Altenschönbach Castle

The Altenschönbach Castle is a former noble residence in Prichsenstadt district Altenschönbach in the district of Kitzingen in Lower Franconia. Today the facility is inhabited by the von Crailsheim family.

history

The previous building of the castle was a medieval hilltop castle . Only the castle hill has survived from the complex. It is located 2000 meters southeast of the parish church in the Bollenschlag forest. The Counts of Castell, who had received the castle from the Würzburg monastery as a fief, had a neighboring seat here . Under Count Wilhelm II of Castell the counts lost their possessions in the place.

With the late Middle Ages, the aristocratic seat of the village was moved to the center of the village. Initially, the Lords of Thüngfeld owned the moated castle. They are proven in 1440. Martin Kotner followed them. Subsequently, the castle complex came to the Lords of Esel in 1442, who were to rule until 1543. In 1525 the castle in the village was burned down by the rebellious farmers in the German Peasants' War .

In 1543 Freiherr Wolfgang von Crailsheim acquired the village and the ruins. He pushed for the reconstruction of the destroyed facility. Now no change of ownership should affect the castle: The von Crailsheim family still lives in the castle today. In 1847, however, extensive changes were made to the facility. The moat was filled in and the large residential building that forms the center of the palace complex was renewed in 1848.

While today's palace complex is classified as a monument by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, the remains of previous buildings in the ground are registered as ground memorials.

description

The palace complex consists of a bundle of different components from different epochs. It was built with an irregular polygonal plan. The former moat is still clearly visible, but has not been water-bearing since the 19th century. The curtain wall , on the other hand, is still completely preserved and in some places up to 12 meters high. It separates the castle area from the village.

In the southern area, a three-story round tower with cornices has been preserved. It is closed by a conical roof. Its earlier counterpart on the northern side can only be recognized as a ruin. The center of the castle is a square, donjon-like tower that comes from the late Gothic renovation of the 16th century. It has three storeys and ends at the top with a long, high hipped roof. Inside, it has barrel vaults in the basement, while the upper floors are beamed.

The latest element of the complex is the two-story residential building from the 19th century on the east side. A round stair tower was placed next to it. The older walls were included in the construction of the building. The building has seven window axes. A portal on the west side shows an alliance coat of arms of Crailsheim and Geyer. The coat of arms is repeated at the courtyard gate in the southeast corner of the curtain wall.

literature

• District Administrator and District Council of the District of Kitzingen (Hrsg.): District of Kitzingen . Münsterschwarzach 1984.
• Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia . Munich / Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-422-03051-4 .
• Walter Schilling: The castles, palaces and mansions of Lower Franconia . Würzburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-429-03516-7 .
• Karl Treutwein : From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach 1987.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ While u. a. Dehio (p. 18) mentions the number 1543, Schilling (p. 250) assumes 1545.
2. ↑ Schilling, Walter: The castles, palaces and mansions in Lower Franconia . P. 250.
3. ^ Treutwein, Karl: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim . P. 17.
4. ↑ Schilling, Walter: The castles, palaces and mansions in Lower Franconia . P. 250.

Coordinates: 49 ° 49 '25.9 "  N , 10 ° 23' 57.4"  E