Wiesloch Castle

Castle tower in Wiesloch

Rear view

Masonry detail on the castle tower

The Wiesloch castle was in Wiesloch , a town in the Rhine-Neckar region in Baden-Württemberg . The castle goes back to a medieval castle. After the destruction in the Palatinate War of Succession , the ruinous complex was demolished except for the old keep . The current buildings used for administrative purposes date from the 18th century.

history

There are no documents about the origin of the castle. The oldest stray finds from the area around the castle date from the 10th century. Based on the historical context, it is assumed that the castle was built in the 11th century to protect the mining settlement south of the Leimbach and was gradually expanded. The shape of the humpback cuboid at the southwest corner of the enclosing wall dates to the late 12th or early 13th century.

The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1288, when the castle and town of Wiesloch were already part of the Palatinate . From 1288 to 1296, Count Palatine Rudolf I is said to have resided in Wiesloch after the great Heidelberg fire. In 1296 King Adolf recorded a document in Wiesloch. In 1292 a Burgmann is called Conrad von (Sand-) Hausen, in 1298 a Wolfram von Clingenberg. In 1303 and 1307 the castle Count Palatine Mechthild, daughter of King Adolf, was prescribed as a widow's property. In 1365 Count Burkhard von Hohenberg received the castle hat as a pledge from Count Palatine Ruprecht I. In 1407 King Ruprecht held court at the castle, in 1438 Count Palatine Otto I stayed there. In 1570, Emperor Maximilian II was a guest at the castle.

From the early 17th century the castle was called a castle . In 1629, according to a report by the mayor Johann Baptist Vest, the building was still in good condition. In the further course of the Thirty Years War , the facility does not seem to have suffered any major damage. Of course, there was a lack of maintenance measures in the times of need at that time, so that in 1669 and 1688 major structural defects were described.

The castle was finally destroyed in 1689 by the French in the Palatinate War of Succession . Except for the powerful keep you then removed the ruins quickly. As early as 1713, a place is described where the castle was once located. In 1724 the square was still deserted and the Catholic community received permission to build a church there. In the course of building the church, the old keep was converted into a bell tower . The church was demolished in 1837. Stones from the castle were also used between 1746 and 1751 to build the Augustinian monastery church, today's Laurentiuskirche .

The current main building of the complex was also rebuilt in the course of the 18th century. It served as the seat of the Wiesloch District Office from 1810 to 1938 and is now used as a police station.

The square tower made of quarry stones was provided with a slipped lantern in the 20th century , which is crowned by a pommel with a patriarchal cross.

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  Remnants of the wall with a notch

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  Detail from the gate to the castle courtyard

literature

• Ludwig H. Hildebrandt: The city of Wiesloch in the Middle Ages , in: Wiesloch - Contributions to History, Volume 1, Ubstadt-Weiher 2000, pp. 31–64 (especially on the castle pp. 34–36).
• Hartmut Riehl: Castles and palaces in the Kraichgau . Regional culture publishing house, Ubstadt-Weiher 1997, ISBN 3-929366-51-7 , pp. 23-24.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hildebrandt 2000, pp. 34-36
2. ^ Arnold Scheuerbrandt: The rise and fall of Heidelberg in the Palatinate era , in: E. Mittler (Hrsg.): Heidelberg - History and Shape, Heidelberg 1996, p. 52.
3. ↑ Manfred Hermann: Kath. Stadtpfarrkirche St. Laurentius Wiesloch , Lindenberg 2005, p. 5/6.

Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 43.2 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 48.6 ″  E