Morstein Castle

Morstein Castle
Morstein Castle - View of the half-timbered tower of the outer bailey
Alternative name (s):	Morstein Castle
Creation time :	13th Century
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Receive
Standing position :	Ministerialenburg
Construction:	Humpback block masonry
Place:	Gerabronn -Morstein
Geographical location	49 ° 13 '12.1 "  N , 9 ° 52' 55.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '12.1 "  N , 9 ° 52' 55.8"  E
Height:	410.7  m above sea level NN

Castle Morstein is the name of a Stauffer period spur castle complex in the region Hohenlohe , whose Palas after a fire in the 16th century as a Renaissance - castle was rebuilt. The facility stands on a mountain spur on the outskirts of the hamlet of Morstein on the plateau above the Jagst, which flows west here . The hamlet used to be part of the then still independent community of Dünsbach and is now part of the town of Gerabronn in the Schwäbisch Hall district in Baden-Württemberg .

description

Keep with palas and round tower

The mountain spur between Jagsttal in the north and the north-westerly blade of the Dünsbach on which the castle stands is separated from the mountain and town by a ditch in the southeast of the complex. Immediately at the neck ditch rises a ring wall that encompasses both the outer bailey and the core bailey behind it . A round tower at the southern tip of the facility in the corner of the Halsgraben and Dünsbach Gorge secures the outer bailey, and a small outbuilding on the inside of the outer bailey is attached to the gorge flank. Along the slope to the Jagsttal in the north, a noticeably larger outbuilding of the outer bailey stretches from the northeast corner of the complex to the west to the Zwingermauer. Access to the castle is made possible by a stone bridge spanning the middle section of the neck ditch, which is covered on the castle side by a timber-frame tower. A section wall closes the outer bailey to the west-north-west.

Behind it lies an inner ditch within the curtain wall, which separates the inner castle from the outer bailey, which rises behind it. You can also get there today via a stone bridge, which was built in place of a medieval drawbridge , the remains of which can still be traced today. The wall of the inner bailey digging out forms here with this themselves and the opposite wall of the main castle a kennel-like end of the main castle to the mountain.

Consisting hump blocks built medieval keep dominates the main castle, he is about in the middle of the wall to the inner moat. In the south of it, the Palas , which was rebuilt as a palace in the Renaissance style , is the main building of the complex; it presents itself to the place with a magnificent stepped gable. On the gorge side, the complex is closed off by a mighty round tower on the south corner, also by the main castle and the hall. It is shaped by a stately gallery that continues along the main building. A chapel is attached to the west-northwest of the hall. To the north of the keep is another outbuilding in the entrance area in the corner of the Zwingermauer and the curtain wall. The rest of the core castle is in the west of the large courtyard enclosed by the curtain wall.

history

Look through the gate

The Lords of Morstein (also Morschstein), first mentioned in a document in 1240, built the complex as a knight's castle in the 13th century. As early as the middle of the 14th century, the Hohenstaufen castle became the property of the knight family of the Lords of Crailsheim , who own the complex to this day.

After a fire in the castle in 1571, the palace, together with the mighty round tower of the inner castle, was rebuilt as a castle. After another fire in 1669, the castle chapel was built in place of the former parish church, which in turn was replaced after another fire on the morning of Christmas Eve 1969 by the new building of the evangelical Church of the Resurrection in Dünsbach in 1973. The gatehouse was the last new building on the complex to be built in 1758.

Trivia

Morstein Castle is one of the settings in Agnes Günther's novel The Saints and Her Fool and is referred to in the novel as Thorstein Castle.

literature

• Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1228-7 , pp. 112-115.

Web links

Commons : Morstein Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Morstein Castle on pro-region.de
2. ↑ Morstein Castle on burgen-web.de (PDF; 151 kB)
3. ↑ Hansgeorg Kraft: Foray through the history of the Evangelical Church Community in Dünsbach ; ed. Ev. Church community Dünsbach, revised version - August 2009
4. ↑ Hansgeorg Kraft: When Stones Preach - The Building of the Church of Resurrection in Dünsbach ; Dünsbach 2009
5. ↑ History of the castle on pro-region.de (PDF; 13 kB)