Calenberg Castle
| Calenberg Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Battery tower at the main entrance. The mighty ramparts of the fortress are still there, but only a few building remains above ground. |
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| Alternative name (s): | Festivities Calenberg | |
| Creation time : | from 1292 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg, former Motte | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | duke | |
| Construction: | Stone buildings and earth walls | |
| Place: | Pattensen School Castle | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 11 '47 " N , 9 ° 47' 47" E | |
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The castle Calenberg (names of the later state: Schloss Calenberg and Feste Calenberg ; current name of the ruin: Alt Calenberg ) was a medieval low castle near Pattensen , district Schulenburg , 13 km west of Hildesheim . It was built from 1292 by the Guelph Duke Otto the Strict in the Leineaue between two arms of the Leineaue as a moated castle on the southern part of the Calenberg marl bank . At the beginning of the 16th century it was converted into a fortress . This Feste Calenberg gave the name of the Welf Principality of Calenberg, which was summarized in the 15th century . After the Thirty Years War it lost its military importance and was razed . Today it is a ruin with underground vaults surrounded by high walls. The name of the nearby Gut Calenberg refers to Castle Calenberg.
etymology
The word syllables Kal , Kalen- , Calen- in the word Calenberg go back to the word kal in Middle High German and Middle Low German and mean bare, naked, unwooded . The name formation with Kal , Kalen or Calen can also be related to the geological subsoil ( rocks, stones ). So the word Calenberg means the same as bald mountain .
The following language variants can be proven: dat hus to der kalenborch 1327, dat slot kalenberch 1350, ... unse del des slotes der Kalenborch 1363, to dem Kalenberge, unse Slot de Kalenberch 1406, Haus Calenberg 1661, Fürstl. Ambtshaus, Fürstl. Palladium 1663, Altes Schloß Calenberg 1730, Auf dem Alten Calenberg 1777, Alt Calenberg 1854, Alt-Kalenberg 1896.
Location on the Calenberg
The castle complex is on the Calenberg , which is 70 m above sea level. NN has. It originated almost 100 million years ago at the beginning of the Upper Cretaceous in the Cenomanium . Before the castle was built, it protruded about 10 meters from the floodplain landscape as a limestone marl bank between the then arms of the Leine . It not only includes the area of Calenberg Castle, but also extends 500 meters further north. Therefore the moat of the castle had to be worked more than ten meters deep into the limestone bank.
The name Calenberg indicates that the limestone marl bank was not overgrown, but protruded from the Leineaue as a bare mountain . During the Middle Terrace period, the line had deposited gravel in the north and south of the marl bank, which was later covered with loess and alluvial clay . The builders of the moated castle used this gravel, loess and alluvial clay when building the ramparts . The stones for the foundation walls and fortifications of Calenberg Castle were taken from a quarry in the north of the Calenberg, which was used as a landfill in the second half of the twentieth century and then covered with soil.
Predecessor complex Wasserburg Calenberg
The moated castle was built on the island of Calenberg as a Niederungsburg in the Leine, which at that time formed the border with the episcopal Hildesheim area. The castle was built on an elevated plateau of about 50 × 70 m. A surrounding moat ran around it , which was later backfilled when the castle was converted into a much larger fortress. Originally the moated castle was probably a three-story tower hill castle (Motte) with a floor plan of 14.4 × 14.4 m. It had a residential wing to the north . The castle dominated the military road from Gestorf through the Leinetal to Hildesheim.
Although the castle had a strategically important position as a border fortification, it was given as a fief to the knight Konrad von Saldern from 1327 due to lack of money . He was also allowed to build an unfortified city south of the castle. The Lauenstadt settlement, founded in 1327, never developed properly, however, in 1613 it was last in the list of towns in the Principality of Calenberg. Until around 1900, Krammarkets were held in Lauenstadt , at which everyday items were sold at open stands.
By 1350, the castle was supplemented by a long west wing (32.6 × 9.6 m), which was followed by another gate tower (13.9 × 13.9 m). The rest of the castle square was enclosed by a curtain wall . In 1363 the castle had a mill and a customs post on the Leine Bridge.
The von Saldern family had to cede the castle to Duke Wilhelm in 1364 because they had entered into a secret pact with the Bishop of Hildesheim.
In 1380 Calenberg Castle withstood the siege by the Bishop of Hildesheim; then the episcopal castle Nabershausen near Barnten was razed. From 1371 the castle served as the seat of ducal bailiffs of the Grand Bailiwick of Calenberg, and in 1432 it was designated as the residence of a Guelph duke. Since 1405 the castle was the administrative seat of the Bailiwick of Calenberg.
Expansion to the fortress Calenberg
After the introduction of firearms, the moated castle was no longer able to cope with attackers. It was therefore rebuilt into a modern fortress at the beginning of the 16th century before the Hildesheim collegiate feud under Erich I , which was accessible via two bridges. As the most important measure, a 700 m long wall was built to protect the castle square from gunfire. The main wall with eight brick jumps was surrounded by a 40 m wide trench, which was flooded from the Rössingbach via a canal . The western access side with the drawbridge was preceded by an unpaved island with the field name Die Bleiche . Directly behind the bridge was the three-story battery tower, about 24 m in diameter and 2 m thick walls with artillery slots in a two- story arrangement. The fortress was protected by seventeen cannons and was thus better equipped than the cities of Göttingen and Hanover, which were part of the principality.
The fortress of Calenberg has survived several sieges. During the Hildesheim collegiate feud in 1519, it was besieged for three weeks without success. During the Thirty Years' War , the fortress Calenberg was besieged by Tilly for three weeks in 1625 ; it only surrendered after a mutiny by the occupation. In 1632, the Guelph Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Calenberg , who was fighting on the Swedish side, initially failed to recapture the castle despite a six-week siege. Only after his victory in the battle of Hessisch-Oldendorf and another siege was he able to take the heavily damaged Calenberg Fortress in 1633.
Manorial function
The fortress served to push back the influence of the Bishop of Hildesheim , with whom the Guelphs lived in constant disputes, in the Hanover area and to gain land. However, it was not large enough to accommodate the court and was not surrounded by any major settlement. It was therefore not a residential palace, but rather a guest house and only the seat of the bailiwick for a certain time. The actual administration of the principality was in Neustadt . The Calenberg Fortress was regarded by the princes as the ancestral castle of the house and was accordingly maintained.
After several inheritance divisions, the principalities of Calenberg and Göttingen fell to the Principality of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle in 1634 and formed the Electorate of Hanover from 1692 after being awarded the electoral dignity. After Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Calenberg was able to recapture the area for the Guelphs with Swedish troops in the Thirty Years War in 1636, he chose Hanover as his royal seat. From 1648 the castle building in the fortress Calenberg was restored. It now served as a garrison , in 1673 as a glass manufacture and repeatedly as a prison. The fortress was repaired again from 1656 to 1662.
Corvinus' imprisonment
The Catholic sovereign Erich II accepted the Augsburg interim of the Catholic emperor in 1548 . At the Lutheran Synod of Münden in 1549 , the Lutheran reformer Anton Corvinus and the Pattens preacher Walter Hoiker (also known as the stool) stood bitterly against the interim together with 140 clergy.
Then Erich II. Anton Corvinus and Walter sat Hoiker on 2 November 1549 the parties Calenberg in coercive detention in order to force her and the other clergy to accept the interim. The prisoners were well looked after, were able to receive and answer mail and speak to their visitors through an open window. According to the Passau Treaty , when the emperor had declared the interim to be invalid and Erich II had fallen out of favor with him, Erich II released the two prisoners on October 21, 1552.
There is still an entrance to a cellar at the former castle site, which is called the Corvinus cellar and which, according to oral tradition, is said to have been the Corvinus prison.
Merian copperplate engraving
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In 1654 Caspar Merian (1627–1686) published his copperplate engraving of the Calenberg Fortress in the Topographia Germaniae Braunschweig-Lüneburg , which was based on a design by the surveyor Conrad Buno . The copper engraving shows a perspective view from Gestorf towards Hildesheim, i.e. from northwest to southeast.
On the left in the foreground is the place of execution The old court , behind it the domain Neues Calenberg (B. Fürstlich Vorwerck ) with the houses of that time and in the background the fortress of Calenberg with its enclosed buildings (A. Das Schloss ) and a residential building for employees on the Vorwerkinsel, which lies in front of the fortress. To the right of the fortress are the houses of Lauenstadt (D. Lawenstat ), in front of them you can see the Calenberger Mühle (C. Die Mühle ) on this side of the Leine (G. Leina River ). On the right in the foreground is the village of Schulenburg (F. Dorf Schulenburg ), behind that, beyond the Leine, the village of Rössing (E. Dorf Rossi ). On the left in the background is the place Barnten (H. Bornden ). The village to the right behind the fortress is not named; it's about Emmerke .
The place of execution The old court was to the north of the Schulenburger Poggenworthsteich on the southern edge of the Heerstraße from Schulenburg to Gestorf (now L 460) at the place where the deserted hostels were previously. It was later replaced by the place of execution, the new court , which was located northeast of the intersection of the B 3 with the L 460.
Decline of the fortress
After the Thirty Years War , the castle was no longer able to cope with the greater range of the guns. It also posed a security risk because enemies could take possession of it and from there threaten the Calenberger Land.
The castle was abandoned and demolished from 1690 due to construction defects. In 1692 the fortress Calenberg was razed , the southern ramparts were removed and the moat was filled. The city of Hanover was then expanded into a fortress. On the left side of the Linen in 1669, in what is now the Calenberg estate in Schulenburg, the Neues Calenberg domain was created with the brewery from 1673 and the official seat of Calenberg, which formed a central administrative authority until the 19th century.
In 1765, a criminal prison was built from the stones of the demolished castle in the northeast area of the fortress . It was surrounded by escape walls and served as a prison until 1930. It was demolished before World War II . To the south of it stood the house for the prison guard and the courier; there were two prison cells with barred windows. This building later served as a private residence with a southern outbuilding until it was demolished in 1981.
Two half-timbered houses built next to one another from 1830 stood in the middle of the foundation of the west wing of the castle from the early 14th century, to the south of which there was a building made of natural stone, the southern cellar entrance of which still exists today and is called the Corvinus cellar . The area of the demolished castle in the east served as a house garden. The buildings inhabited by three families were so dilapidated in 1981 that their structures had to be demolished in the following years. The gardens were planted with forest trees. An underground hydrant along the way still indicates the former development. When the building was demolished, the cellars were preserved; some entrances have been filled in, others are open. Around 1990 the ruins were restored by the bricklaying company Rasch from Schulenburg; stones that were found on the site were used. One of these finds was a coat of arms-like gemstone that was placed over the lintel of the entrance to the Corvinus cellar. In the Corvinus cellar is the inscription Have patience, brother .
The Guelphs built Marienburg Castle on the Schulenburger Berg in the 19th century , which today serves as a museum and restaurant.
Today's remains
The remains of the fortress lie in the area of Alt Calenberg , which has been part of the Calenberger Leinetal landscape protection area since 1997 . From the fortress and the castle hill, the ramparts, cellars and foundations of the castle, the palace, the Corvinus cellar and the remains of the battery tower are still preserved. The battery tower and the two basement rooms have been closed since mid-2008. Bats sleep in the vaulted cellars under the two palace wings. In the period from October 1st to April 30th, the wintering animals should not be disturbed. There is a well several meters deep in one of the vaults. The underground cellars are so spacious that once two children got lost there and had to be rescued by emergency services.
According to oral tradition, there are allegedly underground escape routes to Lauenstadt and the diocese of Hildesheim. The ramparts still exist in the northwest, north and northeast. The surrounding ditches no longer carry water. The whole area is covered with trees, bushes and nettles, there are also snowdrops and wild daffodils.
Since the end of the 20th century, an ecumenical service has been held in the southern area of Calenberg Castle on the morning of Ascension Day if the weather is favorable (status: 2007).
Calenberg Mill
The first Calenberg mill was in Calenberg Castle. In 1363 the castle had a mill and a customs post on the Leine Bridge. The Calenberger mill on Leineinsel near Schulenburg was a water mill. She is shown on a Merian copperplate engraving from 1654.
Around 1880, a single-track, non-electrified railway line 4.3 kilometers in length was led from Nordstemmen station to the Calenbergen mill. Freight traffic was stopped around the end of the 1950s, and track dismantling followed in the 1960s.
The "Calenberger Mühle" hydropower plant was operated by Ernst Malzfeldt & Sons until 1988 on the Leineinsel. With a water level difference of approx. 5 meters, the hydropower plant represented a considerable barrier for the ecological continuity of the line . Therefore, a structural change was carried out in 2009 and 2010 to create ecological continuity to allow the fish to ascend and descend at the water mill to enable.
After its closure, the Calenberg watermill was sold to a process technology company.
literature
- Heiner Juergens, Carl Wolff, Arnold Nöldeke et al. : The art monuments of the province of Hanover ; Part 29: I. Region of Hanover , Bd. 3: The art monuments of the Springe district , Hanover: Self-published by the provincial administration, Theodor Schulzes Buchhandlung, 1941, pp. 30–33, 185, 191f. u.ö .; Preview over google books
- Kurt Brüning , Heinrich Schmidt (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 2: Lower Saxony and Bremen (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 272). 4th, improved edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-520-27204-0 , pp. 91-93.
- Edgar Kalthoff: The castle and fortress Calenberg - attempt at a reconstruction . In: Burgen und Schlösser, 19 (1), 1978, pp. 2–11
- Edgar Kalthoff: The history of Calenberg Castle . In: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte, 50 (1978), pp. 321–346
- Historical Museum am Hohen Ufer, Hanover, Burgstrasse (Ed.): Calenberg - From the castle to the principality . Hanover 1979
- Carl-Hans Hauptmeyer : Calenberg - history and society of a landscape . Hanover 1983
- Eckard Steigerwald: Pattensen. On the history and development of the villages (until the end of the 16th century). Publication and distribution: Stadt Pattensen 1986.
- Henner Hannig (arr.) Et al. , Gerd Weiß, Walter Wulf (Red.): Pattensen-Schulenburg. In: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony , Volume 13.1: Landkreis Hannover , ed. by Hans-Herbert Möller , Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Braunschweig 1988, ISBN 3-528-06207-X , pp. 128f., 238-242; as well as Schulenburg / City of Pattensen , o. Cit., P. 308
- Peter Arnold, Henner-Ekkehard guy: Calenberg. In: Peter Arnold, Henner-Ekkehard Kerl: 111 castles and manors in Lower Saxony. 3. Edition. Madsack, Hannover 1990, ISBN 3-7860-0032-8 , p. 110f.
- Eckard Steigerwald: The Calenberg festivals: a forgotten monument to Lower Saxony's history? Rotary Club Calenberg-Pattensen, Pattensen around 1991.
- Eckard Steigerwald: How realistic is Merian's engraving from the Calenberg Festival? In: Burgen und Schlösser 1992 / I, pp. 23–25.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bremen, Lower Saxony. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-422-03022-0
- Hans-Wilhelm Heine : The prehistoric and early historical castle walls in the administrative district of Hanover. Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-7752-5645-8
- Margret Zimmermann, Hans Kensche: Castles and palaces in Hildesheimer Land . Hildesheim, 2001, pp. 148-151
cards
- Field name map 1: 10,000 sheet 5/3 Gestorf of the district of Hanover, Cartography department, undated (1986).
- Field names lexicon for field names , published by the district of Hanover. Editing Heinz Weber Part 5,3: Gestorf . Series of publications: Field names collection of the district of Hanover. n.d. (1986).
- Field name map 1: 10,000 sheet 6/3 Alt-Calenberg of the district of Hanover, Cartography department, undated (1981).
- Field names lexicon for field names , published by the district of Hanover. Edited by Heinz Weber Part 6.3: Alt-Calenberg . Series of publications: Field names collection of the district of Hanover. n.d. (1987).
Archives
- GSTA Berlin, HA STA Königsberg, HBA A2 1584–1586 (K. 92) Inventarium 3: Calenberg.
- Celle Br 2 No. 335, Br 57 No. 126.
- HSTA Düsseldorf, Werden Akten V d, No. 1, Bl. 2.
- Nds. Main State Archives Hanover, Cal Br 2 No. 78 + 335, Cal Br 8 No. 944, Cal Br 21, 2869, Hann 74 Cal. No. 93 + 1302 + 1303 + 1342, Hann 76 c B No. 101, Hann 88A No. 989.
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann zu Schulenburg, Calenberg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Feste Calenberg in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas
- Historical reconstruction drawing
- Calenberg castle ruins at burgenwelt.de
- Search for Burg Calenberg in the German Digital Library
- Search for "Alt Calenberg" in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
swell
- ↑ Flurnamenlexikon zur Flurnamenkarte , published by the district of Hanover. Edited by Heinz Weber Part 6.3: Alt-Calenberg . Series of publications: Field names collection of the district of Hanover. o. J. (1987), pp. 13, 50 and 53.
- ↑ Assumed river arms are on the Flurnamenlexikon zur Flurnamenkarte , published by the district of Hanover. Edited by Heinz Weber Part 6.3: Alt-Calenberg . Series of publications: Field names collection of the district of Hanover. undated (1987). Today they are no longer recognizable in aerial photos because of the gravel mining.
- ↑ Gerd Lüttig: New results of quaternary geological research in the Alfeld-Hameln-Elze area. In: Geological Yearbook Volume 77, Hanover, June 1960, p. 382.
- ↑ Railway line from Nordstemmen station to Calenberger Mühle.
- ↑ Establishing ecological continuity on the leash in the area of the Calenberger Mühle. ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
