Grumbach Castle

This article deals with Grumbach Castle in Lower Franconia. For the castle of the same name in the Kusel district see Burg Grumbach .

Grumbach Castle
Grumbach Castle as seen from Mühlwiesenweg (south)
Data
place	Rimpar, Lower Franconia
Coordinates	49 ° 51 '26 "  N , 9 ° 57' 31"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 51 '26 "  N , 9 ° 57' 31"  E

Grumbach Castle is a castle in Rimpar ( Lower Franconia ) and is the greatest attraction of the place. It was built in the 14th century by a line of the Franconian nobility Wolfskeel , which was initially called "Wolfskeel von Grumbach", later only " von Grumbach ”named, built and now serves, among other things, as a home for a museum and numerous exhibitions. Well-known representatives of the Rimpar line of the (Wolfskeel) von Grumbach were Prince-Bishop Johann III. von Grumbach and Wilhelm von Grumbach .

In 1593, Rimpar Castle and the village were acquired by the Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn and served as the summer residence of the Würzburg prince-bishops until the 18th century . The castle has been owned by the municipality of Rimpar, which bought it from the State of Bavaria, since 1980.

history

Rimpar originally belonged to the estates of the noble lords of Grumbach , who were first mentioned in the 11th century and had their ancestral seat in Burggrumbach, which is a district of Unterpleichfeld , and where they built Burggrumbach Castle from the 11th to the 12th century . The family died out in the male line in 1243 with Albert II. His daughter was married to a Count von Rieneck , who then received all of the family's possessions.

Coat of arms of the von Grumbach family before 1492

In 1328, Count Ludwig von Rieneck sold two thirds of his castle in Burggrumbach and all of his possessions in Burggrumbach, Rimpar, Kürnach and Bergtheim. The buyer was a knight Eberhard from the Franconian noble family von Wolfskeel , who later called himself Wolfskeel von Grumbach after his possessions , which his descendants took over, who later only called themselves von Grumbach in this line . These Wolfskeel von Grumbach then had the Grumbach Castle built in Rimpar.

There are no documents about the construction of a castle in Rimpar. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that it could not have been built before around 1370, as the defensive wall is equipped with loopholes for firearms.

It was not until 1371 that Horant von Grumbach was mentioned for the first time as a von Grumbach living in Rimpar . The castle itself was first mentioned in a document in 1469. It is about a division contract between Heinz and Eberhard von Grumbach. At this time, two family members from the Rimpar line became better known: Prince-Bishop Johann III. von Grumbach and Wilhelm von Grumbach . While the former left the Franconian ducal sword as an important relic , Wilhelm von Grumbach, born in 1503 in the castle, served under numerous princes as court marshal, governor of the margravial landscape, colonel of the crown and under numerous other titles. His ascent came to an inglorious end with the beginning of the Grumbachian Handel , when the Ansbach margrave was ostracized by the emperor and he was called a peace-breaker, although there was no reason to do so. Nevertheless, at the instigation of Prince-Bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt, all of his goods were confiscated. An attempt to sue his rights at the Imperial Court of Justice also failed. Wilhelm von Grumbach claims that he lost 17,000 guilders in one year, which is around three million euros today.

In 1558, Prince-Bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt was attacked by a group of armed men on the way to the Marienberg Fortress and shot by a servant of Wilhelm von Grumbach. Most likely this was not the case, but rather a kidnapping was planned - which would have allowed Wilhelm von Grumbach to regain his property. If one ignores his confession under torture in 1567, there is no longer any evidence of the plan of an abduction. In any case, the former court marshal wanted his goods back at all costs, since he had taken the city of Würzburg with 1,300 men. He then forced the cathedral chapter to return his property and was consequently banned from the empire. Von Grumbach had to flee to his well-meaning Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle in Gotha, who did not surrender him even after repeated requests. The situation came to a head to the point that in 1567 an imperial army moved in front of Gotha and took the city. The duke was sentenced to life imprisonment, tortured by Grumbach and then killed.

The imperial ban on Wilhelm von Grumbach

Wilhelm's son, named Konrad von Grumbach, paid the sum of 50,000 guilders to the Würzburg monastery in 1569 in order to regain his father's property. In the period that followed, however, he continued to get into debt through high-cost investments and finally had to sell the castle and the entire village of Rimpar to Würzburg in 1593, with about 250,000 guilders in debt.

In 1593 the castle and village of Rimpar were acquired by the Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn . Before the Rimpar line of those of Grumbach died out with Konrad's son Wilhelm in 1603, the castle and town of Rimpar were rededicated as the summer residence of the Würzburg prince-bishops. Julius Echter had a town hall built, the church renewed and a pleasure house built below the castle. In the interior of the castle, numerous rooms were newly furnished, including the still preserved, stuccoed main hall. Some of the frequent visits were accompanied by around 140 people from the court. Between 1698 and 1739, 36 visits by the bishop can be verified; 26 of them were accompanied by a court of up to 69 people and 10 by a court of up to 160 people.

In 1744, however, the castle was replaced by the Wernecker Landresidenz , which had just been completed, and the walls began to decline.

The castle with gate

The entire west wing was laid in between 1780 and 1793 - the basement of the towers, today's archaeological museum and the moat were filled with the rubble - before the French troops marched in in 1796 and put further demolition plans on hold. It is probably thanks to this fact that the castle is still relatively well preserved today; because instead of further deterioration, a renovation followed in 1800, in which the Welschen were replaced by blunt hoods and thus took on the current appearance. The Royal Bavarian Forestry Office Rimpar, founded in 1806, found its home in the east wing from the start. It only became free again in 1971 when the forestry office was dissolved.

Finally, on July 21, 1980, Rimpar bought the castle under Mayor Anton Kütt , which had previously been owned by the State of Bavaria. The Friends of Grumbach Castle was established in the same year. From 1984 the castle could be used as a town hall after reconstruction and renovation; the inauguration was on May 18, 1985. Since then, only the construction of the castle museum has followed, which was completed with the inauguration on June 25, 2000.

Museums and institutions

Archeology museum

The archeology museum consists of six rooms and a stair tower, which is only partially preserved. This part, which includes 130 square meters of exhibition space, was originally located in the west wing, which, however, as explained above, was inserted at the end of the 18th century with the exception of a few rooms in the basement. The circle of friends did not begin to clear the rubble until 1980.

Only the third application by the association to convert the affected rooms into a museum was approved by the Rimpar municipal council, so that work could begin in 1995. A careful search while clearing away the rubble brought to light over 70 boxes with significant relics, such as ceramic shards, stucco fragments or even brass parts. Only a small part was found undamaged, the larger part was restored and repaired before the exhibition.

The exhibition concept of the museum comes from the 1st chairman Edwin Hamberger. The entrance area houses the cash register and display of the fully preserved sculptural works from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as a large text board with information on the creation of the museum and the history of the palace. The following rooms show a wide variety of vessels made of ceramic and glass, in another room the early history of the Rimpar market is shown. In this room there are also recovered, old tools such as sickles, drilling jigs and spindle whorls. In the basement you can see a collection of stove tiles, stucco and paintings as well as historical lamps, keys and coins. In general, the museum shows not only the castle, but the history of all of Rimpar.

Bakery Museum

The bakery museum was established between 1997 and 2003, here an outline of the history of the bakery trade is given on 150 square meters of exhibition space .

Costume museum

The costume museum is located in the Greiffenklausaal, named after Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Greiffenklau . Large parts of the Franconian costume collection of the Freundeskreis, as well as temporary photo exhibitions on various historical topics, are presented here. A special exhibition takes place in these rooms in October every year.

Bricklayer and Carpentry Museum

The bricklayer and carpentry museum was created between 2008 and 2009 based on the idea and planning of Edwin Hamberger. It is housed in the so-called water tower. In nine display cabinets and shop walls, the job descriptions of the will bricklayer and carpenter presented.

Crime museum

In the so-called Grumbach prison, a tower with three prisons one above the other, a small permanent exhibition on the jurisdiction of the late Middle Ages is presented on the ground floor.

Knights Halls (Great and Small Hall)

Coat of arms frieze in the great knight's hall

According to the Freundeskreis Schloss Grumbach, the rooms are among the “ most beautiful Renaissance halls in Germany ”. In the large hall there is a coat of arms frieze that was attached to the wedding of Konrad von Grumbach and Salome von Vellberg . It represents a sample of nobility and consists of 16 coats of arms each of the ancestors of the bride and groom, i.e. the coats of arms of their great-great-grandparents.

Big kitchen

Apart from the second kitchen in the area of ​​today's restaurant, there used to be another, larger kitchen on the ground floor of the west wing. Their size is estimated at around 118 square meters, not including ancillary rooms such as the sideboard, scullery, kitchen room, knight's room and silver room. They took up another 90 square meters. In the basement under the kitchen was a wine cellar with an estimated capacity of 213,000 liters. The considerable size of the kitchen rooms is mainly due to the fact that even prince-bishops resided in the castle.

Friends of Grumbach Castle

A group of 18 people met on April 18, 1980 in the Hamberger house to form an interest group with reference to Grumbach Castle. At that time, the Rimpar market was considering buying the castle, but it had not yet been completed. At the meeting, the goals of the emerging association were set. The primary task should be the preservation of the castle with the help of the monument office. Furthermore, the castle was to acquire supra-regional importance and to be further researched - among other things by clearing rubble and uncovering it. The goals were accepted and Edwin Hamberger was elected chairman.

Another meeting took place on July 17th of the same year; Above all, the official foundation on September 16 in the knight's hall of the castle was discussed and decided. In the meantime the purchase was made by the Rimpar community, whereby the Freundeskreis claims a positive influence from its establishment.

As planned, the association was officially founded on September 16 at the specified location. In the following time the association raised half a million German marks in donations for the museum and castle, built the museums itself and was able to hold almost 200 events.

literature

• Edwin Hamberger: The princely country palace at Rimpar in the 17th and 18th centuries. Wuerzburg 1988.
• Barbara Schock-Werner: Style as legitimation. “Historicism” in the buildings of the Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn. In: Holes, Kurt (ed.): Retrospective tendencies in art, music and theology around 1600. Acts of the interdisciplinary symposium, 30/31. March 1990 in Nuremberg. Nuremberg 1991, pp. 51–82, here on Rimpar Castle, pp. 66ff. with floor plan.
• 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 , pp. 136-137.

Web links

Commons : Grumbach Castle (Rimpar)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Grumbach Castle on the official website of the Rimpar market
• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schock-Werner, Barbara: Style as Legitimation. “Historicism” in the buildings of the Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn. In: Holes, Kurt (ed.): Retrospective tendencies in art, music and theology around 1600. Acts of the interdisciplinary symposium, 30/31. March 1990 in Nuremberg. Nuremberg 1991, pp. 51-82, here pp. 66ff.
2. ^ Archaeological Museum. Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on June 19, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Bakery Museum. Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on June 19, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Costume Museum. Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on June 19, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Bricklayer and Carpentry Museum. Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on June 19, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Crime Museum . Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on June 19, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Castle: Knights Halls. (No longer available online.) Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, archived from the original on May 19, 2016 ; Retrieved May 19, 2016 . 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.  
8. ↑ Stucco from the 17th and 18th centuries. History – Technology – Preservation, p. 153. (No longer available online.) Jürgen Pursche, 2008, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on August 5, 2014 . 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.  
9. ↑ Castle: large kitchen. (No longer available online.) Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, archived from the original on May 19, 2016 ; Retrieved May 19, 2016 . 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.  
10. ^ Association. Freundeskreis Schloß Grumbach eV, February 15, 2013, accessed on May 19, 2016 .