Griesbach Castle

Griesbach Castle
Griesbach Castle above the Leithental
Creation time :	1810-1817
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	completely preserved
Standing position :	Edelfrei , Pfalzgraf , Duke
Geographical location	48 ° 27 '3.1 "  N , 13 ° 11' 25.1"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 27 '3.1 "  N , 13 ° 11' 25.1"  E

Griesbach Castle and Market in the 18th Century (Engraving by Michael Wening )

Griesbach Castle is a castle in Bad Griesbach im Rottal in the district of Passau . Today it is a branch of the Passau tax office.

history

The castle, which was first mentioned in a document in 1076, was probably founded by the Counts of Vornbach . In 1078 the castle was destroyed in the investiture dispute by the army of King Henry IV , as the Vornbacher were followers of the Pope. When the castle was rebuilt is not known, probably after the return of the Vornbach counts from their Hungarian exile in 1099. At the beginning of the 12th century they gave the Griesbach castle to their vassals , the lords of Griesbach-Waxenberg. Over time, they succeeded in allodising the property . However, the Griesbach-Waxenberger family died out around 1220. The rightful heirs, the Counts of Vornbach, had already died out in 1158, and their heirs, the Counts of Andechs , had been powerless in the Rottal and Inn since their involvement in the regicide and the resulting ostracism in 1208. As it was expressly attested in a document from 1241, the inheritance fell to the Bavarian Count Palatine Rapoto II from the house of the Counts of Ortenburg . How this, however, established and enforced the inheritance is not known; but it can be assumed that he has usurped the possessions. Rapoto expanded the fortress into his administrative center for the Rottal and the Inn.

In 1256 Griesbach fell through marriage to Hartmann I von Werdenberg , who owned the castle to Duke Heinrich XIII in 1260 . sold. This took over the Ortenburg administration and set up a ducal nursing court . The first keeper Wigund can be traced back to 1262. Separate from the nursing court there was also a caste office , headed by a ducal castner . Wernher der Auer (1382–1385) was the first Kastner.

As the important seat of a sovereign authority, the castle was expanded accordingly, namely between 1460 and 1478, when the Schärdingen master mason Stephan Westenholzer built new defensive walls and towers, gatehouses and service areas. In the Landshut War of Succession in 1504, unlike Griesbach, it was spared from destruction. Hans Donauer the Elder depicted the complex around 1590 on the fresco in the Antiquarium of the Munich Residence .

During the War of the Austrian Succession , Griesbach Castle was badly damaged in 1743, but was soon repaired. In 1799 the nursing and caste office was dissolved and a provisional district court was set up , and in 1802 a rent office was established .

On May 8, 1805, the castle burned down almost completely. The rent office was initially relocated to St. Salvator Monastery and in 1808 to Ortenburg Castle . In 1810, the Burghausen court master builder Franz Anton Glonner built two large "dicastery tracts" on the foundations of the old complex, omitting the keep and the fortifications. In 1817 one of the grain barns was converted into a rent office, and in 1858 the other grain barn became a local court with fron festivals. Another extension took place in 1912 when the district court was moved from the castle to a new building. The rent office was raised by one floor, and the new building of the district office, which later became the district office of the district of Griesbach im Rottal , was added.

To the northeast of the castle is the late Gothic castle church of St. Michael from around 1500. It has an onion dome , was a parish church until the town parish church of the Holy Family was built in 1913 and is now used as a cemetery church. The drawbridge between the church and the castle collapsed in 1822 and was replaced by a dam. A branch of the Passau tax office is now housed in the castle itself.

The stone fountain figure Fischbub in the courtyard of the palace is one of the last works by the Passau sculptor Otto Zirnbauer and dates from 1969.

literature

• Gottfried Schäffer, Gregor Peda: Castles and palaces in the Passau region . Pannonia Verlag, Freilassing 1977, ISBN 3-7897-0060-6 , pp. 12-13.
• Richard Loibl : The rulership of the Counts of Vornbach and their successors  ( Historical Atlas of Bavaria, Altbayern Series II, Issue 5 ), Munich 1997

Web links

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

• History of Griesbach Castle