Kirchenthumbach Castle

Formerly colored view of Kirchenthumbach from 1910 (middle right so-called "Schlössl")

The Kirchenthumbach Castle is a abgegangenes castle in the Upper Palatinate municipality Kirchenthumbach in Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria .

history

For the first time Thumbach was given a donation (also from Weltechesberg, Grub , Mosbach, Wichstein, Grüntanne, Drogenesreuth) from Noble Adelheid von Wartberg by her husband Count Kunrath (Kuno) von Hornberg- Lechsgmünd in the presence of Bishop Egilbert to the monastery at the Michelsberg called the Archdiocese of Bamberg . Adelheid von Wartberg was the daughter of Heinrich von Limburg and his wife Adelheid von Pottenstein , sister of Count Palatine Boto von Pottenstein . Thumbach was a morning gift ( praedium ) from her first husband. In her second marriage she married Count Konrad II von Dachau . Probably no children emerged from both marriages, which explains the many donations from the nobility comitessa de Wartperch († 1146) to the church. A witness to this legacy was Heinrich von Bibra , who had the transferred property as a fief.

1174 sold (or exchanged) the monastery Michelsberg Thumbach to the count Adelfolk von Reifenberg ; he had a white tower in his coat of arms, which became the city coat of arms of Kirchenthumbach . Adelfolk and his wife Richenza as well as his nephews, the brothers Reinhold and Eberhard von Reifenberg , also founded the Speinshart Monastery in 1145 . These two did not come back from the Third Crusade in 1189/90 and their property (e.g. Haselbrunn , Tremmersdorf ) also went to the monastery. Adelfolk von Reiffenberg belonged to the Otelingen -Reifenberg- Walpot dynasty family , who were wealthy around Vohburg, the lower Wiesenttal, Zwernitz and Speinshart . The brother of Adelfolk von Reiffenberg was the Bamberg Bishop Eberhard II.

1181 King Henry VI confirmed . Speinshart Monastery his properties (three farms and a mill) in Tumpac and Niedertumpac . On November 13, 1268, the Speinshart monastery property in Tumpach passed from the two brothers Eberhard and Ulrich die Bürgel to Chunrad von Frankenberg . 1326 Thumbach is referred to in the ducal Salbuch of the Thurndorf office as a “built-up village”. In 1341 Heinrich Frankenberger sold his goods at Thumbach to the Speinshart monastery.

Coat of arms of the block according to Siebmacher's book of arms

In the following time, the place seems to have been divided: In 1441 Michael Oberndorffer from the line of Oberndorffer von Mockersdorf owned one half, which his father, the Bamberg castle man and judge zu Vilseck Hans Oberndorffer , inherited from Konrad Frankenberger in 1416 . The other half belonged to Wilhelm and Hans Nequer von Metzenhof . These brothers sold their share in 1460 to Lorenz Rasch , who was Landschreiber zu Eschenbach until 1468 . The Rasch is the first to speak of a seat to Thumbach. Lorenz Rasch had at his death († 1485) the children Hans (1490 Richter zu Thumbach, married to the daughter of Jakob Klotz zu Metzenhof , died in 1524 as a teacher in Amberg ), Peter (he inherited Thumbach ), Anton (student at Leipzig and from June 30, 1472 professor of theology) and Anna Amalie (married to Heinrich Gries von Zettlitz) . In 1485 Hans Rasch issued a feudal lapel to Abbot Andreas von Michelsberg over the seat and half of the courtyard in Kirchenthumbach, while Erasmus Oberndorffer had the other half as a fief. In 1524 the abbot Johann enfeoffed the brothers Peter and Anton Rasch with the seat and half the yard of Kirchenthumbach and in 1534 the abbot Martin enfeoffed Peter Rasch alone.

In 1536 Peter Rasch sold his share to Heinrich Giech zu Witpfar, Richter zu Michelfeld; Witnesses were the Burgsasse von Thurndorf and Jakob Kotz von Metzenhof. 1540 Heinrich von Giech invested with half the farm to Thumbach, owner of Burghut were Christoph Brand and his wife Salome Gleißenthal . In 1478 Michael Oberdoffer , son of Erasmus Oberndorffer († 1505) was enfeoffed with the other half and four salary estates from Kirchenthumbach . Although he wanted to sell his share to Hans Rasch , son of Lorenz Rasch , this did not happen because of his death. As a result, there was an inheritance dispute between Ulrich von Oberndorff zu Flossenburg and his son Hans , judge from Bärnau , on the one hand, and Contz Oberndoffer , land clerk from Eschenbach and Auerbach , on the other. In 1510 the court in Amberg awarded the latter the entire estate of Erasmus Oberndorffer . In 1511 it was enfeoffed to Konrad Oberndorffer , Landschreiber zu Eschenbach and Auerbach († 1522). His son Georg Oberndorffer , judge zu Thumbach, sold his share to Conz Albersdorfer zu Pfaffenfeld in 1534 . His son Hans sold his property on July 8, 1569 to Lorenz von Guttenberg , court marshal of the Bishop of Bamberg ; he had already bought the other half of the Thumbacher property from Christoph and Veit Giech in 1567 .

In 1568 Jobst Brand , son of Christoph Band , carer of Grafenwöhr, followed in possession of the Burghut . In 1601 a Christoph Heinrich von Brand appears who called himself Kirchenthumbach, Menzlas and Ernstfeld . In 1615 he was replaced by Christoph Peter von Brand . On August 5, 1616, the widow of Lorenz von Guttenberg and Christoph Peter von Brand sold the "noble estate and six teams" to Hans Ernst von Mengersreuth on Riglasreuth , Burggrub and Tagmanns ; thus Kirchenthumbach was again in one hand. As a Protestant, after the beginning of the Counter-Reformation , he resisted attempts to recatholicize and was expelled from the country. He was asked to sell his goods; But that didn't happen because he died childless in 1630. The goods were then confiscated from Michelfeld Monastery, which was the feudal lord of Kirchenthumbach at the time. The abbot then gave the estate to the Jülischen chancellor Dietrich Alkoven .

In 1645 the castle was owned by the Thumbach citizen Hans Merz . Kotz von Metzenhof bought it from him and it stayed with this family in 1770. Then followed the forester Elb , a Guttenberg Vogt, the officer from Wenkheim , an officer from the Sauerzapf family , whose "widow was Protestant", and finally the widow Josepha Freiin von Frönau auf Offenstetten zu Metzenhof .

Schlossbau or "Schlössl"

The location of the castle in Kirchenthumbach, which has changed over time, is not exactly known. It is assumed, however, that the first castle was located in the area of ​​the parish church of the Assumption , as it was enclosed with a strong wall and reinforced with four towers. This facility must have been very competitive at one point, because during the renovation of the school building next to it, numerous skeletons were found and it was said, “ Whole bodies of old knights were dug out with their ancient features. The bones of a corpse have been found almost unharmed. On the skull you could see clear traces of a saber blow ... ”. It is not known when the area was given to the church and a new castle was built. This then stood outside of the town “near Thumbach” and not “in Thumbach” (today Auerbachstrasse). From the period around 1800 it says: “ Up until the 19th century, the Schlössl was surrounded by a deep ditch filled with water, in which fish that otherwise like to live in cold water found good growth. The drawbridge at the front entrance was also preserved for so long. And anyway, the whole thing still offers quite a few traces of essential features of knightly antiquity, one may consider the construction of the apartment or the curtain wall; The ancient loopholes can still be seen clearly. “It is depicted as a three-story tall building with a hipped roof and dormer windows.

For a while the place had taken possession of the "Schlössl", which it then sold to the regional court clerk Prechtl . His widow Anna Prechtl sold the estate to Michael Brunnhuber von Eschenbach and Franz Grafberger von Pressath in 1806 . These two destroyed the property in 1806, the castle building was sold to a glazier from Thumbach. The castle kept falling and has only existed as a bourgeois dwelling since 1845.

literature

• Paulinus Fröhlich: Kirchenthumbach: Contributions to the history and cultural history of the market Kirchenthumbach. Pp. 8-15. Laßleben, Kallmünz 1951.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Josef Kugler (ed.): Speinshart Monastery: a hidden gem in the Upper Palatinate. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7954-3294-2 , p. 9.
2. ^ Fritz Fürk: Excerpts from the history of the Kirchenthumbach market. In pictures from old times. Markt Kirchenthumbach 1996, p. 3.

Coordinates: 49 ° 44 ′ 47.4 "  N , 11 ° 43 ′ 27.6"  E