Ebelsbach Castle

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Ebelsbach Castle

The Ebelsbach Castle is a two-part Renaissance complex in the village of Ebelsbach ( district Hassberge , Lower Franconia ). The historic property was badly damaged in a major fire in September 2009 and should actually be rebuilt, but this has not yet been implemented (as of 2019) and is currently not foreseeable.

history

The gatehouse of the farmyard
Rotenhan coat of arms above the pedestrian gate of the gatehouse
The main building before the major fire
The still intact east gable of the main building
back

The Lords of Rotenhan had lived in Ebelsbach since 1355. At that time, Conrad von Rotenhan zu Rentweinsdorf was enfeoffed with goods in Ebelsbach from the Würzburg monastery . Around 1385 Nikolaus von Rotenhan called himself "zu Ebelsbach". In 1449 the brothers Marx and Jobst von Rotenhan gave their “seat and dwelling” Ebelsbach to the Bamberg monastery Michelsberg as a fief .

The complicated rulership relations in the border area between the rival monasteries Bamberg and Würzburg entangled the brothers Marx and Jobst in a feud with Heinz Fuchs zu Wallburg in 1467 . Ebelsbach Castle itself was a fiefdom of the Bamberg diocese . The moat and the outer wall, however, belonged to the diocese of Würzburg .

The Ebelsbach line of the Lords von Rotenhan expired around 1500. The line to Rentweinsdorf appears as the successor to ownership, which is the only one of the four main lines of the Herren von Rotenhan to survive to this day.

The original medieval residence of the von Rotenhan family can no longer be documented today. The old castle in the town center was completely built over in the early modern period, descriptions of the previous state have not survived. Originally a typical residential tower stood here, as can be seen as the predecessor of several neighboring castles.

The early modern palace, which was well preserved up to the fire disaster of 2009, was essentially built between 1564 and 1569 under Matthew III. from Rotenhan to Ebelsbach. The new building was probably necessary due to the destruction during the Peasants' War . After the fighting was over, the damaged aristocrats were often awarded high sums of damages, which were invested in the repair of the old castles or the construction of representative castle complexes.

The Rotenhan inhabited the Schlossgut with longer interruptions, after the Second World War came in the way of a real division of Ganerbschaftsgüter to the hitherto on the Lower Silesia Good Buchenwald local branch. He sold it in 2000 to a private investor who set up a “business center” there, but had to file for bankruptcy shortly afterwards .

The property is currently owned by an operating company whose manager is the former owner. This had made himself comfortable in the castle. Among other things, the operating company wanted to convert the outbuildings of the castle into holiday apartments .

On the night of September 10, 2009, fires were set in several places in the main building. Despite the rapid notification of the surrounding fire brigades , the castle largely burned out. The historic roof structure of the main building, which was in great need of renovation, was completely destroyed.

The investigations carried out by fire investigators from the State Criminal Police Office immediately after the major fire revealed the cause of the fire to be deliberate arson . The owner or managing director of the operating company plans to rebuild the monument by the end of 2011 and to live there again himself. In the meantime, an emergency roof protects the ruins from further weather damage. Parts of the furniture and equipment could be salvaged.

Building description

Main castle

The largely burned-out main castle is surrounded by a wide, walled dry moat, which could be flooded in the event of a defense. To the east, the water of a stream was channeled through a sluice into the ditch.

The enclosing wall of the castle ring rises from the bottom of the trench. Four well-fortified roundels jump out at the corners , which were raised in the south by octagonal half - timbered towers. The defensive impression is reinforced by the sturdy, hump-backed cuboid facing on the front. At the height of the natural floor level, the masonry jumps out a little over a slope. Numerous rectangular loopholes were used for defense . On the east side, the wall jumps out about 1.5 meters across the width of four window axes. There used to be a battlement on the ground floor .

The actual castle building consists largely of structural framework, which was partially plastered in the area of ​​the main building. In the east and southwest the residential buildings rise directly above the stone Bering. The main building stands in the middle of the curtain wall , but is connected to the Bering by an extension. The south wing has only one half-timbered upper floor, while the main castle has a second floor and is closed off by steep pitched roofs .

The main castle is accessed from the west via a brick bridge. Behind the bridge, a polygonal stair tower with a round arch portal allows access to the main castle. On the archivolt you can see the inscription: "THE * LORD * GUARDED * YOUR * INPUT * VND * EXIT". Like the two southern rondels, the stair tower has a richly profiled slate dome.

Outbuildings

The manor district to the west of the main castle is surrounded by a stone wall. The west side of the curtain wall is reinforced by two round towers, the upper floors of which are interrupted by notches. The lintel of the north-west tower bears the inscription: “I WOLT THE KNOWLEDGE AS IT WAS THE WINE AND WOMEN VMb THE NIGHT DOESN'T WORK LIS * AD * 1 * 5 * 6 * 8”.

A gatehouse with a half-timbered upper floor grants access to the large economic courtyard. The coat of arms of the Lords of Rotenhan is embedded above the pedestrian portal next to the arched gate entrance .

In the north-west corner of the Bering is the simple palace chapel of St. Magdalena (1580) with its three-sided closed choir and a wooden roof turret with an onion dome. Inside, the baroque furnishings and the double gallery with the mansion box are still preserved.

literature

  • Anton Rahrbach, Jörg Schöffl, Otto Schramm: Palaces and castles in Lower Franconia - A complete representation of all palaces, manors, castles and ruins in the Lower Franconian independent cities and districts . Hofmann Verlag, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-87191-309-X , p. 158.
  • Historical Atlas of Bavaria. Part: Franconia. Row 1, Issue 33: Alexander Tittmann: Hassfurt. The former county. Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7696-9696-4 .
  • The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Volume 3: The art monuments of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Booklet 4: Hans Karlinger : District Office Hassfurt. Oldenbourg, Munich 1912 (unaltered reprint. Ibid 1983, ISBN 3-486-50458-4 ).

Web links

Commons : Ebelsbach Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 56.7 "  N , 10 ° 40 ′ 32.2"  E