Obersontheim Castle

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Obersontheim Castle
View to the east of Obersontheim Castle. V. l. No. North tower, extension from the 20th century, Friedrichsbau, behind this the visibly larger and older Erasmusbau and the west tower.

The Obersontheim Castle is the former residence of a branch of the rich count's family of the taverns of Limpurg . It is located in the eponymous capital of the municipality Obersontheim in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in north-eastern Baden-Württemberg .

location

The castle is located at the intersection of the streets between Schwäbisch Hall and Ellwangen as well as Gaildorf and Crailsheim , about 10 meters high above the old town center of Obersontheim in the valley, on the north-western foot of a flat hill that stretches down from the high terrace to the Bühler floodplain flows past less than 100 meters from the castle. From the north tower, the main street of the village leads in the valley southeast and upstream towards Ellwangen and Crailsheim, northwest and downstream towards Schwäbisch Hall, and southwest towards Gaildorf, a steep road climbs up a stream valley cut, initially towards the castle, which is bounded by a high retaining wall. To the east of the castle are the village church and town hall, which were built around the same time. In the south, a large garden belonging to the castle area stretches up the rest of the ascent to the hill.

history

Gate tower coat of arms stone from 1562
Double coat of arms stone of Schenk and wife from 1544 on the staircase tower of the (oldest) Erasmus wing
Sketch of the castle floor plan

The castle was built in the 16th century by Schenk Erasmus, who, after a long dispute, sold the Limpurg Castle , which gave the family its name, to the nearby imperial city of Schwäbisch Hall in 1541 and created a new residence in Obersontheim. The keystone above the door to the main wing bears the year 1543, in the double coat of arms of Schenk and Wife attached the year 1544, on the gate tower coat of arms stone the year 1562. After the male taverns died out in 1713, the castle had different owners, up to In 1904, the Samaritan Foundation opened a nursing home in the building.

The care pen still exists today (2008). The foundation wants to leave the premises in the foreseeable future. In recent years, renovation work has taken place with a view to a change of use.

Building description

The buildings of the castle form roughly a horseshoe open to the northeast.

The oldest wing ("Erasmusbau") is also the largest, it is located in the southeast facing northeast, has a length of about 32 meters, a width of about 15 meters and has three floors and three attics under a gable roof . The lowest floor begins at a height of two to three meters above the ground, below is a gate to a wide staircase leading down to a continuous vaulted cellar. In front of the wing in the middle, facing the inner courtyard, is an octagonal stair tower with a spiral staircase through which one enters the wing.

The younger wing ("Friedrichsbau") lies northwest parallel to it, according to its coat of arms 159? (last digit illegible) brought "under roof", although of the same length, but of otherwise consistently reduced dimensions. It is only about 13 meters wide, floor height, eaves height and its octagonal spiral staircase tower, which is also in front of the inner courtyard, are noticeably smaller than the south wing. Towards the inner courtyard, however, its gable roof bears a hatch , on the outside two large dormer windows and a row of dormer windows.

In the southwest these two main buildings are connected by a narrow transverse wing about 18 meters long. Them and enclosed on three sides so courtyard is upstream northeast a wider yard of about the same depth, which is defined in the east-southeast is externally recognizable by the loopholes, a by a flat and narrow Gebäudezug, by the walkway moved. In the middle there is a small gate tower, in front of which a stone bridge spans the moat, they form the main entrance to the castle from the center of the village. At the top of the gate tower, the wooden rollers of an old drawbridge are still visible today. The north-western opposite side of the outer courtyard is bounded by a tract, which is obviously more recent, under which, bordering the adjoining north wing, an arch-free, rectangular passage leads. In the middle of the outer courtyard is an 18th century fountain made of light limestone tuff.

The castle has round towers at three of the four corners, half of the outer fronts of the square. The hill-side west tower rises highest, it has a diameter of about 9 meters and has a conical roof. The north and east corner towers are lower down at valley level, their roofs have the shape of a rotational hyperboloid . The one to the east towards the inner village does not reach the top of the eaves height of the south wing. There is no tower in the south deck, although the adjoining area rises the most here, but there is still a kennel in front of the main wing here on the south-east side.

In the northeast, a retaining wall drops off steeply to the village and valley in front of the outer courtyard, in the southeast and southwest a ditch up to about 10 meters deep surrounds the complex, which is heavily filled at least where the above-mentioned access bridge crosses it today. Today there is no ditch in front of the building on the northwest side.

Window reveals, door frames and coat of arms stones are made of light green sandstone. A few unplastered areas on the building walls and all three stone-faced towers show the same building material. The old plaster on the west tower was recently removed as part of the renovation work, the other two were also previously unplastered. The more modern extension to the northwest of the outer courtyard has limestone soffits. Two gutters on the main wing terminate in scorpionfish gargoyles.

The moat in the southwest towards the hill is now spanned by a stone arch bridge, which enables the residents to easily visit the garden. There is also a freight elevator tower at the rear of the transverse wing in the trench.

literature

  • Gerd Wunder, Max Schefold, Herta Beutter: Limpurg's taverns and their country . ( Research from Württembergisch Franconia . Volume 20). Sigmaringen 1982, ISBN 3-7995-7619-3 , p. 23f.
  • Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1228-7 , pp. 163-166.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See pages 89f., 197f. the Hällische Chronik mentioned in the web links.
  2. ↑ a b See the "Festschrift ..." on the web links.
  3. ↑ a b c d e All length measurements were determined by walking.

Coordinates: 49 ° 3 ′ 25.5 ″  N , 9 ° 53 ′ 49 ″  E