Step castle

Step castle
Alternative name (s):	Stiefenburg, Castle Steps Mountain
Creation time :	around 900 to 1000
Castle type :	Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status:	Castle stable, wall and moat remains
Standing position :	Count
Construction:	Sandstone cuboid
Place:	Baunach -Godelhof
Geographical location	49 ° 59 '20.7 " N , 10 ° 48' 46.7" E Coordinates: 49 ° 59 '20.7 " N , 10 ° 48' 46.7" E
Height:	396 m above sea level NN

The stages Burg (rarely also: step-Burg , Burg stages Mountain ) is an Outbound hilltop castle on 396 m above sea level. NN about two kilometers northwest of the Baunach district of Godelhof on the summit of the Stiefenberg (also called step mountain ) in the district of Bamberg in Upper Franconia . The mountain is part of the Hassberge Mountains . The official castle of the Bamberg monastery was destroyed in 1553 and later almost completely demolished. The historical name of the castle complex is Burgstufenberg (castrumstufenberch).

The castle ruins on a map by the surveyor Franz Jakob Klietsch (1770)

history

View from the rampart of the western neck ditch over the staggered rampart system in front of the core castle

The south side of the main castle with the berm in front. Looking west

Remnants of the foundation in the northwest of the core castle

Remains of an original staircase of the step castle

The triple wall system in the west of the summit castle could indicate an early medieval predecessor system. A similar, albeit more extensive, staggered wall system has also been preserved around four kilometers to the southeast around the Helenenkapelle near Kemmern . Such fortification concepts are often interpreted as Hungarian fortifications from the first half of the 10th century AD. The mounted Magyar archers were to be kept at a distance by the staggered depth of the earthworks .

The nearby Baunach appears for the first time in 802 in a document from the Fulda monastery . In 1974 Karl Krimm also interpreted the predecessor of Schadeck Castle (in the area of the town hall) in Baunach as a presumed Hungarian defense castle . In addition, such a refuge is said to have been created below the step castle at Godelhof, which was later converted into a moated castle. The typical layout of the earthworks in front of the step castle makes Krimm's statements very plausible.

An early medieval time of the western earthworks of the step castle is speculative, however, as such moats were occasionally dug up into the early High Middle Ages . A very similar triple wall system is located in front of the high to late medieval Rundeck Castle in the Anlautertal ( Eichstätt district ) in northern Upper Bavaria . The castle's founding date is estimated to be around 1220.

In 1842, Georg Ludwig Lehnes interpreted the three castles staircase castle, Baunach and Taschendorf (Daschendorf) as early medieval border and protective castles against the incursions of the Slavs . In the area of the eastern Haßberge, numerous place names attest to the Slavic settlement of the region. The pagan Main-Rednitzwend were converted shortly after the establishment of the Bamberg diocese and quickly Germanized. Today only the place names and some legendary figures like Pöppel remind of the Slavic past of the Baunachgrund.

Lehnes saw a reference to a Germanic drinking god Stufo in the name of the castle . In fact, the name of the castle and mountain is likely to be derived from the shape of the mountain range. The Haßberge are a richly fragmented forest mountain range that rises here in stages to over 400 meters.

In the High Middle Ages, from 1244 onwards, the "castrum Nahrungsmittelerch" belonged to the Counts of Andechs-Meranien . The castle is said to have been laid out shortly after 1196 by a ministerial of the Fulda monastery from the family of the Lords of Stollberg, who could have chosen an older castle square for this. The rule probably goes back to a bailiwick of the monastery. The new installation supposedly happened despite the objection of the bishops of Bamberg and Würzburg, the Counts of Henneberg and the Counts of Andechs.

After the Andechs dynasts died out, the fortress went to Frederick I of Truhendingen as a fief of the Fulda monastery in 1248 . Both noble families occupied the step castle with servants or castle men .

In 1397, the Bamberg diocese under Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn acquired the castle and all its accessories from the chests. The Hochstift installed there on the border to the competing diocese of Würzburg, the center of its office stairs mountain, which existed until the secularization (1803).

In the 15th century, the step castle was temporarily owned by the Lords of Rotenhan , one of the most important lower nobility families in the Baunach and Weisach valley. Prince-Bishop Anton von Rotenhan had to pledge the official residence in 1435 for 6000 guilders to his brothers. Around 1430 the Hussites invaded Eastern Franconia. The diocese was able to buy ransom for 12,000 guilders, but ran into financial difficulties. Despite some disputes, the Rotenhan kept the pledge until 1483. Among other things, Veit von Rotenhan is said to have let the roofs of the castle deteriorate. Under Prince-Bishop Philipp von Henneberg , the bishopric therefore decided to reacquire the rule in full.

During the German Peasant War , the rebels devastated the facility. According to the sources, the episcopal officials Christoffel von Fuchs (bailiff) and Fritz Knoblach (Kastner) fled with their families on May 18, 1525 from the advancing Hallstadt and Baunach revolutionaries. Allegedly, the peasants set fire to parts of the castle.

After the bloody suppression of the revolt, the subjects had to contribute to the reconstruction of the castle. In the Principality of Bamberg, only the main ringleaders of the rebels were executed. The comparatively mild Prince-Bishop Weigand von Redwitz often reduced the sentence to a fine tailored to the property. For example, the Baunach quarter master Michael Pauer had to pay 2000 guilders because of his involvement in the destruction of the castle. This was roughly the value of ten strong oxen.

In 1553 the troops of Margrave Albrecht Alkibiades finally destroyed the official residence during the Second Margrave War . The step castle was given up and the office moved down to the city of Baunach . The preserved baroque official palace (Kastenhof) in Baunach was built at the end of the 17th century.

After the castle was destroyed, the usable materials were removed and the masonry removed down to the remains of the foundations. Many buildings in the surrounding villages, including the church in the Baunach district of Dorgendorf, were built from the stones of the step castle. Around 1770, some of the walls were still standing, as a stylized representation of the surveyor Franz Jakob Klietsch suggests. In 1838 the Historical Society of Bamberg reported to the royal government that the ruins were being destroyed by the population. The rising masonry should have been completely recycled around 1850. Around 1980 an information board was set up in front of the western neck ditch.

description

The Burgstall is about 396 meters above sea level on the long ridge of the Stiefenberg above Baunach. The relatively small, rectangular core castle is protected in the east by a neck ditch only about three meters deep . The ditch runs on both sides of the main castle cone as a slope ditch or berm to the east. Here, the inner trench, up to five meters deep, is exposed to a massive embankment. In front of the wall you can see two more two to three meters deep trenches with intermediate walls. The middle wall was partially removed by a small quarry and appears to have been excavated or not continued to the north. In addition to the quarry on the southwest side, numerous material pits can be seen, especially in front of the eastern neck ditch, from which the building material for the castle was certainly already extracted in the Middle Ages.

Assuming the castle was built around 1196, the western rampart system in particular appears typologically out of date. High medieval ministerial castles are mostly two-part or multi-part systems consisting of a main castle or a tower hill and a bailey . It is possible that the middle wall of the western bar was later partially leveled to accommodate a small outer bailey. From the west, the Burgstall looks more like a well-preserved image of a smaller but heavily fortified early medieval village fortress. About 1500 meters west of the castle, the remains of another fortification of unknown time can be seen in the area.

On the plateau of the core castle, some remains of the foundations made of large sandstone blocks have been preserved. Several pits with remnants of bricks and rubble mark the locations of the castle buildings.

The Burgstall is freely accessible and easily accessible via the marked circular hiking trails around the Stiefenberg on nature trails.

The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation lists the ground monument as a medieval castle stable under monument number D-4-6030-0032.

literature

Georg Ludwig Lehnes: History of the Baunach reason in Lower Franconia . Würzburg 1842. (Reprint: Neustadt an der Aisch 2005, ISBN 3-89557-251-9 )
The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Volume XV: District Office Ebern . Munich 1916. (Reprint: Munich / Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-486-50469-X , p. 201.)
Karl Krimm: City and Office of Baunach - A contribution to local history . Hallstadt 1974 (reprint: Baunach 2002, ISBN 3-88778-264-X )
Erich Walter: 1200 year old Baunach - city and landscape . (Local supplement to the Oberfränkisches Schulanzeiger, 297). Bayreuth 2002.

Web links

Commons : Burgstufenberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Brief overview of the history of the city of Baunach. on: stadt.bamberg.de

↑ Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation: Entry ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[geschichte-1] Brief overview of the history of the city of Baunach. on: stadt.bamberg.de