Furth Castle in the forest

City tower of the city of Furth in the forest

The only remnants of the castle Furth im Wald are located in the Upper Palatinate town of Furth im Wald in the Cham district of Bavaria (Schlossplatz). The castle stood in the southeast of the upper town near the steep drop of the city hill to the east or south.

history

The name of the place can easily be derived from a ford over the cold Pastritz . Various old streets met here, once the one that ran from Nuremberg or Regensburg via Cham to Bohemia , but also the one that led from Straubing via Kötzting into the city. The first mention of the village villa Uurte originates from 9 April 1086, when Emperor Henry IV. These and other goods in the Mark Cham the Regensburg Domvogt Friedrich II. Gives. There is no evidence of a fortification for this time, although the construction of a castle by the Counts of Bogen is often assumed. After the Bogener counts died out in 1242, Furth passed to the Wittelsbach family and was added to the Eschlkam district court . The naming of a customs office in the land register of the Viztumamt Straubing comes from 1301. In the following years the former street settlement is relocated to the hill; In 1332 Furth was raised to the rank of town . Furth came to the Duchy of Upper Bavaria in 1340 through Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian as a result of the reunification of the entire Bavarian Duchy of Lower Bavaria . Together with the district court Eschlkam, Furth was pledged to the Palatinate Wittelsbacher in 1352 , after redemption in 1361, Furth remained in the hands of the Lower Bavaria-Straubing-Holland line until 1425 .

At that time there might have been a guard tower on Schlossplatz in Furth , but it can be seen in connection with a fortified cemetery. In 1424 two riflemen were sent to the churchyard in Gein ford . Already in the confirmation of the town charter from 1450 reference is made to the damage suffered by the Bohemians. The church, which has been attested since the end of the 14th century, was enclosed by a trapezoidal curtain wall and partly secured with a rampart and moat. It was presumably accessible through two gates. In the course of the Hussite Wars , the city was badly affected again and again in 1421 and then in the following years. In 1434 several servants of the Bohemian knight Ratzko von Riesenberg are said to have holed up in the churchyard after an attack on the knight Martin Lengfelder zu Pützenfels . In 1449, the Vizedom von Straubing, Dietrich von Stauff zu Ehrenfels , and the rent master Heinrich Vinder proposed that the church yard be expanded into a bulwark and occupied by twelve riflemen. Erasmus Sattelboger should take his seat here as a carer . However, the Sattelboger did not follow this suggestion and in 1450 Furth suffered another fire destruction as part of a feud .

The emergence of the castle, the later care palace, can only be recorded from the middle of the 15th century. At that time, Furth was owned by the Bohemian nobleman Přibik von Klenau from 1451 to 1465 . However, this did not necessarily adhere to that with Duke Albrecht III. decisions made and after his death in 1461 refused to pay homage to his sons. Nevertheless, he received support from the ducal for the construction of the castle. This is also expressed in the deed of title of 7 April 1465 issued to the hereditary steward Hans von Degenberg after Přibik's death . Here it says: to his aigen and to pawen well ain closed , which should be open to the duke. Since this Degenberger played a leading role in the Böckler War , his goods were confiscated in 1468/69 and the construction was swiftly continued under the newly appointed caretaker Ratzko von Rayol , since Furth was to become the headquarters of the main team in front of the forest . By 1470, the complex was largely completed, as indicated by a date stone that was formerly walled up in the gate. Jörg von Egloffstein has been a captain in front of the forest and a carer here since 1473 . The keepers are likely to have lived in the buildings in the military cemetery in Furth, because in the appointment letter of Jan von Wesselyn from 1475 it is said that he should sit in the churchyard in Furtt at home . From 1485 onwards, a Michlspeck is used as a carer . The first reference to a castle chapel comes from this year.

It is uncertain whether Furth was affected in the Landshut War of Succession . Furth then belonged to the district court of Kötzting . When the caretaker Siegmund von Seiboldtsdorf was appointed on August 30, 1510, the castle or palace was explicitly referred to as the caretaker's seat. Furth experienced a significant economic boom in the 16th century, thanks to the work of the two captains Jörg Pfeil (1520–1555) and Wolf Pfeil (1555–1582). These are likely to have pushed the expansion of the care lock further.

View of Furth im Wald after an engraving by Michael Wening from 1726

In the time before the Thirty Years' War , the complex seems to have been neglected. The keeper Paulus Pirk complained about this in 1607 and in 1614 the border captain Matthias Rosenhammer wrote that the kennel with vie stables was ruined . Planned construction work, e.g. B. a hexagonal bastion wreath planned in 1619 because of the tense political situation to improve the defense capability, were omitted. In 1633, during the Thirty Years' War, it was relatively easy for the Swedes to conquer the castle after a twelve-day siege. This caused damage to the lock. In 1641 the Zwinger, the noise tower and the Vorwerk were particularly badly affected by another bombardment. A reconstruction of the city and castle was planned as early as 1645/46, but dragged on until the end of the 17th century. The forework, the outer walling and the outer trenches were abandoned. In spite of this, the complex remained defensible. The gate tower was provided with a new roof turret with an onion dome and the castle was extended to the south as far as the fortress wall.

During the War of the Spanish Succession , the city was conquered in August 1703. The nurse's seat itself is still called a fine lock . Even after the engraving by Michael Wening from 1726, the castle still appears to be defensive with all the towers and the curtain wall. Even during the Austrian War of Succession 1740–1745, the castle was not damaged. The building continued to serve as the seat of the nursing office, but became increasingly neglected.

In 1797 the nursing office was abolished and in 1810 all buildings were auctioned off to private interested parties. The north wall with the towers was already demolished. After 1830 efforts were made to return the buildings to public use, not least to stop their deterioration. On June 29, 1863, the complex was victim of the great city fire and then partially demolished and not rebuilt.

City tower and district court (right) of Furth im Wald

Furth Castle in the forest then and now

The castle complex took up the entire area of ​​the raised dome in the southeast of the city hill and was enclosed by an oval circular wall; In front of this was a wall with a covered battlement, a walled moat and a wall crowned by palisades . The complex had several towers. The larger of these was the so-called noise strand, which had several key notches on the upper floor . This was provided with a hurdle and equipped with three small guns. A two-story gatehouse with a gable roof was in front of the four -story gate tower with a steep pyramid roof and a round-arched passage . This was accessible via a drawbridge . On the other side of the ditch stood a barbican with a closed battlement and partly crenellated ; this connected to the curtain wall. The north side of the Zwingermauer was flanked by the stork and powder towers, the south side was flanked by an unnamed shell and match tower.

The two-storey maintenance lock stretched along the southern curtain wall. It had a steep gable roof and could be entered through an ogival portal. The palace chapel also stood in a structural context. In the courtyard there was a well shaft 33 m deep, which was intact until 1800. This was uncovered and reopened in 2001. This walled shaft carries water from a depth of 4 m. From the beginning, the facility included a farmyard called a building yard. This is first recorded as Pauhof in the Stat from 1607 . The castle builder had the task of providing the caretaker's family and the servants with food and agricultural products.

The way to Schlossplatz leads from the town square past the district court building on the mountain. The district court was built in 1862. The gate tower itself was badly damaged in the town fire of 1863. To the south of the broken gate tower, the neo-Gothic town tower, built in 1865 with a crenellated wreath and corner turrets, was built as a new landmark of the town. To the east of it, the demolition material from the ducal nursing home was used to build the hospital, which from 1883 housed the girls' school and has served as a museum since 1973. To the south of it, the remains of the wall and the ditch were preserved for a long time, but in 1981 they gave way to the construction of an underground car park.

The second entrance to the Schlossplatz leads from the east and was only laid out in 1863. The castle's last remaining defensive tower, the legendary noise tower, is located here . This tower, which was preserved in its original condition until after 1900, has been changed through its use for apartments (window fittings), as has its interior. Only the room known as the dungeon remained in the basement , equipped with a so-called "fear hole" in its vaulted crown, through which the prisoners were lowered into the deep cellar centuries ago.

On the north side of the palace square, parts of the late medieval farm buildings have been preserved in the arched buildings .

literature

• Bernhard Ernst: Castle building in the southeastern Upper Palatinate from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period, Part II catalog (=  work on the archeology of southern Germany . Volume 16 ). Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2001, ISBN 3-933474-20-5 .
• Werner Perlinger: History of the city of Furth im Wald, Volume I. Furth im Wald 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard Ernst, 2001, pp. 86–97.
2. ^ Landestormuseum - Dragon Museum of Furth in the forest .

Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 29.2 ″  N , 12 ° 50 ′ 42.3 ″  E