City desert Blankenrode
The urban wasteland of Blankenrode lies east of the present-day town of Blankenrode (City of Lichtenau (Westphalia) ). A city fortification, which had to be abandoned in the 14th century, used to lie on the current desert.
history
In the middle of the 13th century, Prince-Bishop Simon I of Paderborn (bishop from 1247 to 1277) and the abbot of Corvey Monastery decided to better separate and secure their territories from the sphere of influence of the expanding Count of Waldeck . So they built a border fortress on a spur of the southern harrow . The fortress city was destroyed for the first time in 1267 in a feud between Paderborn / Corvey and Waldeck / Osnabrück, but was rebuilt; The existence of the castle and town is clearly attested by a document from 1298. A church is attested for 1302.
Something very special is that the castle town was divided into two parts by a double central wall, which separated the city from the Königsweg, an important road link. In the eastern part of the city lived the castle men and knights, in the western part, which was most likely added after 1267, lived the arable citizens and craftsmen. In the castle district - the castrum or the borgh - the round castle, 25 meters in diameter, was situated on a hill and was inhabited by a castle bailiff . Bailiffs were "especially Brobeke, Rabe von Pappenheim that von Spiegel ." (H. Stoob)
Around 1307, according to a Hardehauser deed , the place had municipal self-administration. Blankenrode city councilors, the city seal and a city judge were first mentioned in documents in 1321. Blankenrode had developed into a flourishing community and had a town hall, judge, mayor, church and a cemetery on the east side. Chroniclers speak of 4,000 inhabitants, but this is probably too much. According to recent research, the built-up area was large enough that the place should have had over 1000 inhabitants at that time.
As a border fortress, Blankenrode was repeatedly fought over, partly destroyed, but also rebuilt and reinforced. In the 14th century the place lost interest for the prince-bishop in Paderborn and was pledged several times. Pappenheim and Brobeke shared the pledges of the castle and town.
Downfall of the city
In 1390 the Waldecker Count Heinrich VI. the absence of the castle garrison during a feud between the Paderborn bishop Ruprecht von Berg and the Bengelern broke into the city and completely destroyed it. After that, the city was not rebuilt.
The von Brobeke sold their last property in the city of Blankenrode in 1449 to the city of Warburg; The claims of the Rabe von Pappenheim were transferred to the Hardehausen monastery in 1451. The site remained empty, however, and today trees grow on the former settlement area.
literature
Stoob: Blankenrode, in: Guide to prehistory and early history. Denkm., 1971, p. 261 f.
Web links
- Information about the urban desert of Blankenrode on lichtenau.de
- Entry on Blankenrode in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Hörmuseum Stadtwüstung Blankenrode
- A small map and hiking tips in the urban desert at naturpark-teutoburgerwald.de (PDF file; 270 kB)
Coordinates: 51 ° 32 '17.9 " N , 8 ° 56" 7.3 " E