Fürfeld Castle

Fürfeld Castle

Fürfeld Castle in Fürfeld , a district of Bad Rappenau in the district of Heilbronn in northern Baden-Württemberg , dates back to a medieval castle and was largely given its present form in the 16th and early 18th centuries.

history

In the oldest known mention of Fürfeld so far, the visitation report by Burkhard von Hall from 1288, only one farm is mentioned in Fürfeld. Nevertheless, a castle may already have existed there at that time. By 1380 at the latest, the place was referred to as a city with a castle. The layout of the town and castle probably goes back to the time of the Staufer emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries. The oldest local lords and owners of the castle are the Lords of Fürfeld , first documented in 1302 , who had the same coat of arms and were therefore probably related to the Lords of Neipperg . The oldest parts of the castle, especially the substructure of the terrace building on the south side, show the humpback blocks characteristic of the 12th and 13th centuries .

The lords of Helmstatt , who from 1427 were enfeoffed with the castle and town by the diocese of Worms , further expanded the castle. The cross vault of the tower on the east side of the castle shows the four coats of arms of the families von Helmstatt, von Guttenberg, von Zaiskam and von Holtzapfel.

Alliance coat of arms Philipp von Gemmingen and Agnes Marschallkin von Ostheim from 1535 on the archway of the bridge house

After Fürfeld came into the possession of the Lords of Gemmingen in 1516, the medieval castle was expanded under Philipp von Gemmingen († 1544), which is still documented today by several building inscriptions and alliance coats of arms of Philip and his wife Agnes Marschalkin von Ostheim. The inner portal of the castle is dated to 1519, the outer portal to 1523 and the archway over the access bridge to 1535. Pleikard von Gemmingen (1536–1594) had the lake garden belonging to the castle walled and fortified. His name as well as that of his wife Elisabeth von Nippenburg († 1581) could be read on a Renaissance portal from 1571, which is no longer preserved, the initials of the couple are still on the small fortification tower of the lake garden, which was built in 1577 and called the Schießhäusle . A pond pipe ran through the lake garden , which supplied the castle fountain with water.

There are only a few records from the Thirty Years' War from Fürfeld, but the place as well as the entire surrounding area suffered from the effects of the war. In 1622, around the battle of Wimpfen , the palace library burned down.

The center of Fürfeld around 1820, drawing by Christoph Ludwig Yelin

During the Palatine War of Succession , the palace was destroyed by French troops in 1693. The reconstruction took place from 1706 under Johann Dietrich von Gemmingen (1676-1757) and was very expensive despite the compulsory service of the subjects approved by the diocese of Worms , since Johann Dietrich pledged various rights in Fürfeld, Bonfeld and Wagenbach as early as 1707. Probably due to a lavish lifestyle there were further pledges, which continued under John Dietrich's grandson and heir Johann Philipp Dietrich von Gemmingen (1729-1785), so that the castle and town Fürfeld finally from 1760 to 1786 under the receivership of the Knights Canton Kraichgau were before Johann Dietrich von Gemmingen (1744–1805) took over management of the Fürfeld family. Ownership of the castle was divided between his descendants ( Stuttgart line ) and those of his brother Johann Philipp Dietrich (1729–1785) ( Fürfeld line ).

In the last days of World War II , a first lieutenant and a company commander were quartered in the castle. The German troops withdrew without a fight, so that the place and the castle were saved from destruction. From April 4 to 11, 1945 the castle was confiscated to accommodate American troops, then Polish and Russian civil workers were quartered there, while the castle owner Dietrich von Gemmingen († 1955) stayed in the tenant house. There were numerous clashes, not only between the billeted and the owners, but also between the different civil worker nationalities. The barn and the stable of the castle as well as the cellar of the tenant house were looted several times. After most of the civilian workers had been relocated to camps in Weinsberg ( Camp Weinsberg ) and Heilbronn by May 1, 1945 , another American company moved into the castle by May 22nd. The owner was then able to move into the building again, but until at least May 1946 he still had several quarters to offer soldiers or displaced persons.

description

Relic of a knight statue in the forecourt

Fürfeld Castle is located in the southeast of the historical center of Fürfeld on a slight hill. Access to the three-storey rectangular building with two free-standing corner towers is through a bridge gate from the north-west. The three portals that lead into the castle date from 1519 (inner portal) to 1535 (bridge gate portal). Except for a corner in the south towards the former room square, the castle is surrounded by a massive wall. To the east, the partially walled lake garden connects with the shooting house from 1577. To the north of the castle is the manor belonging to the castle with tenant apartment and stables. The residential building of the Hofgut was built in 1752.

Parts of the facility that no longer exist today include the Lower Castle of the Stuttgart line of the von Gemmingen family , which was once located north of the Hofgut , the tithe barn on Zimmerplatz south of the castle, which was demolished in 1979, and another tower in the Seegarten east of the castle that was still in place in 1829, and other stables to the west of the castle .

Relics of the old Fürfeld church, which was converted into a barn in 1874 after the completion of the Protestant church, were placed in the moat , including the tomb of Anna von Helmstatt, née. von Neuenstein († 1448), the tomb of Anna von Vellberg († 1471), the heavily worn tombstone of Elisabeth von Nippenburg († 1581), the tomb of Heinrich Otto von Gemmingen (1771–1831) and his wife Elisabetha nee. Strauss (1777–1824) and the tomb of the postman Johannes Strauss († 1789). In the course of 2012, the tombs in the castle moat were removed. A small lapidarium with fragments of historical stone sculptures and the grave slabs of Anna von Vellberg and Elisabeth von Nippenburg has been preserved in a garden in front of the castle .

References and comments

1. ↑ In Stocker (1865) and in the description of the Oberamt Heilbronn (1903) the six-fold Zaiskam coat of arms is still incorrectly referred to as the five-fold divided Gemmingen coat of arms. The rewriting of the coat of arms and the dating of the tower to the time of the Helmstatt before 1516 goes back to the heraldist Hartmut Riehl from the year 2000.

literature

• Gustav Neuwirth: History of the City of Bad Rappenau . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1978
• Fürfeld - from the past and present of the former imperial knighthood town . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 2001, ISBN 3-929295-77-6
• Julius Fekete : Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn . 2nd Edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , pp. 93/94.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Fürfeld  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 12 '31.1 "  N , 9 ° 3' 34.8"  E