Wehrstein

Wehrstein
Today's ruins of Wehrstein Castle, view from Fischingen (2005)
Creation time :	at 752
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Free nobles
Place:	Fischingen
Geographical location	48 ° 23 '33.1 "  N , 8 ° 40' 27.7"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 23 '33.1 "  N , 8 ° 40' 27.7"  E

Wehrstein Castle - reconstruction drawing

Wehrstein Castle - floor plan / reconstruction

Wehrstein Castle - today's ruins (2005)

The Wehrstein is the ruin of a hilltop castle on a hill above Fischingen near Sulz am Neckar , Rottweil district in Baden-Württemberg , Germany .

history

According to legend, Charlemagne is said to have met his wife Hildegard , a Swabian, at Wehrstein Castle in 752 .

In the year 772, the places Fischingen and Empfingen were first mentioned in a document. The noble free von Wehrstein were first mentioned as a noble family around 1100, when Marquard von Wehrstein and his wife Gepa gave the Hirsau monastery a gift. The Wehrstein coat of arms , a golden anchor, appeared for the first time during this period . He is said to have recalled that a Wehrsteiner, who is said to have participated in a crusade with Friedrich Barbarossa , was rescued from mortal danger during a storm at sea.

The lords of Wehrstein appeared in a document from 1101 to around 1395. In addition to the castle and the Wehrstein estate, their rulership included the towns of Fischingen , Betra and Empfingen and was initially a fiefdom of the Palatinate-Tuebing region , then Hohenberg and, from 1381, an Austrian fiefdom .

In 1318 Hiltibold von Wehrstein († 1329) became Abbot of St. Gallen . The Wehrstein family probably died out with the death of Benz von Wehrstein in 1409. But as early as 1331 Count Rudolf von Hohenberg (1302–1336) was named as the owner of Wehrstein Castle. The Counts of Hohenberg took over the rule, which included Fischingen, Betra and Empfingen.

In 1373 the Counts of Hohenberg pledged the rule of Wehrstein to the Lords of Weitingen , who subsequently expanded the castle. In 1381, Duke Leopold of Austria bought the entire Hohenberger estate, which also included the Wehrstein estate. Wehrstein thus became an Austrian fiefdom, until 1806 Austria remained an overlord.

In 1400 the rule was pledged to Burkard von Mansperg , who had his ancestral castle Mansberg near Kirchheim / Teck . The pledge was soon converted into a fiefdom. In 1419, the Weitinger family reacquired the rule as a fief. The castle survived the Peasants' War of 1525 unscathed.

In 1528, Count Christoph von Nellenburg-Tengen acquired the dominion of Wehrstein. He died in 1539 and was buried in the church to receive.

In 1552 Jos Niklas II von Zollern bought the rule for his cousin, Count Karl I von Hohenzollern . In the Hohenzollern legacy in 1575, the rule of Wehrstein Hohenzollern-Haigerloch was added. After the Hohenzollern-Wehrstein / Haigerloch line of Zoller died out in 1634, Wehrstein did not come to Hohenzollern-Hechingen , but to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen .

Until 1585, the rule was administered by a Vogt who had his seat at the castle.

During the Thirty Years War the castle was almost completely destroyed by Bavarian troops in 1643, but was then rebuilt.

With the Peace of Bratislava in 1805, the Austrian feudal sovereignty ended and Wehrstein became the property of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Fischingen and Betra were initially assigned to the Oberamt Glatt , which was added to the Oberamt Haigerloch in 1854 .

The dilapidated castle was then demolished around 1830. In 1842 major repairs are carried out on the ruins, the ruins were protected from further deterioration by Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen .

In 2003, the Friends of the Wehrstein Castle Ruins were founded with the aim of protecting the ruins from further deterioration.

In June 2006, the Wehrstein castle ruins were bought by Alois Gfrörer, the gravel works owner from Empfingen.

The Monument Foundation of Baden-Württemberg named the ruin Monument of the Month for February 2011 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Wehrstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.wehrstein.de/
• Video: Historical history of the Wehrstein ruins
• Wehrstein ruins in the building research / restoration database of the State Monuments Office 2004-2020

literature

• L. Schmid: The extinct free lords of Wehrstein and Isenburg in: Communication of the association for history and antiquity in Hohenzollern 10 (1876) .
• Schnell: Documents on the history of the Wehrstein rule in: Historisch statistical magazine 1845.
• Georg Walter: Ruins high above the young Neckar: the "Wehrstein" castle was once a fortified mansion . In: Landkreis Freudenstadt 1988/89, p. 164.
• Ulrike Schweikert : The mistress of the castle (historical novel), ISBN 3-426-62662-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source: Schwarzwälder Bote, June 22, 2006. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; accessed on November 24, 2018 . 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.