Sensenstein Castle

Sensenstein Castle
Former castle area with ramparts, view to the south
Creation time :	around 1372
Castle type :	Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status:	Burgstall, moats, ground monument
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Cuboid, quarry stone
Place:	Sneezes
Geographical location	51 ° 18 '35.2 "  N , 9 ° 38' 39.1"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 18 '35.2 "  N , 9 ° 38' 39.1"  E
Height:	355  m above sea level NHN

Former castle area with ramparts, view to the north

Site plan (2008)

Former Estate and inn

Information signs 1954

The castle Sensenstein (in the vernacular generally only Sensenstein called), now a Postal , stood until the early 17th century as a border security to Lower Saxony in the area of today's community Nieste , district of Kassel , in Hesse .

Today, only high walls are a ground monument that reminds of the former size of the castle complex. The buildings are completely demolished. Right next door is the Sensenstein youth castle and sports training facility in the Kassel district . From the former castle grounds, you can look through trees into the Kassel basin and the Kaufung forest .

Geographical location

The soil monument of the Höhenburg is located in the east of the Kassel basin near the western foothills of the Kaufunger Forest. It is located to the south above the valley of the Nieste , an eastern tributary of the Fulda , belongs to the western part of the municipality of Nieste and is on the top of the Gerholdsberg (approx.  355  m above sea  level ); A trigonometric point at a height of 350.4  m is marked on topographic maps about 100 m southwest of the former castle grounds . Just under 3 km south is Kaufungen in the Losse valley .

Another castle in the Nieste catchment area, Sichelnstein Castle , stood 4.6 km north near the village of Sichelnstein , which is still in ruins.

Name legend

Resentment and jokes gave the two castles on both sides of the former Brunswick-Hessian border their names in connection with sickle and scythe , similar to the well-known example of the Rhenish castles Katz und Maus . According to legend, the Brunswick Duke Otto I , known as Otto der Quade , built a castle at the foot of the Staufenberg just to be able to steal grain from the Hessians more easily. As an allusion to this, he is said to have christened his castle Sichelnstein , while Landgrave Hermann II of Hesse placed the castle Sensenstein opposite him and indicated more comprehensive intentions with the larger name.

history

Sensenstein Castle

Landgrave Hermann von Hessen, then co-regent, had Sensenstein Castle built around 1372 opposite the older Sichelnstein Castle, which was greatly expanded in the same year, in order to put a stop to the robberies of the Braunschweig residents on Hessian territory. The castle was mentioned again in 1438 when it came from Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse as a fief to the Knight Parakeet von Berlepsch, who previously held Berlepsch Castle near Witzenhausen as a fief. Already in 1461 there was an exchange: Berlepsch Castle became the ancestral seat of the von Berlepsch family and Sensenstein Castle served the Landgrave as a hunting seat for the Kaufung Forest.

1483–1561, the castle and its estates were again a Hessian fief of the Counts of Berlepsch. However, the castle increasingly lost its importance and after several feudal lords or owners had changed, it fell into disrepair. In 1585 there was only one estate that belonged to the castle ruins and was managed from 1601 by Eberhard von Weyhe , Chancellor of Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel . From 1626 the estate was broke and took place only in 1677 in the Hessian privy Count Dietrich von Kunowitz a new owner, the clearing derelict buildings and even 22 meters high rest of the keep blew up.

In 1699 Amalia von Kurland , wife of Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel , and her son Maximilian bought the farm together with the neighboring estate of Windhausen . Both went to Major General Martin-Ernst von Schliefen in 1767 , only to become a Hessian state property again after six years. In 1900 the last tenant left the then uninhabited Sensenstein. From then on, the lands were farmed from Windhausen.

Shortly after the First World War, a Kassel innkeeper leased the dilapidated walls of the courtyard and had the house repaired and set up as an inn, which operated until the beginning of the Second World War and became a popular excursion destination.

Youth castle and sports education center Sensenstein

In 1946 the first camp free time of the district youth care of Kassel took place on the Sensenstein, which in the following period became a permanent establishment and in 1954 moved the district of Kassel to purchase the entire site. The old half-timbered house in which the inn was located was expanded as the first district youth home. On September 17, 1960, the foundation stone was laid for the “Youth Education Center of the District of Kassel”, and on September 29, 1962, the facility was inaugurated as the “Sensenstein Youth Castle” with a guest house, gym and swimming pool and was handed over to its intended use.

In 1966 the facility was expanded to include a second guest house with an auditorium . In 1996, the State Sports Association of Hesse got involved for the first time with the financing of a new large sports hall and the complete renovation of the sports field and became the second sponsor of the facility. The swimming pool was extensively renovated in 2001.

Since then, the facilities belonging to the facility on the approximately 20  hectare site have been kept up to date. Together with the Landessportbund Hessen, the district of Kassel operates the sports training facility in the district of Kassel , which includes an educational and conference center and sports facilities, many of which are suitable for competitions.

The well-preserved half-timbered building of the former inn and first district youth home is used by the administration today. The facilities are not only open to sports clubs, but also to all school classes and youth groups as well as adult education as a youth castle Sensenstein .

"The Giant" by Robert Colnago

Art on the scythe stone

The Austrian artist Robert Colnago created the four-meter-high metal sculpture “The Giant” in the Art Barn in Breuna as part of the European Art Camp for Documenta 2002 , which was placed in front of the portal to the Sensenstein in 2004 and greeted visitors more invitingly than threateningly. In addition, Colnago was particularly involved in the exterior design of the facility during several stays on the Sensenstein and in Nieste. In 2006, for example, he designed a new entrance area to the youth castle from fragments of old agricultural equipment that had rotted away on the Wülmersen moated castle . He assembled 250 kilograms of iron parts to form an expressive goal.

Transport links and access

You can reach the Sensenstein from exit 77 Kassel-Nord of the federal highway 7 to Heiligenrode (part of the municipality of Niestetal ). From the junction of Kreisstraße 4, which leads east from Heiligenrode to Nieste, the youth castle / sports training facility Sensenstein is signposted.

The ramparts of the former Sensenstein Castle may only be entered with permission, which can be obtained on site from the management of the youth castle and sports training facility Sensenstein .

literature

• Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 43.

Web links

Commons : Burg Sensenstein  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Sensenstein Castle in Merian's Topographia Hassiae  - sources and full texts

• Sensenstein Castle , on burgenwelt.de
• Youth castle and sports training facility Sensenstein , on sensenstein.de
• Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sensenstein Castle, Kassel district. Historical local lexicon for Hesse (as of November 4, 2010). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on September 19, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )