Gangolfsberg ramparts

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Gangolfsberg ramparts
Former gate system from the northern part of the system, with information board

Former gate system from the northern part of the system, with information board

Alternative name (s): Werinfriedesburg
Creation time : Hallstatt period
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Burgstall
Standing position : unknown
Construction: Basalt stone ramparts, probably wood construction
Place: Oberelsbach - Gangolfsberg
Geographical location 50 ° 27 '54 "  N , 10 ° 5' 12.5"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 27 '54 "  N , 10 ° 5' 12.5"  E
Height: 735  m above sea level NHN
Gangolfsberg ramparts (Bavaria)
Gangolfsberg ramparts
Situation map

The ramparts Gangolfsberg is a Wall- and hilltop castle site used by Celtic times to the early Middle Ages as Wall-, escape was used and protective castle. The remains of the ruins are on the summit plateau of the Gangolfsberg in what is now the Oberelsbach district in the Lower Franconian district of Rhön-Grabfeld in Bavaria .

location

The striking basaltcast Rhon summit Gangolfsberg to almost 736  m rises in the Bavarian Rhön Nature Park and Biosphere Reserve Rhön and projects like a spur south. The summit plateau is 3.4 km southwest of Roth vor der Rhön , 4.6 km southwest of Stetten , 5 km west of Sondheim vor der Rhön , 3.6 km west-northwest of Urspringen , 3.7 km northwest of Oberelsbach and 3.3 km north-northeast of Ginolfs and is located about 2 km southwest of the famous Rother Kuppe . The Els flows west to south past the mountain - northeast the Oberelsbachgraben past the east.

history

The front spur area of ​​the ramparts: In the picture on the left the steep eastern ascent of the nature trail, in the middle the remains of the ramparts, on the right the southern information board

The ramparts, which were built in "prehistoric times", are one of the largest in the Rhön-Grabfeld district with their 6000 m². The oldest finds in the form of pottery shards, found in 1938 during an investigation of the area, are assigned to the Hallstatt period (700-450 B.C.E.). It is assumed that it was not a permanently inhabited complex ( oppidum ), but was only used as a refuge. It is part of a dense network of fortified heights in the area that are of Celtic origin.

Finds of a notch belt from the 4th / 5th centuries Century u. Z. should prove a later use of the entire facility during the time of the Great Migration . At this time at the latest, the ramparts were built or Celtic remains were removed. Finds from the time of the Merovingians , which now mainly relate to the southern part, prove a second construction phase in which the rampart was reduced to the southern part by installing an intermediate wall with a pincer gate in the eastern area of ​​the wall that can still be identified today . The northern part can be seen as a secured outer bailey and additional protection to the probably northern flatter entrance. The downsizing may also have been caused by “traffic engineering” so that a downsized base with less important control functions was created. Possibly have old trade routes shifted.

1059 is a Werinfriedesburg in Wildbann - donation King . Henry IV to the convent Fulda mentioned, in the described boundary between Fladungen and the Sonderbach mentioned and locates on the Gangolfsberg.

description

The oval, presumed circular rampart, the walls of which can only be partially verified, has an extension of up to 150 meters in a west-east direction and a maximum of 400 meters in a north-south direction. The wall is only suspected of being at the steep western drop of the mountain. The wall is partially traceable in the southern, eastern and northern parts.

The falls can be grasped at a height of up to one meter in the area of ​​the Merovingian intermediate wall, which had a gate to the east at the connection area to the ring wall and through which today's path of the nature trail runs. The intermediate wall was additionally secured to the northwest of the gate and at the westernmost end with a trench in front of it . A connection between the two moats could not (yet) be proven.

No building remains are directly detectable in either part of the ramparts. Presumably all the buildings were made of wood. Finds from the Migration Period are fibulae , combs and hatchets . Special arrow and shaft tips as well as chain slings can be assigned to the Merovingian period.

In the northern part, a few dozen meters north of the through gate , are the ruins of the Gangolf Chapel , which probably gave the mountain and castle their name. It will hardly be documented in the 8./9. Century located. It was probably destroyed in the German Peasants' War in 1525. It may have served as a castle chapel for the later Carolingian castle. Large stone remains and areas are to the east of the chapel and at the northern end of the ramparts.

Todays use

The modern carved Merovingian

Today's ground monument can be hiked through the nature trail on the Gangolfsberg. Wall and moat remnants are still clearly visible in the area of ​​the through gate. The ruins of the chapel also give an idea of ​​their time. In the eastern area within the wall, in the west outside the facility, a circular path gives a feeling for the size of the facility. Unobstructed views in the east and south give an impression of the overview that was possible in the Middle Ages from the presumably unwooded area to control a large area. Two panels showing the time and importance of the complex are located on today's southern serpentine ascent and in the area of ​​the former gate system. A third panel explains the ruins of the chapel.

The rampart is with the number D-6-5526-0006 and the designation ring rampart "Gangolfsberg" as well as hill settlement of the prehistory, the migration period and the Merovingian period; Chapel ruin of the Middle Ages a ground monument according to the Bavarian Monument List , which was created on the basis of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act of October 1, 1973.

See also

Along the nature trail around the Gangolfsberg, the natural monument basalt prism wall, the Teufelskeller , an old quarry , rubble forests and the terraced arable land of the medieval village of Wermers can be hiked and explained with information boards. The best starting point is the Schweinfurt house .

literature

  • Christoph Rytka: The settlement history of the Rhön - Grabfeld - area from the late Latène period to the end of the 13th century , 1989, pp. 208, 239, 270
  • Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments, Volume 28 , Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1975; therein: BU. Abels: The Gangolfsberg near Oberelsbach , p. 138 ff.

Web links

Commons : Wallanlage Gangolfsberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments, Volume 28 , Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1975, p. 84
  2. ↑ Oberelsbach monument list of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , No. D-6-5526-0006, "Gangolfsberg" rampart and hilltop settlement from prehistory, the migration period and the Merovingian period; Chapel ruins of the Middle Ages , re-qualified (as of November 13, 2015)
  3. ↑ Gangolfsberg nature trail ; accessed on March 4, 2018