Wespenstein Castle
| Wespenstein Castle | ||
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 Wespenstein Castle |
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| Creation time : | around 1250 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg in spur location | |
| Conservation status: | Ruin, building partially preserved | |
| Standing position : | Local nobility | |
| Place: | Graefenthal | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 31 '35 " N , 11 ° 18' 8" E | |
| Height: | 435 m above sea level NN | |
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The Wespenstein Castle is located in the city of Gräfenthal in Thuringia directly on the border to Bavaria. It secured the pass section of a medieval military and trade route from Leipzig via Saalfeld to Nuremberg over the ridge of the Thuringian Slate Mountains and was therefore of strategic importance.
history
Built around 1250 by the Counts of Orlamünde, presumably on the site of an old Ludowingian manor as a customs house, it was first mentioned in 1337 as Hus Greventhal . The Counts of Orlamünde first enfeoffed the Lords of Gräfendorf , but eventually used the castle as a residence in southern Orlagau next to their Lauenstein Castle when they gradually lost their home in Orlagau to the Wettins . Otto XI. von Weimar-Orlamünde-Gräfenthal came into possession of the castle in 1414 after an inheritance was divided and lived here until 1424. In 1426 he sold the castle to Duke Friedrich I of Saxony after his father Otto X. von Weimar-Orlamünde-Lauenstein had increased it in economic decline as early as 1394, with all the associated places and rights, he had offered the Wettins a fiefdom, and spent the rest of his life on the motte Lichtentanne and on the property of his deceased wife at Castle Beichlingen .
In 1438 the Imperial Hereditary Marshals von Pappenheim acquired the castle and the rule. The first owner and founder of the Graefenthaler line was Conrad von Pappenheim . Sebastian von Pappenheim , married to Ursula von Wallenrod , generously expanded the residence from 1517 onwards. In 1530 he received Martin Luther and the Saxon Elector Johann in the now stately castle . His sons Veit († 1556), married to Elisabeth I von Brandenstein , and Achatius II († 1561), married to Elisabeth II von Brandenstein, continued the expansion until 1541 and received Emperor Charles V and Duke in 1547 Alba . Joachim von Pappenheim died here in 1575. On December 19, 1599, the last member of the Graefenthal lineage, Christoff Ullrich von Pappenheim, died . From 1612 Philipp von Pappenheim from the Rothenstein line together with his nephew Maximilian ruled Gräfenthal. With Philip's death in 1619, it reverted completely to Maximilian von Pappenheim . He sold the Gräfenthal rule in 1621 for 130,000 guilders to Duke Johann Philipp von Sachsen-Altenburg from the House of Wettin , who still held the feudal sovereignty acquired by the Orlamündern. Maximilian had the new Hohenlupfen Castle built for himself from 1620 to 1624 (in the Stühlingen estate that his father Conrad von Pappenheim acquired ).
After 1621 the castle was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Altenburg and the seat of a ducal Saxon bailiff and locksmith . In 1679 it came into the possession of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha , in 1680 the Duchy of Saxony-Saalfeld and from 1735 Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld . Most of it burned down in 1686 and was only partially rebuilt. In 1826 the Graefenthal office became part of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen . From 1829 the castle served as the city and regional court, and from 1879–1949 as the district court of Graefenthal . From 1826 to 1829 the office building was given its current appearance. In 1920 the castle became the property of the State of Thuringia .
State of preservation
Today the castle houses a restaurant with a large beer garden and a castle guesthouse and has been privately owned since 1993. The plan is to expand it into a museum palace.
Among other things, the palace chapel in which Martin Luther preached has been preserved. It has been renovated and can be used for weddings and church services. The official building, the Fronfeste and a cistern have been preserved and damaged roof parts have been repaired. The surrounding walls in the area of the former main staircase and on the east side have largely fallen into disrepair. In the components of the stair tower and around the Amtmanngarten, rooms are completely buried, their location and purpose partly unknown. The remains of the wall are gradually being secured, the buried rooms and vaults exposed by clearing rubble and documented by excavations. Eruptions in the wall could be filled in and archways, stair landings and lintels exposed and rebuilt. The Pappenheim coat of arms above the former main gate (around 1530) is preserved.
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Adolph von Schultes: Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeldische Landesgeschichte , 1820, page 130
literature
- Henry Bechtoldt: Chronicle of Schloss Wespenstein . Graefenthal, 2001
