Guard tower (courtyard)
The guard tower east of the city center of Hof was built at the end of the 15th century as part of a late medieval defense system in the Brandenburg-Kulmbach margrave . Only the Hofer watchtower has been completely preserved.
location
The tower stands on the 570 m high Wartberg east of the city center of Hof in the direction of the Leimitz and Jägersruh districts. There is visual contact with many mountain ranges in the former Brandenburg-Kulmbach margrave. In 1498 the Hofer watch tower was the northernmost tower with a view of the watch towers on the Weißenstein and the Schneeberg . The city center of Hof with the town hall and the former castle is also visible.
description
The round guard tower with a height of 9.25 m is made of rubble stones and plastered white. It is not freely accessible. There are three observation slots in the upper area.
history
Margrave Friedrich issued a waiting order in 1498 to protect his margrave Kulmbach. The observation and signaling system with guards in all parts of the principality served as an advance warning in the event of attacks. The Hofer watch tower was part of this system. The reason for the maintenance regulations was the Guttenberg feud , which in October 1501 led Moritz von Guttenberg to set fire to thirteen barns in Hof's old town. The tower was probably not yet completed at this point, as it was not mentioned in the accounts of the chroniclers. In the Schmalkaldic War in March 1547, according to Enoch Widmann, he could not prevent enemy troops from briefly occupying and looting the city before the troops of Captain Wolf von Wirsberg drove them out again. During the siege of Hof in 1553 in the Second Margrave War , the besiegers burned the tower down. Therefore it was only mentioned as a place name in the Thirty Years War .
It was not until the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) that the watch tower was rebuilt, as were others, and several high-lying castle ruins were expanded as posts. In the Seven Years War (1756–1763) it was the location of a field guard . During the German War in July 1866, a troop of Prussian dragoons drove out the surprised Bavarian field guard.
The tower was restored by the Hof Improvement Association in 1879 and handed over to the city in 1921.
literature
- Ground floor: The Hofer watch tower . In: Frankenwald - Mitteilungen des Frankenwaldverein eV , Heft 4/1949, pp. 85–88.
- August Gebeßler : City and District of Hof . The Art Monuments of Bavaria , Brief Inventories , Volume VII . German art publisher . Munich 1960. p. 52
- Helmut Hennig: Warthen on the mountains . In: Local supplement to the official school gazette of the administrative district of Upper Franconia . Bayreuth. No. 256, November 1998. pp. 38-43
- Dietmar Herrmann, Helmut Süssmann: Fichtel Mountains, Bavarian Vogtland, Steinwald, Bayreuther Land. Lexicon . Ackermannverlag, Hof (Saale) 2000, ISBN 3-929364-18-2 , p. 733 f .
- Hanns Hofmann: The waiting tower - a medieval building . In: Kulturwarte - monthly for art and culture , issue 10/1986. Hof 1986. pp. 262-267.
- Hanns Hofmann: Historical buildings in Hof. Textilgruppe Hof, Hof 1990. Page 59 f
Web links
- Data on the waiting tower yard
- Wartturm Hof as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
- Location of the Wartturm Hof
- Wartturm Hof on warttuerme.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 18 ′ 50.4 ″ N , 11 ° 56 ′ 53.5 ″ E