Arnsburg Castle

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Map of Ahornburg Castle with the Arnsburger Waldungen and Schellenberg Castle

The Arnsburg Castle (also Ahorn Castle castle called) is located today in the municipality Lesná ( Schönwald ) in the Czech Republic . From 1352 to 1807 it belonged to the Waldthurn dominion . Only a few remains of a castle stable , which is now called Schellenberg , have been preserved. The latter is not to be equated with the nearby Upper Palatinate Castle Schellenberg , which also belonged to the Waldau family of Waldthurn .

history

On August 24, 1352, the brothers Ulrich , Conrad and Heinrich von Waldau acquired several properties from the Waldsassen monastery , including the Arnsburg with large forests. In the transcript of the document dated September 1, 1352 it says: “ We Heinrich, Abbot, and the convent of the Waldsassen monastery, confess and publicly announce that we are selling the Honorable Noble Men Mr. Ulrich, Mr. Chunrat and Mr. Heinrich the Waldauer , Brothers, their housewives and their heirs, the goods: Our farm in Waltkirchen with everything that goes with it, the village of Schöntann, the village of Wampenreuth, 2 farms in the village of Ottenreuth, the village of Hartmannsreuth, the hammer in the Ödenmühl , the deserts of Faislbach and Reichertslohe, Winklern, the deserts to the Kessel and Mühlpach, the courtyards to Schenkenhof and Schenkenlohe, the deserts of Meußenthal, Ossenpach, Osanth, the Ahornsberg castle stables (on the source streams of the Zott), the Reuth desert, the village zu Feussbach, the village of Schellenbach, Gehenhammer, the village of Germannsreuth, the Kaiserberg and Rehberg as well as a fiefdom in Altenstadt and a fiefdom in the Lindern with everything that goes with it, with neck dish and with all geri cht, big and small, with wild ban, interest, tithe, wood, bismuth, field, water and fish pastures with stones on and under the earth ... "

Nothing is known about the reason for the first founding of this castle; it is believed that it served to secure an old road . In the middle of the 14th century, the rule of the Waldauer zu Waldthurn came under Bohemian sovereignty . On April 10, 1540 of acquired Wirsberg native Franconian Willibald von Wirsberg rule Waldthurn and thus the Arnsburg. He wanted to rebuild the now ruined Arnsburg and in January 1557 sent a petition to the emperor Ferdinand , who was also King of Bohemia at the time. The German fief captain, Count Joachim von Schlick, doubted whether Willibald von Wirsberg would submit to the rule of Tachau . However, Willibald von Wirsberg had already started the reconstruction in 1560, believing in the approval, but in the same year he had a clash with the owner of the Tachau estate, Burgrave Johann von Lobkowitz the Younger , because he did not react to the Wirsberger's requests. A questioning of the Chodians who were resident here and who were tasked with securing the border showed that they did not think they knew anything about the Wirsberger's rights and they also closed the routes to Arnsburg that he had made accessible. On December 24, 1561, he was forbidden by the emperor to work at the Arnsburg castle stables.

However, Georg Christoph von Wirsberg , Willibald's grandson , tried again in 1602 to rebuild the Arnsburg. He tried to substantiate his legal claim with several petitions to the emperor. In 1607, parts of the Tachau Forest, including a forest that belonged to the Arnsburg, were sold to the glassworks master Paul Schürer . In doing so, he incurred the wrath of Wirsberger , who did not shrink from violence. The Schürer got tired of this and on March 9, 1617 he sold his possessions to Leonhard Colonna von Fels . The Arnsburg is mentioned again and again in land registers and fiefdoms from Waldau, also in the land register of 1666. Here it says: “ Inconceivable years ago this was a fortress that lies on the Bohemian border, just the time over that with a very large high forest overgrown, that nothing more to see than the place and something on the walls where it stood ”.

After the lordship of Waldthurn came to the Lobkowitzers in 1656 , the news about this area increased again. They resumed the use of wood and began using the area for mining purposes. In 1708 it is reported that Prince Ferdinand von Lobkowitz had gold sand and silver ore excavated at the so-called "Goldbrünnl" and also began mining iron ore. For the miners he put on a “mining hut”, the so-called “silver house”. However, this was destroyed again by the Tachau side and there is also talk of violence on the part of Waldthurn. They invaded on April 13, 1736 with 100 men and demolished the glassworks located in the Ahornburg Forest, as well as on November 29, 1737, this time the glassworks being completely reduced to rubble and the Tachauers, which were set up for guarding, were dragged away. On July 21, 1738, a royal commission, consisting of the royal captains of the Pilsen district, Count Ferdinand von Morzin, Carl Anton Scheller von Sachsengrün, Franz Carl von Schönau and Wenzel Carl Steinbach von Kranichstein , was set up to settle the disputes . The controversial parties were punished with a fine from taking up activities in the disputed area, but the final decision is not known.

Burgstall Schellenberg, formerly Arnsburg

Arnsburg today

Remains of the Arnsburg Castle are formed by a castle stable in Ostrůvek ( Inselthal ) in the municipality of Lesná ( Schönwald ). The castle hill consists of a 9 meter high rock overgrown with deciduous trees. The ring wall and moat are still recognizable, as are the stones from the former castle complex. There are no more remains of walls on the small rock plateau.

literature

  • Franz Bergler: Waldthurn: rule, market and parish; in the service of the homeland. Spintler, Weiden 2014, pp. 125–132.
  • Georg Schmidbauer: The Arnsburg, a bone of contention between Waldthurn and Bohemia. Upper Palatinate Homeland , 1999, Volume 43.

Individual evidence

  1. Dieter Bernd: Vohenstrauss . In: Historical Atlas of Bavaria , part of Old Bavaria . Series I, issue 39. Komm. Für Bayerische Landesgeschichte, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7696-9900-9 , p. 189 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Community of Waldthurn: 775 years of Waldthurn: Heimatfest; August 7-17, 1992. Spintler, Weiden 1992, p. 40.
  3. Franz Bergler, 2014, p. 125.

Coordinates: 49 ° 45 ′ 17 ″  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 21 ″  E