Ruin stone

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Ruin stone
Baden Stein 9664.jpg
Alternative name (s): Fortress stone
Creation time : before 1000, 1658-1670
Castle type : Hill castle, fortress
Conservation status: Ruin (destroyed in 1712)
Place: to bathe
Geographical location 47 ° 28 '23.4 "  N , 8 ° 18' 19.6"  O Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '23.4 "  N , 8 ° 18' 19.6"  E ; CH1903:  665345  /  258404
Height: 445  m above sea level M.
Ruin Stein (Canton Aargau)
Ruin stone

The stone ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle at 445  m above sea level. NN in Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It towers over the old town and, together with the bailiff's castle on the banks of the Limmat , once secured the narrow gorge between Schlossberg and Lägern . Stein Castle was built before the year 1000 and temporarily served as the Habsburg archive . The confederates destroyed the castle in 1415. The city of Baden had it rebuilt as a fortress from 1657 to 1670 , but in 1712 it was destroyed again after the Second Villmerger War; the reformed church emerged from the demolished material . Only the St. Nicholas Castle Chapel has been completely preserved .

history

Probably before the year 1000, a castle was built on the rocky ridge of the Schlossberg. On whose order it was established is unclear; it was probably the Counts of Nellenburg , the rulers of the Zurichgau at that time . In 1077 it came into the possession of the Lenzburger during the investiture dispute . Before 1127 the rule of Lenzburg was divided: Arnold II and his descendants referred to themselves as Counts of Baden. After the Baden line of the Lenzburg family died out in 1172, the Counts of Kyburg took over the inheritance, and finally the Habsburgs in 1264. As the house archive of the Habsburgs, in which the most important documents were kept, the stone developed into an important administrative center in the foothills . Particularly noteworthy is the Habsburg land register from 1303/07 .

When the Confederates conquered the Habsburg Aargau on the instructions of the German Emperor Sigismund in 1415 , most of the castles and cities surrendered without a fight. Only in Baden did the Habsburgs put up bitter resistance under Landvogt Burkart von Mansberg. The siege began on April 25th. On May 3, the defenders gave up the city and withdrew to the castle. On May 11, von Mansberg signed an armistice in hopes of reinforcements. But after the Bernese had advanced with heavy artillery, the defenders surrendered on May 18. The castle was razed a few days later despite an imperial objection . The confederates transferred the Habsburg archive to Lucerne and did not give it back until 1474.

After the defeat of the Reformed towns in the First Villmerger War of 1655/56, Baden planned to rebuild Stein Castle as a fortress. In December 1655 Gregor Allhelg had already received the order to draw corresponding plans. A year later the city council decided on a project by the engineer Franz Martin Gump from Bräunlingen . At the end of 1657 the construction work, financed with own funds, began, which represented a clear disregard of the peace and neutrality provisions. Zurich protested against the construction of the fortress, banned its citizens from visiting the baths for six years and imposed economic sanctions. But the other places did not want to be drawn into another conflict, so Bern also built a fortress in Aarburg . Baden in turn relied on its position as an imperial city .

The fortress construction was completed in 1670; In terms of religious policy, it proved to be a success for the Baden and Catholic towns, but in a military sense it was a misconception. The defense structure was already technically obsolete when it was completed. In particular, external works were missing , so that the opponents had an easy target; In addition, the increased projectile power of modern artillery was not taken into account. During the Second Villmerger War , the garrison surrendered on May 31, 1712 due to heavy artillery damage in the city. The victorious people of Zurich finally destroyed most of the fortifications by June 18, although the Bernese would have preferred to continue using them. In the peace treaty, the people of Baden were obliged to build the reformed church north of the old town from the demolition material .

In later decades the fortress served as a quarry . However, a public lookout point has existed since 1837, which has become a popular tourist attraction. Over time it had become dilapidated, the upper parts of the watchtower had to be renewed in 1947 and made accessible by adding a spiral staircase. In 1998 the ruin was renovated and secured on a large scale.

building

The nightly illumination of the ruin

The facility is located on the rocky ridge of the Schlossberg, a foothill of the Folded Jura , which drops steeply around 60 meters on three sides: In the north to Haselfeld, in the south to the Stadtbachtal with the Meierhof district and in the east to Baden's old town, which is on one small step at the narrowest point of the gorge. Unhindered access is only possible from the west.

Based on a plan by Hans Conrad Gyger from 1658, an anonymous oil painting, two etchings by Johann Melchior Füssli from around 1700 and the ruins, the appearance of the fortress from the second half of the 17th century can be traced. The only completely preserved part of the fortress, the St. Nicholas Chapel , formed the front anchor point of the approximately 120-meter-long complex. Remains of the old city wall lead east down to the city ​​tower . The northern and southern defensive walls , both of which were fortified with bastions , extended to the west .

A residential building rose next to the reconstructed watchtower. A neck ditch was in front of the western rock head with a polygonal platform and battlements . The main gate was located between the rock head and a battery for the fortress artillery in the southwest. The lower, southern section of the fortress was laid out like a courtyard; there were barracks and armory. The south-eastern shoulder bastion behind the chapel has an underground casemate ; The Nikolaustrepair leads through this from the old town up to the fortress courtyard.

The medieval castle, which was destroyed in 1415, can be vaguely reconstructed using illustrations in the chronicle by Johannes Stumpf (1548) and an engraving by Matthäus Merian (1625). It was built lower and less compact than the later fortress. From the chapel, which already existed at that time, a relay wall led on the rock ridge to the observation tower. This was connected to the palas on the hilltop by another wall . The hall had a cellar carved into the rock.

traffic

The Schlossberg tunnel and the Kreuzliberg tunnel run through the Schlossberg a few dozen meters below the Stein ruins .

literature

Web links

Commons : Ruine Stein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files