Bimbach Castle

The castle in Bimbach

The Bimbach Castle is a former noble residence in Prichsenstadt district Bimbach in the district of Kitzingen in Lower Franconia. It is located in the southwest of the village and was originally the ancestral seat of the noble family of the Fuchs von Bimbach .

history

The first mention of a noble residence in Bimbach comes from the year 1385. It was about a castle that was surrounded by a moat. Like the village, the fortification was owned by the prince-bishops of Würzburg and was awarded to various ministerials . In the 14th century, these were the members of the Lamprecht or Lemplein family who administered the episcopal estates in Bimbach.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the von Fuchs family began to buy into the Bimbach fiefdom . In 1404 the brothers Heinrich and Götz Lemplein sold the castle to the family, which from then on called themselves Fuchs von Bimbach and lived in the castle in Bimbach. It was not until the end of the century, however, that the Fuchs had brought the entire village under their rule. A new Gothic building was erected around 1487 and the Fuchs von Bimbach headquarters moved into it.

During the German Peasant War , Wolf Fuchs von Bimbach left his castle to assist the Würzburg bishop at the Marienberg fortress . Meanwhile, in 1525 peasants from the area plundered the castle and set it on fire. However, the lord's family was spared and was allowed to leave the village. After the rebels had been punished, the Fuchs began building the third new palace.

The builder was Gilg Velding, who came from France. He built a renaissance castle in the years 1585–1586 , while the lord of the castle, Rudolf Fuchs von Bimbach, resided in another of his castles in Neuses am Sand . Already after about a hundred years, the progressive decline and destruction in the Thirty Years' War made a new building necessary. The Würzburg court architect Joseph Greissing provided the designs , stones were procured from the ruins of the Stollburg above Oberschwarzach. The work was completed under Count Christoph Ernst Fuchs von Bimbach in 1703.

With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and mediatization , the Fuchs von Bimbach lost their power over the village and the surrounding area. The family retained the castle. American soldiers were quartered in the castle for seven months from April 1945, during which time parts of the building's furnishings were destroyed or removed. In 1970 the Fuchs von Bimbach family sold their former manor house. Today there is an estate in the premises. The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation classifies the castle as a monument under the number D-6-75-158-63. The remains of the previous buildings in the ground are listed as ground memorials.

description

The medieval archway

The Bimbacher Schloss presents itself as a three-storey two-wing complex with a hipped roof . It comes from the late baroque and was created around the turn of the 18th century. In the northwest of today's castle, a gatehouse of the medieval predecessor from the 15th century has been preserved.

The main wing is in the northeast. Seven window axes form the facade on the east side. A three-axis risalit protrudes in the center with a gable roof. There are two arched gate entrances below. The individual floors are separated from each other by cornices . The building is rounded off by simple corner pilasters. On the roof there are two rows of dormers around the central projection.

On the north side, the main portal is surrounded on the second floor by three single-lane windows with drilled frames. An outside staircase leads to the portal on the courtyard side. At the bottom the portal wall ends in two volutes, and at the top it ends with a projecting cornice. Above it is a gable top with the coat of arms of the Fuchs von Bimbach and the year 1703, surrounded by two simple pilasters .

The side wing is larger than the main building and is structured by 14 window axes. There, too, the ground floor is dominated by two arched gate entrances. Next to it is a ground level entrance. The wing is oriented to the northwest and merges into the oldest part of the castle, the medieval, pointed arch gatehouse with a coat of arms stone and the year 1487.

The castle rooms still largely have the original layout, and some of the original furnishings have also been preserved. The individual rooms can be entered from a central hall in the main wing via a single flight of stairs with a baluster. On the first floor there is an imitation tapestry from the 18th century. There is also the castle chapel with an altar from 1750, the picture of which shows Mary with the child .

literature

• Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
• Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia . Munich and Berlin 1999.
• Wilfried Jugl: Evang. Luth. Bimbach Church. A church leader . Bimbach 2001.
• Walter Schilling: The castles, palaces and mansions of Lower Franconia . Wuerzburg 2013.
• Karl Treutwein : From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach 1987.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Bimbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Treutwein, Karl: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim . P. 28.
2. ↑ Jugl, Wilfried: Evang. Luth. Bimbach Church . P. 18.
3. ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-75-158-63 , accessed on January 20, 2014.
4. ↑ Schilling, Walter: The castles, palaces and mansions of Lower Franconia . P. 255.
5. ^ Dehio, Georg: Handbook of German art monuments . P. 220.

Coordinates: 49 ° 51 ′ 39.2 "  N , 10 ° 22 ′ 42.9"  E