Wartburgschanze

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The Wartburgschanze in the 18th century

The Wartburgschanze is a part of the military fortifications of the Wartburg in Eisenach that has been changed several times . The original function of the Wartburgschanze was to secure the main entrance to the Wartburg.

location

The area immediately in front of the drawbridge with a small turret, the driveway that opens into the rock and the slightly elevated forecourt with cannons and a viewpoint extending to the north-east is interpreted as a jump . In this area there was an early modern building to protect the castle gate until the Wartburg castle was restored in the middle of the 19th century . To the east below the ski jump there are the remains of an older fortification on a rock ledge (in the drawing on the left, left edge of the picture, with a single tree - indicated above the forest), which are mentioned as the fishing tower in the castle chronicle.

history

State of the hill in 1862

The Wartburg is a typical section castle . It originally consisted of four sections, of which only the outer and main castle are preserved today. The access leads past a bastion over the drawbridge, newly built in 1863, into the bailey. The gate was once a tower. To protect the gate area, which was always seen as a main target of a possible attack, upstream fortifications had to be built. These existed in the Middle Ages from upstream guard and defensive towers , connected with palisades .

With the introduction of firearms for sieges, the towers became ineffective and no longer needed. Now earth entrenchments and bulwarks were created. At the same time, the Wartburg was equipped with its own cannons to ward off attackers , and the gun emplacements were integrated into the hill. The position of the guns can be clearly seen in the attached drawing through the eye-shaped windows in the basement. In addition to cannons, muskets and other firearms were also procured for the Wartburg arsenal . The powder stores were housed in the south tower, which is why it is also referred to as the powder tower in the literature . The ski jump had to pass its probationary period in the Thirty Years' War , when the ducal family temporarily fled to the supposedly safe Wartburg. Due to further improvements in the artillery weapons of the 18th century, this hill was also out of date from a military point of view. Their further development in defense technology was no longer considered sensible. Goethe visited the Wartburg several times, in 1777 he made a drawing of the Wartburg bulwark , it shows a view from the knight's house into the interior of the Wartburgschanze. In the following years the hill was dismantled. The title page of the Wartburg guide, written by Carl Salomon Thon in 1792, no longer shows any structural remains in this area, instead a slight greening with bushes is indicated. The file notes and copies of drawings from Eisenacher and Weimar archives, made around 1838 by the painter Carl Alexander Simon , also provide important information on the development and decline of the Wartburgschanze.

In place of the fortified bastion, a post tower was later built to place an honor guard here. The guns posted on Schanzenplatz served as signal cannons until the first telegraph line was built.

Current situation and usage

On the hill
Castle view from the ski jump
At the station

The Wartburgschanze is the central meeting point and assembly point for visitors to the Wartburg. The square with the undivided view of the east facade of the castle is a popular photo motif. At the same time, you have an excellent view of the city of Eisenach and the vicinity of the Wartburg from the hill. At the eastern vantage point , a coin-operated telescope allows you to see the two Hörselberge mountains eight to twelve kilometers away and the Eisenach fraternity monument.

In connection with the ongoing maintenance of the castle, extensive safety work was carried out on the retaining walls and other remains of the walls of the hill in 2002.

Web links

A web camera on the ski jump showed still images of visitors to the Wartburg every minute, but for technical reasons (?) This camera was switched off in the meantime.

- Demo recording of this webcam .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Beck, Schwarz: The Eisenach Castle . In: Wartburg Foundation (Hrsg.): Wartburg yearbook . tape 1996 . Schnell and Steiner, Eisenach 1997, ISBN 3-7954-1132-7 , p. 35-66 .
  2. ↑ Hugo von Ritgen: The Schanze / The Powder Tower . In: The leader of the Wartburg. A guide for strangers and a contribution to the customer of the past . JJ Weber publishing house, Leipzig 1860.
  3. ^ Hugo Peter: Eisenach in the Thirty Years' War (reprint) . Rockstuhl Verlag , Bad Langensalza 1998, ISBN 3-932554-33-7 .
  4. ^ Carl Salomon Thon: Wartburg Castle. A contribution to the customer of the past . Ed .: Carl Wilhelm Ettinger. Gotha 1792.
  5. ^ Grit Jacobs: Carl Alexander Simon: "The Wartburg, an archaeological sketch" . In: Wartburg Foundation (Hrsg.): Wartburg yearbook . tape 2003 . Schnell and Steiner, Eisenach 2004, ISBN 3-7954-1804-6 , p. 108-158 .
  6. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Lehmann: Report on the construction work of the Wartburg Foundation in 2002 . In: Wartburg Foundation (Hrsg.): Wartburg yearbook . tape 2004 . Schnell and Steiner, Eisenach 2003, ISBN 3-7954-1703-1 , p. 182-183 .

literature

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 0.7 ″  N , 10 ° 18 ′ 25 ″  E