Steinheim Castle

The Steinheim Castle (also Steinheim Castle or Kurmainzisches Schloss Steinheim ) is a former Electoral Mainz castle and palace complex in Hanau-Steinheim , Main-Kinzig district in Hesse . Today it houses the Steinheim Castle Museum .

Steinheim Castle - excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian the Younger 1655. The picture shows the conquest of Steinheim by the Swedes in 1631.

View from the Main

View from the Main, steel engraving 1847

View of the keep

The residential building (today Museum Schloss Steinheim)

The White Tower on the edge of the palace garden

location

The facility is located in Steinheim's old town, southeast of the Main, on an elongated mountain spur (approx. 115 m above sea level), which overlooks the river valley by approx. 15 m as well as the rest of the area. The historic center of Groß-Steinheim (also Obersteinheim ) connects to the east and south . The transition between the spacious outer bailey and the old town is partially fluid, although the curtain wall has largely been preserved.

history

According to the legend, Ida, the sister or daughter of Charlemagne (possibly Ida von Herzfeld ) already lived at the castle. So far, however, no documentary or archaeological evidence of a corresponding age of the castle has been found.

First mentioned in 1222 as castrum Steinheim , the castle was owned by the Lords of Eppstein . These called themselves "von Hainhausen " until the end of the 12th century and were wealthy in the region.

Around 1300, in a feud between King Albrecht I and the Archbishop of Mainz, Gerhard II von Eppstein , the castle was captured and partially destroyed by Bailiff Ulrich I von Hanau . The castle must have been repaired very soon. In 1320 the Steinheim settlement was granted town charter , and in 1358 the Eppsteiners obtained the right to levy customs duties on the Main.

Financial difficulties probably forced the Eppsteiners to mortgage half of the castle to Count von Katzenelnbogen and half to the Lords of Hanau . In 1393 it came to the Lords of Cronberg as pledge .

In 1425, Gottfried VII von Eppstein sold Steinheim for 38,000 Rhenish guilders to the Archdiocese of Mainz, where it remained until 1803. The Archbishops of Mainz used the castle partly as a residence, probably more often when they were passing through to the estates in the Main area. They had previously acquired areas of the Bachau and Maingau . The castle in Steinheim was expanded, later expanded like a castle and became the center of the Steinheim office . In 1572 a stair tower with a portal flanked by pilasters and decorated with the coat of arms of Daniel Brendel von Homburg was added to the main building .

Not far from the castle and city of Hanau , the castle secured the archbishop's property against the lords and counts of Hanau , who also owned areas south of the Main. During the Thirty Years' War the castle, town and office of Steinheim were confiscated by King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and left to the later Hanau Count Heinrich Ludwig (1609–1632) and Jakob Johann (1612–1636) to support the Swedish cause. However, that only lasted until the battle of Nördlingen . During the siege of the fortress Hanau in 1635/36, the imperial general Guillaume de Lamboy took quarters in the Steinheimer Schloss.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the Archbishops of Mainz had large parts of the complex demolished, including the half-timbered upper floor of the main building and the former curtain wall in today's courtyard. Plans for a new building could no longer be realized due to the secularization of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803. The complex fell to Hessen-Darmstadt , which, with conversions in the classical style, gave the side facing the Main a castle-like appearance, but only used the castle to a limited extent until 1813. This was followed by more frequent changes of use, and since 1938 there has been a museum in the rooms. In 1978 the buildings were handed over by the state of Hesse to the city of Hanau. After a phase of renovation and redesign, today's museum was opened in 1986.

Steinheim Castle is now a listed building and is a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention .

investment

From the castle and palace complex, the 26 m high keep with a stone spire and smaller turrets on the crenellated crown as well as parts of the curtain wall and retaining walls have been preserved. The large residential building still has parts of the castle from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century. It is made of sandstone blocks , some of which still have pincer holes from the construction crane. In the spacious outer bailey, the stables, the official registry, a fountain and parts of the defensive wall with brick walkways are still preserved. The castle garden and, as part of its border wall, the so-called White Tower is located on the terrain sloping east of the core castle towards the Main .

You can no longer see the castle wall, which was torn down in the 18th century. Its foundation is now hidden under the pavement in front of the main building. Its location was secured by archaeological excavations in 1989/90.

Todays use

In the main building of the castle there is the Steinheim Castle Museum , in addition to living rooms , which, in addition to the Steinheim town history (on the upper floor) , presents regional prehistory and early history with finds from the old district of Hanau. A reconstructed Roman mithraeum is shown in the cellar vault . Tower climbs are also possible as part of guided tours. Temporary exhibitions and club events take place in the stables in the outer bailey. Part of the castle garden has been designed as a herb garden since 2002.

Individual evidence

↑ roland-anheisser.de: Hanau / Gross-Steinheim. Former Kurmainzisches Schloss . Online at www.roland-anheisser.de. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
↑ cf. Kaiser in: Steinheim - monuments and history. , P. 109
↑ Steinheimer Schlossgarten on the Hanau experience website of the city of Hanau

literature

Leopold Imgram: Sights in Steinheim am Main (A guide through the city) . Steinheim 1964, p. 26ff.

Georg Ulrich Großmann : South Hesse. Art guide. Imhof, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-935590-66-0 , p. 164.

Wilhelm Bernhard Kaiser: Steinheim - monuments and history. 2nd Edition. 1991. p. 109ff.

Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg publishing house. Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 413.

Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 (= Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany ), pp. 397-400.

Pia Rudolf: Special excavation in Steinheim Castle - a stone in the architectural history puzzle. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2005, Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2053-0 , pp. 131-134.

Sabine Wolfram: About the history and monuments of the city of Steinheim. In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, 27. Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district . Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1119-1 , pp. 189-194.