Eschelbronn moated castle

Eschelbronn moated castle
The Bach knights castle Kanzach is a faithful reconstruction of the Eschelbronn moated castle from period III.
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Niederungsburg, location
Conservation status:	Burgstall
Standing position :	Clericals, nobles
Construction:	Wood, limestone and sandstone
Place:	Eschelbronn
Geographical location	49 ° 19 '7.4 "  N , 8 ° 52' 11.3"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 19 '7.4 "  N , 8 ° 52' 11.3"  E
Height:	156  m above sea level NN

The moated castle Eschelbronn is a lost moated castle in Eschelbronn in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg . The excavation results for the Eschelbronn moated castle led to the reconstruction of the Bach knights castle in Kanzach in 2000/01 .

History and layout

The excavations by the State Monuments Office of Baden-Württemberg from 1971 to 1975 prior to the construction of the palace hall were the most extensive research in Baden-Württemberg at the time . Relics from several time periods were found, which indicate constant changes in the 800-year-old castle . Its history and that of the surrounding area are divided into several periods.

Period I.

Until 1220 the property consisted only of pasture land. It is believed that the Schwarzbach flowed closer to the point than it does today.

Period II

After 1220 there was a fenced wooden building on the site, which was built using post and swell construction technology. The building was owned by the von Dürn dynasts . The owner of the original facility is not known. However, it could have been Reinhard von Hettingen , who as a follower of Boppo II von Dürn held the local rule over Eschelbronn. They inherited the property through a daughter of the Count von Lauffen . In 1251 there was talk of Heinrich von Eschelbronn, a follower of Conrad I von Dürn. He had been appointed ministerial by the heir's daughter . This period ended around 1271.

Period III

From around 1300 tiled stoves and window panes made of flat glass were found. As a result, it seems to have been an aristocratic residence in the High Middle Ages during this period . The area was filled up and was completely changed. A trench was dug around the property. The foundation consisted of coarse, unmortured limestone and sandstone . On a stone base there was a wooden stick structure for which trees were felled in the winter of 1270. There was a wooden tower with several floors. The first two floors could be proven by the excavations. A third floor was concluded, among other things, by means of traditional representations. The total height of the building was around ten to twelve meters. The entrance was at a height of 3.60 meters on the north side.

For the period from 1300 to 1321/24 IIIb came a tiled pitched roof . The ground floor was converted into living space. There was a stove with an open fire and a tiled stove. In 1322 a fire destroyed the property.

Period IV

From 1322/25 to 1375 a more elaborate wooden castle with two entrances was built. According to the Speyer fiefdom, the resident was the nobleman Friedrich von Hettingen. Since he had no offspring, the distant relative Rüdiger von Hettingen inherited the property. That he was also based there was proven by the discovery of a personal seal stick.

Period V

Between 1375 and 1420 the castle was converted into a stone fortress under Rüdiger's son Gerhard von Hettingen. The wooden castle became a moated castle, to which a kennel wall was built shortly afterwards. Gerhard had no offspring. He sold the castle in 1418 through his maternal uncle, Rafan Göler von Ravensburg, for 1,600 guilders to the local lord of Eschelbronn, Albrecht the Elder. Ä. from Venningen. With his wife Christine Eckbrecht von Dürkheim, he carried out major renovations around 1418 to 1421.

Period VI

In the period between 1420 and 1451 major renovations took place again. A cellar was built into the main building. The north-western entrance to the castle was walled up and an entrance was set up in the middle of the western perimeter wall. The limestone kennel wall was given a square gate tower with a red sandstone wall more than a meter thick .

The pool at the sports field marks the location of the former building

Period VII

From 1451 to around 1550, the courtyard and some of the interiors were paved with limestone. Albrecht the Elder J. von Venningen inherited the moated castle in 1455 from his father Albrecht the Elder. Ä. and completed the renovation work started by the father. His son and his wife Margarete (née Ramstein) sold the castle and the village to the multiple landowner Count Ludwig von Bayern , Herr zu Scharfeneck , and moved to Wimpfen in 1485 . The property then fell into disrepair. The Bavarian count sold the facility in 1521 to the Palatinate Marshal Joachim von Seckendorf, who also acquired the place in 1526. Von Seckendorf did not live in Eschelbronn, but had the property administered by Bastian Jäger called Pfeil, which is mentioned in documents from 1548 and 1551.

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  Deed of sale from 1485 (front)

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  Document of the sale of 1485 (back top)

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  Document of the sale of 1485 (reverse below)

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  Margareth von Ramstein, wife of Abrecht von Venningen, agrees to the sale (front)

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  Margareth von Ramstein, wife of Abrecht von Venningen, agrees to the sale (back)

Joachim von Seckendorf's son Christoph died in 1571. He did not leave any male descendants, whereupon the property was divided between the lords of Eltz-Bliescastell and the Landschad von Steinach . At times they lived in the castle as two parties.

In 1619 the villagers rebelled and refused to repair the fence surrounding the castle courtyard or to take care of the garden. From 1676 the castle began to deteriorate.

Period VIII

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Period IX

The period after 1676 was particularly marked by an inheritance dispute after Jakob Friedrich von Eltz died without any descendants. The Capler von Oedheim family, related to him, quarreled with the von der Fels family over the fiefdom, which passed to the von der Fels family from 1688 after a decision by the Imperial Chamber of Commerce in Wetzlar . They expanded the castle as a simple residential complex, but did not use it themselves. This last period ended in 1760. From another inheritance dispute, the moated castle passed to Eberhard Dietrich Capler von Oedheim, known as Bautz. He sold it to Carl Philipp von Venningen , who immediately had it removed in order to build Eschelbronn Castle.

reconstruction

Information board in Eschelbronn

From 1972 to 1975 the site was recorded and documented by the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office under the direction of Dietrich Lutz. Due to the rise in the valley floor in the late Middle Ages, numerous wooden building remains could be salvaged in a moist soil conservation area. The results of the excavation, which was unique in this scope for medieval wooden castles in southwest Germany, were evaluated from 1985 to 1988 and published in 1996. At the place of the castle today a water basin marks the former foundation walls of the castle. The excavation results of the Eschelbronn castle were used in 2000/01 for a reconstruction project in Upper Swabia. Since you had the stream Knights of Kanzach no archaeological features of the former castle, they reconstructed the Bachritterburg Kanzach after Eschelbronner model of period III.

Others

In 1992, a picture of the castle served as the first motif of the Christmas cups that were then produced annually for the Eschelbronn Advent Singing.

literature

• Dietrich Lutz: The first results of the excavations in the Eschelbronn moated castle . In: Kraichgau. Contributions to landscape and local research . Episode 4, 1974/75, ZDB -ID 127933-6 , pp. 111-123.
• Dietrich Lutz: The Eschelbronn moated castle, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, a seat of the lower nobility from the 13th to 18th centuries. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg , 5th year 1976, issue 4, pp. 158–166 ( PDF )
• Friedrich Wilhelm Krahe: Castles of the German Middle Ages. Floor plan lexicon . Weidlich / Flechsig, Würzburg 1994, ISBN 3-8035-1372-3 .
• Tilman Mittelstraß: Eschelbronn. Origin, development and end of a Niederadel seat in Kraichgau , Theiss Verlag, 1996
• Tilman Mittelstraß: The reconstruction of a wooden tower castle from the Middle Ages from Kraichgau . In: Kraichgau. Contributions to landscape and local research . Episode 17, 2002, pp. 43-50.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mittelstraß 2002, p. 43.
2. ^ Tilman Mittelstraß: Eschelbronn. Origin, development and end of a Niederadel seat in Kraichgau , Theiss Verlag, 1996, page 168 ff.
3. ↑ The Wasserburg in Eschelbronn at eschelbronn.de
4. ↑ Mittelstraß 2002, p. 43.
5. ↑ Advent Singing , Eschelbronn Local History and Tourist Association