Trimburg

Trimburg
The Trimburg seen from the northeast
Alternative name (s):	Old Castle, Leuchtenburg, Niedernburg, Linsenburg
Creation time :	1135
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Cuboid, quarry stone, humpback cuboid
Place:	Elfershausen- Trimburg
Geographical location	50 ° 8 '8.5 "  N , 9 ° 58' 55.2"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 8 '8.5 "  N , 9 ° 58' 55.2"  E
Height:	260  m above sea level NHN

Map of the Trimburg ruins

The Trimburg is the ruin of a medieval hilltop castle of the Lords of Trimberg east of the town of the same name , a part of the municipality of Elfershausen in Lower Franconia in the Bad Kissingen district in Bavaria , Germany . The ruin is visible from afar, about 60 meters above the Franconian Saale on the Pfaffenberg .

Geographical location

In the southern foothills of the Bavarian Rhön between Bad Kissingen and Hammelburg , the long ridge of the Pfaffenberg rises to the left of the Franconian Saale , which is partly made of red sandstone , which was used in the construction of the Trimburg. The Saale valley and the name Trimberg can be seen from the castle complex. The federal highway 7 runs two kilometers west of the Trimburg and crosses the federal highway 287 , which dominates the valley, at the BAB junction Hammelburg .

From Trimberg, a steep, direct stairway leads to the castle ruins at 260  m above sea level. NHN up. Vehicles use the signposted driveway to the east to the car park not far from the castle. Viticulture has been practiced for a long time below the southern curtain wall of the Trimburg . After periods of decline in cultivation in the 1970s to 1990s, yields rise again.

history

Previous buildings

The ruins of the Trimburg, as they have been since the beginning of the 19th century, are actually just the rest of the last part of the castle. The entire castle originally consisted of three different systems from different eras. Gozzwin von Trimberg began building the oldest part in 1135, but it was already known as the Old Castle ( locus castri antiqui ) or Leuchtenburg in 1187 . The Niedernburg ( castrum inferrius ) or Linsenburg called Vorwerk at the foot of the castle hill was first mentioned in 1226, but in 1381 and 1401 only referred to as the estate of the Lords of Arnstein and von Erthal . It was finally destroyed around 1640.

End of the 12th century, the expansion of the castle began after the West first by the construction of the keep and the surrounding perimeter wall . For these buildings, material from the demolition of the two previous buildings was also used, so that as early as 1234 the old castle was only referred to as the Burgstall .

The Lords of Trimberg

The lineage of those von Trimberg appears for the first time in a marriage certificate from 1018, when Anna von Trimberg was married to a knight Reinhard von Hohenburg . The next documentary mentions were in 1182 on the occasion of the appointment of Berthold and Mangold von Trimberg to Würzburg canons and in 1225 when the Lords of Trimberg joined the Rhenish Association of Cities , to which the Würzburg Monastery also belonged. Just one year later, Konrad I and Albrecht I von Trimberg gave their castle to the monastery as a fief . Mechthild von Henneberg , the widow of Heinrich von Trimberg, also sold the remaining stables of the old castle to the bishopric in 1234. Conrad III. von Trimberg finally donated the entire remaining complex to the Würzburg bishop Berthold II von Sternberg in 1279 when he and his wife Adelheid joined the crusaders of that time .

The Würzburg Monastery

Julius Echter

Now the prince-bishopric of Würzburg was the sole owner of the Trimburg. The attempt by Konrad IV von Trimberg to reclaim the castle and office did nothing to change this. He did not agree with his father's generosity, but contented himself with the offer of the bishopric to take over Bischofsheim in der Rhön. With the death of the third son and fourth child of Konrad, Arrois von Trimberg, the family of Trimberg died on November 4, 1384 and all their possessions, including Bischofsheim, passed to the bishopric. The fact that around 1290 individual aristocratic or ecclesiastical owners still held parts of the Trimberg area practically did not affect the sovereignty of the monastery, which Trimburg and its possessions subsequently pledged several times .

The bishopric installed the nobles von Erthal in the court and administrative office on the Trimburg. In the course of the Peasants' War , the Trimburg was captured by betrayal and destroyed by a group of Kissinger and Euerdorfer farmers around 1525. After the suppression of the uprising, the subjects of the Trimberg Office had to participate in the reconstruction of the castle in 1526, both technically and financially with 2½ guilders per head. The result of this punitive measure was so unsatisfactory that Bishop Julius Echter had the castle almost completely rebuilt in 1592.

The Trimburg was also captured and devastated during the Thirty Years' War . When it was rebuilt after 1648, the fortress character of the complex was abandoned and the castle-like buildings were made more homely.

The Kingdom of Bavaria

The Trimburg came in the course of the secularization and the dissolution of the Hochstift Würzburg in 1803 first to the Electorate of Bavaria and in 1806 to the Kingdom of Bavaria . The castle, still in good condition, was sold for demolition . Little by little, the buildings and parts of the defensive walls were laid down and the stones were given away as building material. The proceeds from this amounted to 2198 guilders and 39.5 kreuzers .

The Trimburg fell into ruin in this way. Similar to later on the Henneburg in Stadtprozelten , from 1833 Bavaria King Ludwig I ensured that further decline was halted and the remaining remains were structurally secured. A summer tavern was allowed to be set up at the castle. This right passed from Johann Ernst, the first tenant, to his son and then to his grandson. The Trimburg quickly developed into a popular destination.

Weather protection roof of the knight's hall in the Echterbau

Service yard and staircase to the main castle

overall view

Todays use

The Free State of Bavaria , from 1918 owner of the Trimburg, leased the restaurant again in 1939, which was open until the 1970s. After that, the castle stood empty for a few years and was exposed to wild destruction without supervision. On January 24, 1980, the Elfershausen market acquired the Trimburg. Since then, the place has been working with the Friends of Trimburg association to regularly open the castle to visitors, with management being alternately taken over by local associations. In addition to the castle courtyard, the von Erthal room and the recently restored knight's hall and a vaulted cellar are used for this purpose. Around 2000 the keep was restored and made accessible again at a cost of almost 180,000 DM . The Echterbau and the Erthalbau were provided with a weather protection roof made of glass in spring 2007.

The castle is closed on weekdays and open on Sundays and public holidays from May to October. Guided tours must be ordered from the Elfershausen municipal administration. On some weekends in summer, cultural events take place at the castle, such as a medieval market and theater and music performances.

description

From the previous building, the Leuchtenburg , only the well-preserved moat and a few low wall remains can be seen. The length of this system is 54 meters, the largest width 29 meters. Around the middle of the castle stables ran a 1.70 meter thick wall, which still rises a little towards the north corner. Only the remainder of a 30 meter long colossal wall can be found of the Niedernburg .

Outer bailey

Eastern curtain wall with throwing tower

A stone bridge and the castle gate lead over a ditch protecting the land side into the outer bailey of the ruin. A three-storey half - shell tower reinforces the north side of the tower. It has a wall thickness of 3.20 meters and a diameter of 9.30 meters. The top floor is broadly graduated inside. A slingshot originally rested on this step ring, which gave the tower the name throwing tower . In the middle floor, which served as a chamber for the ammunition made of boulders , you can still see corbels that supported the intermediate floor. The basement, like the upper level, has three openings for defensive purposes. On the courtyard side, the tower is open in its entire length to accommodate the throwing arm of the slingshot.

Core castle

The outer bailey, which is also called the Zwinger , encompasses the south side of the main bailey in a semicircle , which can be reached through a sandstone arch and an easy climb. In the outer ring wall of the inner castle there is a round corner tower, two further half-shell towers and a low bastion . The square keep dominating the east side of the inner bailey and the surrounding wall still show some Romanesque wall technology.

Northern curtain wall and real building

The northern kemenaten building is adorned above the portal of the stairwell with an inscription that identifies it as a new building built by Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn in 1592. The building, therefore called Echterbau , served the prince-bishop as his residence during his time in Trimburg. The the "Echterbau" south opposite Erthalbau was probably built in the early 17th century.

In the courtyard of the core castle is the remainder of a formerly several 90 fathom deep groundwater well , secured by oak planks , which was cut through the rock in the 14th century by the residents of the communities belonging to the castle and reached below the bottom of the Saale valley. In 1595 the well dried up again and today it is filled to a depth of 20 meters.

literature

• Ursula Pfistermeister : Castles, fortified churches, city walls around Würzburg . In: Wehrhaftes Franken . tape 2 . Ernst Carl, Nuremberg 2001, ISBN 3-418-00386-9 .
• A. Rahrbach, J. Schöffl, O. Schramm: Palaces and castles in Lower Franconia . Edelmann, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-87191-309-X .
• Karl Gröber: Lower Franconian castles . Dr. B. Filser, Augsburg 1924.
• Adam Hessler: 296 castles and palaces in Lower Franconia and the adjacent areas of Middle Franconia, Württemberg and Baden - history and description. Edited according to the existing literature . Perschmann, Würzburg 1909.
• Hans Kleiner: Through the Rhön - bad neighborhood. Saaleck-Trimburg-Hammelburg . Rhönklub eV, Fulda 2001.
• Friends of Trimburg e. V. Elfershausen (Hrsg.): The Trimburg - market community Elfershausen . Schneider Druck, Zeitlofs 1997.

Web links

Commons : Trimburg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Trimburg on the burgenwelt.de site
• Trimburg castle ruins at burgen.blaue-tomat.de
• Aerial photo , Youtube
• Reconstruction drawing

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of Elfershausen
2. ↑ Micha Strauss: The Trimburg - castle complex ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Micha Strauss: The Trimburg - History ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ cf. Trimberg tribe list
5. ↑ Hans Kleiner: Through the Rhön pp. 74–84
6. ↑ Micha Strauss: The Trimburg - History ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
7. ^ History of Elfershausen
8. ^ Event dates of the Friends of Trimburg ( Memento from February 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Micha Strauss: The Trimburg - castle complex ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Micha Strauss: The Trimburg - castle complex ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )