Hofheim moated castle

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Hofheim moated castle
Hofheim am Taunus - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655

Hofheim am Taunus - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655

Alternative name (s): Hofheim Palace
Creation time : around 1352-56; Castle 1717–22
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status:
Castle complex: remains of the castle structure preserved
Place: Hofheim am Taunus
Geographical location 50 ° 5 '12.1 "  N , 8 ° 26' 49.5"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 5 '12.1 "  N , 8 ° 26' 49.5"  E
Height: 128  m above sea level NHN
Moated Castle Hofheim (Hesse)
Hofheim moated castle
The listed ruin of the city castle
Site plan of the castle and outer bailey
The new Kurmainzische winery building (administration building) built around 1720 in the area of ​​the former outer bailey

The moated castle Hofheim is a moated castle with its extension of a later castle ( cellar ) from the early modern period on the cellar place southwest of the medieval city ​​wall in Hofheim am Taunus in the Main-Taunus district in Hesse .

history

The castle and its remains are the oldest parts of the building in Hofheim. The moated castle was built around 1352–56 by the Lords of Hofheim, the Counts of Falkenstein , immediately after being granted town charter and mentioned in 1356 as "Slois zu Hoiffheim". It was built to the south outside the city wall at that time. Parts of a Roman tombstone , the image of a mounted archer , were built into the upper part of the curtain wall . In the first construction phase, in addition to the construction of the curtain wall and the southern gate with gate tower, the residential building in the west of the inner castle was probably built .

1364 were Philip VI. von Falkenstein's castle and place Hofheim during the " Reichskriegs " ( Falkensteiner feud 1364-1366) against the bailiff Ullrich III. of Hanau , the four Wetterau imperial cities of Frankfurt , Friedberg , Wetzlar and Gelnhausen and the Archbishop Kuno of Trier conquered by the troops of Kurmainz . When the conflict ended, the town and castle of Hofheim came to the Archbishopric of Mainz . Maybe Mainz had only become lord, because even in 1376 the widow of Philip, may Agnes von Falkenstein-Münzenberg , her four sons only by payment of 10,500 guilders from the captivity of Reifenberger free by the year before, 1375, for those of Kuno von Trier brought in the borrowed sum among others Burg and Ort Hofheim as a pledge.

In 1429 the castle (and place) came into pledge possession of the Lords of Kronberg . The Archbishop of Mainz , Diether von Isenburg , bought back the castle in 1460. In 1478 the lords of Eppstein-Königstein acquired the castle as a new pledge. When the Lords of Eppstein died out in 1535, the castle was inherited by the Counts of Stolberg- Königstein. Thirty years later, Mainz succeeded in redeeming the pledge and in making the Hofheim office again become Electoral Mainz .

From 1433 the castle was the seat of kurmainzischen cellar until 1717-1722 Mainz Elector Lothar Franz von Schönborn the similar a castle winery building, an elongated late Baroque building in the former Vorburgbereich the old castle, with a corner tower of the city wall , the so-called witch's tower , only a few meters north of the castle. Apartments on the upper floor were reserved for the elector.

Extensive building measures are documented between 1560 and 1570, a stables with two storehouses above was mentioned in 1562. In the Thirty Years' War the castle was damaged but not sacked. Attempts to renovate the castle in the middle of the 17th century were not made, so that the hall had to be demolished in 1667 after further storm damage. In 1687 the press house was built at this point. From 1686 to 1687, maintenance measures on the stables are described.

The castle was destroyed gradually from the first half of the 18th century. In 1722, after the seat of the Kurmainzer bailiff was relocated to the newly built cellars (the former outer bailey) within the city, the core bailey was now only used economically and fell into disrepair. It is not exactly known when the individual buildings will gradually fall into disrepair or be demolished. However, as a result of the French Revolution , the moated castle and cellar were occupied and destroyed.

From 1803 to 1806 with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and the secularization of Kurmainz, the office (including the castle) came to the developing Duchy of Nassau . In the course of the town's expansion, the moat was filled in in 1811 . In 1819 the castle was acquired by the private citizen Philipp Joseph Weiler . Between 1876 and 1877/78 the castle finally came to the city of Hofheim through purchase. In the following hundred years, the property underwent multiple changes in use.

In 1975 the former Hofheimer Vereinen winery was given to use. Archaeological investigations carried out between 1990 and 1991 allow a more precise determination of the age of the first buildings. In 2009/2010 the winery was completely renovated for two years.

description

Former moated castle

The up to ten meter high partially preserved circular wall with a wall thickness of up to two meters encompassed a square area of ​​23 × 23 m in area almost exactly aligned with the cardinal points. In the 17th century Merian engraving, fortified towers can be seen in every corner . In the middle of the south wall was the main gate, which was secured with a gate tower and a drawbridge . In the northern castle wall there was another gate with a drawbridge from more recent times, which led over the partially preserved arch bridge over the moat of the city wall into the village. The outer bailey , probably just the farmyard of the castle, was located within the city wall in the area of ​​today's cellar building.

It is believed that originally only the west and east sides of the castle were built along the castle wall. The two-storey hall is located in the northwest corner of the castle. This half-timbered building was presumably replaced by a stone building towards the end of the 14th century and then took up almost the entire length of the western wall. In the 16th century, a south wing was added to the palace. The royal stables are said to have been on the south wall and several small buildings along the castle wall on the east side of the castle, which were replaced by more massive structures in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Cellar (castle)

Hexenturm: The memorial plaque, loopholes and the toilet bay on the cellar are visible
Kurmainzer full coat of arms

The cellar building from around 1720, a historical official building and administrative center for taxes in kind, could be traced back to the year 1425/26 in dendrochronological investigations using the C14 method in the foundation walls. The late Baroque, ten-axis, two-storey and elongated rectangular building in a south-west-north-east orientation has its entrance in the middle on the north side. Above it is the full coat of arms of the Elector of Mainz . The short side of the building is only biaxial; while the south side has an irregular distribution of windows and the witch's tower is connected to the east corner with a baroque, polygonal curved hood. The corner tower has embrasures and in transition to a long side of the southern Kelleri building a garderobe on. On the south side of the round witch tower is a memorial plaque for the Hofheim witch persecution . The massive castle-like structure has a high hipped roof .

present

From the former castle the castle wall with gate and gate tower and the bridge as well as the wine press house inside are still preserved. The associated remains of the castle bridge consist of three flat arched arches with sandstone blocks used as wedge stones, the quarry stone masonry of which, thanks to the comparable technology, can be classified in relation to the creation of the castle wall.

The former cellar building has been completely preserved, renovated and is used by the city's associations.

The preserved castle ruins and the former winery are a building and cultural monument as well as part of the entire old town and of great importance for the local history of Hofheim.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 478-479.
  • Georg Wilhelm Sante (Hrsg.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 4: Hessen (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 274). Unchanged reprint of the 3rd edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-520-27403-5 , pp. 233-234.
  • Christian Ottersbach: Frankfurt & Rhein-Main - castles and palaces in and around Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt, Mainz, Taunus and Wetterau. Petersberg 2010.
  • Thomas Biller: Castles in the Rheingau and Taunus . Schnell & Steiner, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-1991-2 , pp. 145-148.
  • Roswitha Schlecker: Excavations in the Wasserburg zu Hofheim . In: District Committee of the Main-Taunus-Kreis (Ed.): Yearbook of the Main-Taunus-Kreis , Volume 1, Hofheim aT, 1993.
  • Cornelia Süßmuth: Hofheim am Taunus: building history studies in the Hofheimer "Wasserschloss" . In: Denkmalpflege in Hessen , 1993, ISSN  0935-8307 , pp. 29–31.

Web links

Commons : Wasserschloss Hofheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old moated castle at meinestadt.de
  2. ↑ Hofheim Palace, Section: Finds. Historical local dictionary for Hesse (as of June 25, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 20, 2016 .
  3. ^ Karl Ebel: The Imperial War against Philipp the Elder. Ä. von Falkenstein 1364-1366. In: Communications of the Upper Hessian History Association. Vol. 23, 1915, ISSN  0342-1198 , pp. 129-142
  4. ↑ Dieter Wolf: Acts of War in the Reich War against Philipp the Elder. Ä. von Falkenstein 1364-1366. In: Wetterauer Geschichtsblätter Vol. 23, 1974, pp. 21-22
  5. ↑ a b c d e Schloss Hofheim, section: Property history. Historical local dictionary for Hesse (as of June 25, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 20, 2016 .
  6. ^ Johann Georg Lehmann : Documented history of the lords and counts of Falkenstein am Donnersberge in the Palatinate . In: Mittheilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz , Vol. 3, Speyer 1872, p. 57 f. Online version . It should be noted that Lehmann's comments on the Falkensteiners from the 19th century are not correct in all respects.
  7. ↑ No receipt
  8. ↑ a b c d e website history of the city of Hofheim
  9. ^ Entry on Hofheim (Alte Burg) in the private database "Alle Burgen".
  10. ↑ a b c Thomas Biller: Castles in the Rheingau and in the Taunus
  11. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former cellar building In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  12. ↑ Altes Wasserschloß ( Memento of the original from December 22nd, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at rhein-main-wiki.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rhein-main-wiki.de
  13. ^ A b State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Alte Burg In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse