburg .

Spielberg was subsequently awarded alternately as a sovereign fiefdom or as a pledge . From 1314 to 1324 the princely burgrave was named Hagen . 1329 Spielberg came as Leibgeding at Eberhard V of Walsee and again as a pledge rule to the viscount Hagen. In 1348 they confirmed an exchange between the priest Ott and the St. Florian monastery .

Around 1353 Duke Albrecht II (the Lame) pledged Spielberg against a loan of 600  pounds to Erhart Hagen and allowed him an annual grant of 50 pounds from the Maut zu Stein (today Langenstein) for the maintenance of the fortifications .

On April 29, 1365, Spielberg was handed over by Duke Rudolf IV, the founder , to the monastery of St. Florian against the renunciation of old rights in the city of Enns for times of war to the eternal burgraviate , with the condition that the fortress (fortress) should be given to the captain if the To keep Enns open at all times. Duke Albrecht III. and Duke Leopold III. confirmed the rights of St. Florian to Spielberg, but reserved the right to redeem the castle.

Spielberg came to Hans (Johann I) von Liechtenstein for a few years as pledge via the St. Florian Monastery around 1390 . In 1397 Duke Albrecht IV. Spielberg awarded half of his title to his captain ob der Enns, Reinprecht II. Von Walsee . In 1455 King Ladislaus Postumus enfeoffed the Ruckendorfer with Spielberg, which Spielberg resold in 1475. From the time of the Ruckendorfer there is also a Spielberger Banntaiding , which regulated the rights and duties of the subjects in Langenstein and Au an der Donau . 1484 enfeoffed Emperor Friedrich III. the then provincial governor of Austria ob der Enns , Bernhard von Scherffenberg , as thanks for his services in the fight against King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary with the Veste Spielberg as free property.

Modern times

Spielberg , engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer 1672; behind the villages of Guʃn and Langenʃtain , behind the ruins of Frankenberg

The castle, which was already a bit dilapidated due to the frequent change of ownership, was strengthened and expanded by the Scherffenbergers , and the Spielberg rule was expanded to include the Lorch office through purchase in 1597 . In 1594, Spielberg was still one of the places of refuge and main defense castles of the country over the Enns in times of war.

A Spielberger ban ting of the Scherffenbergs from around 1600 has been handed down, which was expanded in 1650. There are also fisheries regulations for the Eigen Au an der Donau from 1608 and a separate land register from 1610.

In 1619 a toll booth was set up on the Danube at Spielberg Castle . The Spielberg rulership also asserted the basic right to veto and confiscated ships that had crashed because of the rapids north of the castle and could not buy themselves out.

In the turmoil of the Upper Austrian Peasant Wars , a peasant army of 700 men under Christoph Zeller managed to hand over weapons and food in Spielberg on May 29, 1626. Spielberg Castle was last used as an important military base in the 17th century in the wars against the Swedes and against the Bavarians.

The later governor of Austria ob der Enns, David Ungnad von Weissenwolff , acquired the castle in 1671. The execution of a Spielberg subject from Langenstein "with fire and sword" in 1692 by Helmhart Christoph von Weissenwolff led through the border location of the Spielberg dominion between the Traunviertel and Machlandviertel At the beginning of the 18th century there were considerable disputes between the owners of the respective regional courts . Spielberg Castle fell into disrepair in the 18th century.

Until the present

Spielberg ruins, south view
The gate to the castle's Zwinger

On September 6, 1936, the Spielberg ruins were the scene of a supra-regional knight festival with a Riedmark celebration organized by illegal National Socialists . Castle Spielberg takes in the 1937 in Germany appeared blood-and-soil -novel Confession of Ambros Hannsen of Eduard Munninger the peasant uprising under Martin Aichinger also a prominent place.

In 1941 and 1942, prisoners from the nearby Gusen I concentration camp carried out extensive archaeological excavations.

The Spielberg ruins were bequeathed in 1952 with Luftenberg by Henriette von Thurn und Taxis (from the Weissenwolff house) to Maria Immaculata Mensdorff-Pouilly (from the Thurn und Taxis family ) and since 1980 with Luftenberg it has been owned by their daughter Marie Antoinette Krassay.

The Spielberg ruins, which traditionally belonged to the Enns town of Enghagen , have been located north of the Danube since the Danube was regulated in the mid-19th century . On January 1, 1997, the Spielberg ruins and the surrounding area, which is now north of the Danube, were removed from the municipality of Enns and added to the municipality of Langenstein and thus the Mühlviertel .

In the spring of 2013, the Friends of the Spilberg Castle Ruins association was founded, which set itself the task of stopping the decay of the property.

literature

  • Georg Grüll : Castles and palaces in the Mühlviertel. Birken-Verlag, Vienna 1962, pp. 120–122.
  • Leopold Josef Mayböck , Alfred Höllhuber : The market sword mountain and the castle Windegg. Windegg working group in the Schwertberger Kulturring, Schwertberg 1987, pp. 124-134.
  • Johann Prinz: Langensteiner Heimatbuch. Municipality of Langenstein, Langenstein 1997, pp. 140–199.

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Spielberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Max Doblinger : A coin find from Spielberg. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Year 7, Linz 1953, pp. 227–229, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  2. Eduard Munninger : The confession of Ambros Hannsen . Blood and Soil, Goslar 1937.
  3. ^ Benedikt Pillwein (Ed.): History, geography and statistics of the Archduchy of Austria on the Enns and the Duchy of Salzburg . With a register, which is also the topographical and genealogical lexicon and the district map. Geographical-historical-statistical detail according to district commissariats. 1st edition. Second part: the Traunkreis . Joh. Christ. Quandt, Linz 1828, District Commissioner Enns: Enghagen , p. 243  ( Google eBook ). 2nd edition 1843 ( Google Book )
  4. The association "Friends of the Spilberg Castle Ruins" was founded on March 22, 2013. In: spilberg.at. Retrieved March 7, 2020 .