Ruin Waldenburg BL

Waldenburg ruins
	Waldenburg: keep and inner gate (2000)
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Ruin with quite a lot of preserved masonry and cistern
Place:	Waldenburg BL
Geographical location	47 ° 22 '54.1 " N , 7 ° 45' 10.3" O Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '54.1 " N , 7 ° 45' 10.3" E ; CH1903: 623730 / 247,920
Height:	700 m above sea level M.

The ruins of Waldenburg are important ruins of a high medieval hill fort or bailiff's castle above the town of Waldenburg in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft .

location

The ruins of the former castle are located at 700 m above sea level. M. over a narrow valley of the Vorderen Frenke on the elongated, narrow rocky ridge Rehag around 170 meters above the pass road over the Upper Hauenstein . There are still significant remains of the wall visible today, which rise about 600 meters east of the - formerly walled - town of Waldenburg. The castle is protected by steep embankments and rocks on the north, west and south sides, while the approach on the east side is made more difficult by a ditch .

investment

The entire structure of the Waldenburg can be divided into an elongated, east-west-oriented core castle (50 × 20 meters) with a newer, western and older, eastern structure as well as an outer bailey that surrounds the core castle on the north, west and south sides.

The core castle is located on the highest part of the rock ridge and in its eastern, older part consists of the keep (in the northwest corner, probably the oldest component) and several residential buildings along the right half of the southern ring . In the courtyard of the eastern part there is a filter cistern and traces indicate an oven attached to the keep. The western part is a big Palas dominated the 4 or 5 floors could have been high and was surmounted only by the keep. This palace was only built in the late 13th century and is shown in pictures with a hipped roof and fireplace.

Waldenburg: Outer Gate from the Inside (2000)

The outer bailey begins with the economic buildings belonging directly to the castle in the north of the complex. From there a staircase leads to the outer gate in the north-western corner of the castle. A kennel with a gatehouse leads around the western narrow side of the castle rock to a staircase that rises to the inner gate in the middle of the southern ring. The inner gate was protected by a small moat .

The castle courtyard belonging to the Waldenburg was located in the area of today's Sennhus 350 meters northeast of the castle: The town of Waldenburg is not to be regarded as a further development of the castle courtyard, but an independent foundation that controlled the use of the pass road with its walls and gates and from where also the services (haulage services, storage, meals, overnight stays, etc.) were offered.

history

The Waldenburg was built around 1200 by Count Hermann von Frohburg (1160–1211) on his own property , which the Frohburger had taken over from the Murbach Monastery . The oldest parts of Waldenburg Castle are somewhat older than the small town of Waldenburg: From this and from the transport and economic policy activities of the Frohburgers, it can be concluded that the main motivation for building the fortress is the collection of road tariffs and the remuneration of shipping companies when using the Pass road lay. The castle became so important and profitable for the Frohburger that a branch of the family named itself after the Waldenburg.

The castle was an addition and over time the successor to the Schanz (also old castle, abandoned around 1300), a facility also built by the Frohburgers. The fact that the stone house in Waldenburg (today the rectory) was used by the Lords of Lampenberg until it died out in 1250 shows that the location was economically interesting .

Count Ludwig von Frohburg tried in the middle of the 13th century to sell the Waldenburg (including the town) to the Habsburgs and to get it back as a fief. This corresponds to a procedure customary in the feudal system at the time to ensure the protection of a larger sovereign. Since this failed, he sold the castle and town to the Bishop of Basel in 1265 (with confirmation in 1277) and received everything back as a fief.

The Basel earthquake in 1356 did not seriously affect either the castle or the town of Waldenburg.

When Count Johans von Frohburg died in 1366, the Bishop of Basel withdrew the fiefdom and founded an office from it (with Waldenburg , Langenbruck , Oberdorf , Niederdorf , Hölstein , Lampenberg , Liedertswil , Bennwil , Ramlinsburg , Reigoldswil , Lauwil , Ziefen , Bubendorf , Arboldswil , Titterten , Lupsingen ), which was administered by an episcopal Vogt on the Waldenburg.

The Basel bishop pledged the Waldenburg office to Leopold III in 1374 . (Habsburg) (Duke of Austria), because he did not want to take the city into account because of disputes with Basel. As early as 1375, however, he gave Kleinbasel instead of the Waldenburg office to Leopold III as a pledge: He pledged the Waldenburg immediately to the Counts of Thierstein and - after a Gugler attack and further changes of pawnbrokers - to Margrave Rudolf III in 1396 . (Hachberg-Sausenberg) and 1400 - together with Liestal and Homburg - to the city of Basel. Due to the enormous need for money of the Bishop of Basel, the pledge amount on the Waldenburg office was further increased until it became impossible for the bishop to redeem the pledge: however, the bishop didn't formally hand over the Waldenburg office to the city of Basel until 1585.

Since 1400 a Vogt of the city of Basel (first Werner Schilling) sat on the Waldenburg and administered the office of the same name from there. But the first thing he had to do was to restore the fortress Waldenburg, because the bishop had neglected it.

As part of the aggressive expansion policy from Solothurn to the north, the people of Solothurn tried to get hold of the Waldenburg in 1444 - at the time when the occupation with the Confederates had moved to St. Jakob - and the goods and rights associated with it through an attack, but they did so failed.

In the context of the revolutionary turmoil, the Waldenburg was left by the Basler Vogt in 1798 and then - like other bailiffs' castles ( Farnsburg , Homburg ) - set on fire.

The remains of the fortress that can be seen today were essentially excavated and renovated between 1929 and 1931, although the focus of the work, in keeping with the spirit of the times and the archaeological possibilities, was on structural 'repair' and not on archaeological research.

In 2002 the ruins had to be renovated by the municipality of Waldenburg and the canton archeology of Baselland, as - due to earlier, improper repairs - loose stones and pieces of wall endangered the visitors and the building fabric.

Waldenburg ruins

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. 130–132.
Carl Roth: The castles and palaces of the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft . Volume 4b, Birkhäuser, Basel 1932, p. 36 ff.

Web links

Burgenwelt: Waldenburg