Vorbach Castle

The lost Vorbach Castle was located in the Upper Palatinate municipality of Vorbach in the Neustadt an der Waldnaab district . The Hofmarkschloss is said to have been "so thoroughly disposed of by its owner at the beginning of the 1970s that regional research was not even able to provide a picture".

history

The seat of Forwein (Vorba, Forba) is first mentioned in a Leuchtenberg fiefdom from 1454. This confirms to a Linhard Bibracher that the seat of his brother Thomas Bibracher was “dead” to him. But that also means that the seat must have existed earlier. The family of the Lords of Bibra (ch) is known from the nearby Oberbibrach Castle . In 1490 Erhard von Tobernegk was enfeoffed with the seat of Vorbach, previously it was owned by the chic Ponreuter. In 1510 Erhard von Tobernegk and his wife Margreth parted from their property, which they sold to the "honorable and steadfast" Hans Haidenaber zu Hochstett, judge at Auerbach . In 1550 it went to his cousin Wolf von Haidenab zu Zeulenreuth on the Kaufweg . There must have been a change of ownership to Hans von Haidenab, who then made the next sale.

Coat of arms of the Feilitzsch according to Siebmacher's book of arms

In 1583 the Feilitzsch acquired the manor as a Leuchtenberg fief in exchange for a castle in Creußen . The buyer Abraham von Feilitzsch died childless three years later and the Landgraves von Leuchtenberg wanted to move in the man's fief. The widow Kunigunde and later his brother Melchior von Feilitzsch, assessor at the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer , defended themselves against this and described the poor condition of the property in drastic terms. Finally, in 1586, he received the fiefdom letter. But already in 1588 Melchior von Feilitzsch had died as lord of the castle and the monastery judge of Speinshart Abbey , Philipp von Lindenfels auf Guthenau, had taken over the management of the estate as guardian of the underage son Marquard von Feilitzsch. He hired various tenants and gave instructions to repair the property again. The leased property was not tilled for a few years, as can be seen in a report by the Leuchtenberg fiefdom from June 2, 1601. In 1594, a conflagration again destroyed large parts of the property. Philipp von Lindenfels gave instructions to rebuild the castle building, but the work was slow. On September 4, 1600, Marquard von Feilitzsch, who had come of age, was enfeoffed with the estate. He had previously studied law in Speyer and Strasbourg . When he came to Vorbach in 1600, he employed the landlord as the tenant of the property for a year, as he still had to finish his studies himself. On his return he saw that further damage had been done to his estate. His attempt to sell the estate failed due to the lack of approval from the Leuchtenberg fief administration. It was not until 1606 that he was able to take up residence in Vorbach for a long time and began to rebuild his estate. Since he demanded inappropriate crowd service from his subjects , a "peasant revolt" broke out. Seven got together and refused to work, the dispute dragged on until December 18, 1607 and was ultimately ended by a decision by the government in Amberg , whereby the farmers did not do well and some emigrated. Marquard von Feilitzsch tried several times to get rid of the property, but no consensus was ever given. Eventually he leased his estate and became an Electoral Palatinate caretaker at Hartenstein Castle near Velden , later he became an assessor at the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer as a follower of Martin Luther in 1623. In doing so, he escaped the Counter-Reformation initiated by Elector Maximilian I in the Upper Palatinate. In 1640 the news came that he and three of his sons had died (presumably of the plague ); his last and youngest son had never made claims to Gut Vorbach.

In 1640, in the last years of the Thirty Years' War , the district judge of Auerbach reported to the government in Amberg about the deserted Vorbach estate and the vacant castle. In 1650 the Lutheran Friedrich Teuffel von Birkensee auf Frankenberg was named as the new fief . Since he was a Protestant , he was only allowed to visit Vorbach once every eight days, but at least Vorbach was granted a male and female loan. The new owner died in 1672, and his grandson Christoph Wilhelm von Teuffel took over the inheritance on December 2, 1672, in 1691 he called himself Christoph Wilhelm von Teuffel auf Pilgramsreuth and he also tried hard to sell his property here. On July 7, 1696, it was allowed that the estate could be sold to Franz zu Quesnoy. As early as 1699 he wanted to bequeath the Hofmark to his son Georg, who would have had to pay double the hand wage , which was not possible for him.

Family coat of arms of Miller according to Siebmacher's book of arms

So around 1705 the Hofmark came into the possession of Johann von Miller auf Altammerthal and Fronhofen , keeper of Eschenbach , who also resided in the neighboring Thurndorf Castle. Under him, the run-down Hofmark (there must have been another castle fire in 1721) was rebuilt. Johann von Miller did not use a tenant in Vorbach, but a wage farmer who received a fixed salary. For financial reasons, he was forced to sell his Hofmark to Elias Martin Erzgraber, electoral clerk at Kemnath , because of his debts . The new owner died in 1748, at least he had the castle rebuilt. His heirs agreed to the renewed loan, but sold on May 21, 1761 to the other bourgeois Johann Adam Gradl. He died in 1789 and was buried in a crypt in St. Anne's Church . On June 1, 1790, his widow Margreth Gradl sold the estate to Joseph von Miller, the grandson of the previously mentioned Hofmark owner. In 1811 he handed it over to his son Jakob von Miller. For the year 1812 it is noted that a Freiherr von Ebertz from Waidhaus sold the Miller castle property to the farmer Andreas Hecht from Fuchsmühl and this again to the forester von Haider von Kulmain († 1820). His widow, née von Dippel, sold to Count Maximilian von Holnstein on Altenhammer . Already on August 12, 1837, Vorbach, again designated as a manor, came to Baron von Dippel, post owner of Kirchenthumbach . He died unexpectedly of "nervous fever" at the age of 31 on February 2, 1840 and his widow sold the estate to Major General Ernst Freiherr von Hirschberg on Schlammersdorf . This began with the sale of the Hofmarksgüter.

On January 30, 1857, Anna Brunner acquired the former castle estate or what was left of the castle grounds, and handed it over to her son Joseph Brunner on May 6, 1868. Some of the former grounds were bought back under the Brunner family. On August 10, 1891, the company was sold to Martin and Kunigunde Kellermann. In 1897 it fell into the hands of the property speculator Johann Hollederer from Neukirchen . He again sold part of the land on October 23, 1897 to the farmer Joseph Groher from Ortlesbrunn (today part of Auerbach). He died on September 29, 1899 and his widow married Johann Meierhofer, a beer brewer from Zangenstein near Schwarzhofen , a year later . Their son Joseph Meierhofer took over the farm on July 27, 1954, but died in a car accident on September 23, 1965. He was married to Barbara Ackermann from Feilersdorf , and the couple had their daughter Anneliese, who married the brewer Joseph Schickentanz from Schneeberg. In the meantime, they were the last owners of the former castle estate.

Site plan of Vorbach Castle around 1600 based on Albert Biersack (1988)

Construction

When the castle property was rebuilt in 1591, it can be assumed that it consisted of a manor house, a guard house, a barn that still exists today and stables that were located directly on the castle pond. The complex was protected by a wall and an upper and a lower gate. The exterior of the castle was described as follows before it was demolished: “With its hipped roof and the massive structure made of heavy blocks, it is unmistakably one of those old, unadorned, rural mansions that we still find today in some of the villages in our near and far more distant home. "

More recently, the estate has been fundamentally redesigned by its owner Joseph Schickentanz. In 1973 the old mansion was torn down and replaced by a new residential building (today house no. 14), in 1980 the wing of the building towards the castle pond disappeared (former brewery, ice cellar and wagon shed) and was replaced by a pig fattening system. The old barn from 1591 is still there as a half ruin. The former castle pond, which was used to extract ice for the beer cellar, has been filled in.

literature

• Stefan Benz: Castles and palaces between Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia. Zeitschrift für Burgen und Schlösser, 2/2002 , pp. 66–83, (Ed.) Deutsche Burgenvereinigung.
• Albert Biersack: Vorbach: (Voawa); a home book . Self-published, Amberg 1988.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Benz, 2002, p. 72
2. ↑ Albert Biersack, 1988, p. 90

Coordinates: 49 ° 49 ′ 17.6 "  N , 11 ° 44 ′ 42.6"  E