Wielandstein ruins (Wellheim)

Wielandstein ruins
Wielandstein ruins - view of the castle rocks behind the Wielandshöfe wasteland (April 2014)
Creation time :	before 1180
Castle type :	Höhenburg, rocky location
Conservation status:	Burgstall, small remains of the wall
Standing position :	Ministerials
Place:	Wielandshöfe ( Konstein district , Wellheim market )
Geographical location	48 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  N , 11 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 48 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  N , 11 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  E
Height:	450  m above sea level NHN

The Wielandstein ruin is an abandoned hilltop castle west of Wellheim in the area of ​​this municipality in the Eichstätt district on Jura rocks in the forest immediately behind the Wielandshöfe wasteland .

description

The ruins of the rock castle stood at 450  m above sea level. NHN on a steep, inaccessible from three sides, about 30 meter high dolomite rock of the Urdonau valley " Wellheimer dry valley ", around whose foot at around 408  m above sea level. NHN a deep and wide trench was created as additional protection . The castle could only be entered from the west at a height; the castle entrance, probably accessible via a drawbridge , was protected by a neck ditch embedded between vertical rock walls . The castle buildings stood on several rocky outcrops and were probably connected to one another by transitions. They are no longer recognizable in detail after the ruins of the castle, which were still important at the time, were removed for structural reuse of the bricks in 1811 and again in 1853, most recently a tower-like building near the moat on the terrace behind the upper one of the Wielandshöfe . Weapons and chains were found in the lower room, but they were badly rusted and therefore no further attention was paid to them. The castle square itself is now overgrown by trees.

Today 's Wielandshöfe (1983: 6 residents) are likely to have been the economic courtyards of the former castle.

history

The story is largely in the dark; there are few historical references that relate more to the castle owners than to the castle itself. When the castle was built in the Middle Ages, the area belonged to the Counts of Lechsgemünd-Graisbach , on whose northern border the Wielandstein Castle was either by themselves or by one of the oldest of their ministerials , the Wielanden vom Wielandstein, as they called themselves after their new ancestral castle, was built. In a document from the Kaisheim Monastery from 1180, an owner of the castle is named for the first time, namely Ulrich Wieland. In 1212 a Siegfried Wieland, 1260 a Ywan Wüllant and his wife Leutgart, 1272 Conrad and Burkhart, "dicti Wielant milites", called the knights Wielant. In 1269 one finds the signature of a knight "Haeinricus dictus Wielant" (Heinrich called Wielant) in a document of the monastery Heidenheim , who is probably the same who appears in 1282 in a document of the monastery Niederschönenfeld and four years later in another document of the same monastery. In 1531 the Cistercian monk Johann Knebel from Kaisheim created a chronicle; In it, these members of the sex are listed retrospectively for several legal acts.

A few years before 1362, around 1340/50, the family must have moved their seat, because in a document from that year, Hans Wieland is referred to as “sitting in the lower barn”. Whether the castle fell victim to armed conflict or was abandoned in peacetime cannot be clarified. Around 1410 members of the family were also resident in and around Rennertshofen and around 1500 in Burgheim - places relatively close to the original seat and belonging to the domain of the Counts of Lechsgemünd-Graisbach. From 1415 to 1532 the Wielande had a Burghut in the castle Vohburg . Several female relatives named Wieland entered the nearby Benedictine monastery in Neuburg an der Donau , such as Barbara von Wieland, who died there as abbess in 1465 . The last news about the Wieland family from Wielandstein comes from 1560, when the judge Christoph Wieland zu Burgheim sold his property and the judge's office.

Say

According to legend, Wielandstein Castle was a robber baron's castle ; the robber baron mischief could therefore only be stopped when the impregnable rock nest was destroyed with guns. As a punishment, their spirits do not come to rest, so that at night the noise of war and the din of battle can often be heard from the brightly lit castle far into the valley. A curious peasant boy who was following the ghost died in the ruins. Another legend tells of the vain daughter of the last knight, who was cursed by her father and haunted as an enchanted maiden between the rocks and the castle ruins. Truckers with salt trucks could have saved them if they had shouted “Help God!” Not just ten times, but an eleventh time when they sneezed. Then she would have been redeemed and the castle would have risen again in its old splendor.

Others

• A "rock castle with cave ruins" located west of the Wielandshöfe is registered as a geotope in the Bavarian catalog of environmental objects . See [1]
• One of the monuments in Bavaria is a path chapel near the Wielandshöfen from the 18th and 19th centuries. Century.

literature

• Seat and rule of the lords of Burg Wielandstein. In: Bert Braun: Chronicle of the market town of Wellheim, with the districts of Konstein, Biesenhard, Gammersfeld and Hard. Spardorf 1981, 768 pages, pp. 132-138
• Carl Böhaimb and Fetsch: Description and history of the parish of Wellheim. In: Annual reports of the historical association in Middle Franconia . Ansbach, 25th year (1857), pp. 91–96; (Supplemented) reprint in: Bert Braun: Chronicle market community Wellheim with the districts Konstein, Bisenhard, Gammersfeld and Hard. Spardorf: Verlag E. Braun o. J. (1981), pp. 132-138
• Wielands-Höfe. In: Anton Steichele: The Diocese of Augsburg, historically and statistically described. 2nd volume, 1864, pp. 758f. See [2]
• W. Hühnermann: The Friends of Nature House on the Galgenberg b. Wellheim-Konstein and its immediate surroundings. 1922
• Wielandstein , in: Felix Mader (editor): Die Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern, Region Middle Franconia Volume II, District Office Eichstätt . Munich, 1928, p. 358
• The ghosts on the Wielandstein. In: Alexander Schöppner: Bayerische Sagen , Volume 1, p. 1164
• The castle ruins on the Wielandstein. In: Heimgarten. Supplement to the Eichstätter Volkszeitung - Eichstätter Kurier. 21st year 1950
• The ghosts on the Wielandstein; The Miss from Wielandstein. In: Heinz Mittel (Hrsg.): Legends and stories from the Urdonautal. Ingolstadt: A. Stadelmeier (production) n.d. (around 1970/80), pp. 73–74
• Rudolf Hager: The gray monk from the Wielandstein ruins. A legend from the Eichstätter area. In: Historical sheets for the city and district of Eichstätt. 28 (1979), No. 3
• Heinz Mittel: The Wielandstein. In: Guide through the Wellheim Valley and its history. Ingolstadt: Hertel Wilde (complete production) 1981, pp. 52–55
• Wielandstein at the Wielandshöfe . In: Karl Zecherle and Toni Murböck: Nature worth seeing in the Eichstätt district . Eichstätt: District 1982, p. 60f.
• Wielandshöfe. In: The Eichstätter area in the past and present. Eichstätt: Sparkasse 1984, p. 303f.

Web links

• Location of the castle from the satellite
• “Urdonautal” tourist information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Schöppner (Ed.): Ghosts on the Wielandstein. In: Sagenbuch der Bayer. Lande 1–3 (= saga of the Bavarian Lande 1–3. Volume 31). Riege, Munich 1852-1853, pp. 188-189. ( Ghosts on the Wielandstein at Zeno.org .)