Stein Castle on the Traun

Copper engraving by Michael Wening in Topographia Bavariae around 1700

Stein in Stein an der Traun Castle is considered the most important cave castle in Germany .

The castle complex consists of three parts:

the Hochschloss on the 50 meter steep Nagelfluhwand;
the cave castle below, which, hidden in the rock, creates a connection to the Traun Valley;
the lower castle in Stein itself.

history

The lower castle

The cave castle

The high castle

The origins of the high castle are not fully understood; it may already date from Roman or Celtic times. In the 12th century stone was a knight's seat. Known by name are Bernhard von Stein and his wife Elisabeth (both first mentioned around 1135), Walchun von Stein (first mentioned in 1156 as Walchůn de Stæine in a traditional note from Raitenhaslach monastery with a certain date ), who is said to have married a von Dornberg , and Rapoto von Stein , son of the latter couple. Nothing is known about the origin of Bernhard von Stein. As can be seen from the documents, the Lords of Stein had widespread possessions that reached as far as Elsendorf an der Abens in Lower Bavaria .

It is known about Rapoto von Stein that when a feud broke out between the Babenbergs and the Ortenburgers in 1192 , he interfered and attacked and burned the Baumburg monastery in order to harm the Counts of Ortenburg, who were the patrons of the monastery. He was thereupon by Pope Celestine III. with the excommunication occupied. Stein then came into the possession of the Toerring family . The details of the change of ownership are unknown. After Rapoto von Stein in 1198 from the crusade of Henry VI. When he returned, his name only appears in documents in the wake of the Austrian dukes, and he is now called von Falkenberg after his maternal inheritance .

The legend of the robber baron Hainz von Stein dem Wilden , who is said to have lived in the castle at the beginning of the 13th century and was first described by Lorenz Huebner in 1783 in a "patriotic tragedy", is connected with the castle . The legend refers to Henricus von Törring , listed in a pedigree of Törring under No. XVI , who owned Stein Castle between 1200 and 1243 , was married to Ameleya von Aichberg and acted as a tyrant in the Trostberg area . Some of the legend surrounding him does not stand up to historical scrutiny.

Stein was on the border between Bavaria and the archbishopric of Salzburg ; In 1254 and 1275 the border was redefined in the Erharting border treaties . In the treaty of 1275 the border was drawn in such a way that the upper castle now fell to Salzburg, while the lower and cave castles remained Bavarian. Only in 1311 did the Toerring get the upper castle back as a fief.

Stein Castle was the seat of the Hofmark Stein administrative district , which was formed towards the end of the 15th century and was first mentioned in a document in 1558. At the Regensburg Electoral Congress in 1630, the Toerring, who had been imperial barons since 1566, were raised from barons to counts . Albert von Toerring-Stein was Bishop of Regensburg from 1613 to 1649 , Adam Lorenz von Toerring-Stein held the same office from 1663 to 1666.

Johann Albrecht von Toerring (1617–1692), brother of Adam Lorenz von Toerring, felt compelled in 1661 to sell the Hofmark Stein to Count Carl Fugger von Kirchberg and Weißenhorn . The latter's daughter Maria Johanna brought the Hofmark through marriage into the possession of the barons of Lösch , who kept the Stein estate and castle until 1829. The Lösch did not live in their new property on a regular basis, as they spent most of their time at their ancestral home, the Hofmark Castle in Hilgertshausen in the Dachau district . Nevertheless, the entire complex was rebuilt under them and received the appearance that has been preserved to this day, which Michael Wening recorded on a copper engraving around 1700 (see illustration above right). On the basis of a vow in 1737 a chapel in honor of St. John of Nepomuk added. The Hofmark Stein formed around 1760 with 139 yards after Baumburg Monastery, the largest manorial estate in the Trostberg district court ; their value was estimated at 150,000 guilders .

After the Congress of Vienna in 1818, the former Hofmark Stein became a second class patrimonial court as part of the administrative reforms in Bavaria .

As a result of the turmoil of the Napoleonic era, the Lösch family was forced to sell Gut and Schloss Stein to Freiherr Maximilian Joseph von Käser (1800–1849), who in 1835 sold the property to the Munich banker Martin Carl von Kraft. On Käser's initiative, the 'Georgiritt' was reintroduced in 1833 on the old Salzburger Chaussee from Stein Castle via Weisham to the parish church in St. Georgen , which was then responsible for the Stein an der Traun community ; this horseman procession , which used to be held annually in April for centuries and which was connected with the request to keep animal diseases and epidemics away from the community, was abolished as a custom in the course of secularization in 1804.

In 1845 Amélie von Leuchtenberg , widow of the Emperor of Brazil , bought Stein Castle together with Seeon for themselves and their daughter. The property belonging to it included 1071 days' work , including two lakes ; the castle brewery was considered the most important in Upper Bavaria outside of Munich. A family crypt was set up in the grounds of the former Seeon Abbey. In 1848 she ceded the Stein Patrimonial Court in exchange for compensation to the state.

Under the imperial widow Amélie and her nephew and heir, Prince Nikolaus von Romanowsky (1843–1890), 4th Duke of Leuchtenberg, a lively social life developed in the castle, because the Leuchtenbergs were related to numerous families of the high nobility, including with the Bavarian royal family. Prince Nikolaus spent most of his life here; his children also grew up in the castle. It is thanks to him that the castle was rebuilt to its present form in the English New Tudor style

In 1890 Stein Castle came to the then underage Count Joseph zu Arco-Zinneberg (1881–1924), and later to his son Maximilian (1908–1937). In 1928 the Arco-Zinneberg had to defeat the large St. Georgi forest in order to pay off debts by selling wood. They still had to sell, the forest became state property and was immediately reforested. In 1929 the industrialist and farmer Max Wiskott and his wife Ilse and Otto Coninx bought the castle and the Stein estate. The Wiskott couple founded a rural education home here in 1948, which was then expanded over time into a state-recognized high school.

The Hochschloss, Felsenburg and Lower Castle are now part of the entire building complex of the Stein Castle Brewery , which was newly built in 1907 ; The Wiskott family has owned it since 1934. The lower castle in Stein has been home to a boarding school , the Gymnasium Schule Schloss Stein , since 1948 .

literature

Ernest Geiß: Heinz von Stein. In addition to a history of the castle and its owners . In: Upper Bavarian Archive for Fatherland History , Volume 3, Second Issue, Munich 1841, pp. 147–209 ( online ).
Carl von Lama: Guide through Traunstein, Salinenstadt and Curort in Upper Bavaria , Augsburg 1877, pp. 49-50 ( online ).
Carl Siegert: Seon in Upper Bavaria - once a castle, then a monastery, now Curort with mineral, brine and seaside baths - presented historically and descriptively in consideration of its surroundings , Munich 1856, pp. 117–123 ( online ).
Hans-Jürgen Schubert and Joachim Zeune : Stein an der Traun in the past and present . Published by the Friends of Stein Castle e. V .; 8th edition, Stein an der Traun 2006.

Individual evidence

↑ Martin Bitschnau , Hannes Obermair : Tiroler Urkundenbuch , II. Department: The documents on the history of the Inn, Eisack and Pustertal valleys. Volume 2: 1140-1200 . Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-7030-0485-8 , p. 95-96, no. 498 .
↑ Ernest Geiß: Heinz von Stein. In addition to a history of the castle and its owners . In: Upper Bavarian Archive for Patriotic History . Volume 3, Second Issue, Munich 1841, pp. 147–209 ( especially pp. 153 ff. )
↑ Otto Titan von Hefner: Adelicher Bayerischer Antiquarius , Volume 1: The great nobility . Munich 1866, p. 320 ff. ( Online ).
↑ compare e.g. B. also the anonymous story Heinz von Stein, called the savage, as a girl robber and daring robber baron, portrayed after life , Burghausen 1840 ( online ).
↑ Family tables of the dukes of Bavaria and noble families from Bavaria , 1725. Stamm-Tafel A , p. 207 ff .
↑ Ernest Geiß: Heinz von Stein. In addition to a history of the castle and its owners . In: Upper Bavarian Archive for Patriotic History , Volume 3, Second Issue, Munich 1841, pp. 159 ff.
^ Carl von Lama: Guide through Traunstein, Salinenstadt and Curort in Upper Bavaria , Augsburg 1877, p. 50 ( online ).
↑ ^a ^b Meinrad Scholl: St. Georgen has existed for 1050 years . In: Chiemgau leaves. Supplement to the Traunsteiner Wochenblatt . No. 16, Saturday, April 21, 1979, pp. 1-6.
^ Johann Georg Friedrich Jacobi: New systematic and general description of the earth for all estates . Volume, 3, Nuremberg 1818, pp. 143-154.
^ Hans-Jürgen Schubert: 300 years Georgiritt Stein - St. Georgen 1708–2008 . In: Steiner Burgbrief (published by the Friends of Stein Castle Association), No. 18, 2008.