Schmiedelfeld Castle

Schmiedelfeld Castle 2018

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Castle Schmiedelfeld is a former limpurgische small residence on the edge of Kocher valley above the hamlet of the town of Sulzbach Sulzbach-Laufen in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Wuerttemberg .

location

The former castle stands on a mountain spur that is bordered by two side canyons and tapering to the southwest, about 100 m above the mouth of the Eisbach in the Kocher . Uphill from the castle there are some properties on the feeder road up to the junction of the upper bend of Steigenstraße K 2633, which climbs up the spur from Sulzbach. They belonged together with the castle to a small old community until the administrative reform of 1971, which was then incorporated into Sulzbach as Schloßschmiedelfeld .

construction

The building is a horseshoe-shaped structure with a central courtyard, to which a short, steep ramp leads up from the mountain side, and is now used as a private residential building. Only an elongated medieval wall reminds of the original castle from the 12th century. Towards the valley, protruding slightly above the castle itself, the former castle church from the Renaissance stands in front of its south deck , today renovated and rededicated as an event room.

history

The original spur castle was built in the 12th century. She was the ancestral home of the Lords of Schmiedelfeld, a Staufer ministerial family that finds first recorded mention in 1172 with Siegfried of Smidelfeld and 1245 called for the last time. The castle later came into the possession of the Counts of Oettingen , at the beginning of the 14th century to the Lords of Hohenlohe and around 1400 to the taverns of Limpurg .

When the taverns divided their county in 1441, Schmiedelfeld came to the Gaildorf line. When this line split again in 1557, Schmiedelfeld became the residence of a new branch line that built a Renaissance palace next to the old castle. This line died out in 1682, and their property fell to Wilhelm Heinrich von Limpurg-Gaildorf (1652–1690). After his death and a long inheritance dispute between his daughters and sons-in-law on the one hand and his sister Sophie Eleonore (1655–1722) and her husband Vollrat Schenk von Limpurg-Speckfeld (1641–1713) on the other hand, Schloss and Herrschaft Schmiedelfeld came to Sophie Eleonore, who owned the castle exempted from the previous fiefdom commitment to the prince provost of Ellwangen .

In 1739 the palace, now owned by their five daughters, was demolished and a baroque palace-like building was erected in its place . In 1772 the common property was divided, Schmiedelfeld passed to Countess Juliane Franziska Leopoldine Theresie, widowed Countess of the Rhine of Dhaun-Grumbach, née von Prösing. The lordship, one of seven small lordships that emerged from the former county of Limpurg, was now called Limpurg-Sontheim-Schmiedelfeld. After the countess's death, her children inherited the rule and sold it to Duke Carl von Württemberg for 375,000 guilders in 1781 . Schmiedelfeld became the seat of a Württemberg staff office . However, Württemberg did nothing to preserve the castle, in contrast to the buildings next to it: the office building, the hunter's house and farm buildings. As early as 1792 it is reported that it was only inhabited by one overseer.

In 1832 the Württemberg state sold the entire former aristocratic property including the castle to the community of Schmiedelfeld. In the same year, one wing of the castle was torn down to the first floor and converted into a brewery . The castle chapel was converted into an inn.

Castle Church

The former castle church is one of the few religious buildings of the Renaissance in the district of Schwäbisch Hall. It was donated in 1594/95 by the giver Eleonore, the wife of the giver Johannes III, and served as an inheritance burial for the Limpurg-Schmiedelfeld line. The building was built on the surrounding walls of the previous Gothic building, from which the ogival tracery windows and the choir vault were also taken over. The Romanesque original building can only be proven in the area of the foundation. The renovation of 1594/95 included the redesign of the interior to a Protestant sermon church in the form of a transverse church , although the use as a burial place and the associated installation of epitaphs determined the appearance of the interior. The organ was built in 1610 by a well-known blind artist, Konrad Schott.

The sale and the profanation in 1837 led to considerable structural changes, defacements and damage. The former church subsequently served as a house, restaurant and stable. Only the stucco rib vault in the choir with its figurative vault beginners and the southern part of the stucco ceiling in the nave remained intact .

In 1994 the Sulzbach-Laufen Heimat- und Kulturverein acquired the dilapidated building. It was restored over years of work with extensive personal contributions, but also with the support of the State Monuments Office, the Historical Association for Württembergisch Franconia and the German Foundation for Monument Protection. This included roof renovation, structural security, facade restoration and interior repairs. In summer 2001 the castle chapel was given its new purpose as a cultural institution.

Individual evidence

literature

Alois Schneider: The castles in the Schwäbisch Hall district - an inventory . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1228-7 , pp. 245-249.
Ulrike Roggenbuck-Azad: Restoration of the former Schmiedelfeld castle chapel. Limits of the implementation of a monument conservation concept. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , Vol. 31, No. 4, 2002, pp. 238–242 doi : 10.11588 / nbdpfbw.2002.4.13091 .

Web links

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

48.96488 9.85117Coordinates: 48 ° 57 ′ 54 " N , 9 ° 51 ′ 4" E

[1] Philipp Ludwig Hermann Röder: Geographisches Statistisch-Topographisches Lexikon von Schwaben , second volume, Stettinsche Buchhandlung, Ulm, 1792, p. 522 .

[2] Konrad Schott, blind organ builder from Stuttgart

[3] Website of the Heimat- und Kulturverein