Welfenstein

Welfenstein Castle
Welfenstein Castle
Creation time :	First mentioned in 1271
Castle type :	Höhenburg, rocky location
Conservation status:	Receive
Place:	Freienfeld - Mauls
Geographical location	46 ° 51 '27.8 "  N , 11 ° 30' 40.2"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 51 '27.8 "  N , 11 ° 30' 40.2"  E
Height:	930  m

Welfenstein is a castle in South Tyrol between Trens and Mauls in the municipality of Freienfeld . It is located in the Wipptal on the orographic left side of the Eisack .

history

The castle was built to protect the old Brennerstrasse . This was already an Alpine crossing in the Early Bronze Age (around 1700 BC), and later also a Roman road, as can be seen from the milestones found from the time of Emperor Septimius Severus in 193–211 AD.

Welfenstein was first mentioned in a document in 1271. At the time it was first mentioned, the facility was owned by Otto Welf , who belonged to the noble von Welfsberg family. The de Welfenstaein were ministerials of Count Meinhard II of Görz-Tirol. After the death of Otto Welf († after 1271) Meinhard II withdrew the fief and no longer gave it directly. There followed a period in which several nurses who Burghut took over: 1302-1308 was the so-called Muesauge worked here 1315-1338 the Sterzinger Judge Joseph Volderer standing out in 1331 Laurentius de Welfenstein called. As can be seen from the rait books of the Hall treasury, the castle must have been expanded during this time. In 1347 Welfenstein came to Ludwig von Raiffenstein through the marriage of Siguna, daughter of Lorenz von Volders. After the Raiffensteiners died out, the Lords of Säben followed . The last of them was Oswald von Säben.

The fortress, which has now fallen back , was given by Duke Sigmund together with Reifenstein Castle in 1469 as a pledge and in 1470 for perpetuity to the branch of the Teutonic Order in Sterzing. The order only used the castle for about 40 years and then gave it up in favor of Reifenstein Castle. Around 1600 Welfenstein was already in ruins that Marx Parakeet von Wolkenstein called it "ain old crumbling castle stable". In the 18th century the walls had crumbled so that they were also used as a source of building materials.

In 1809 the complex came to the Stafler family in Mauls in the course of secularization . In 1893 the Innsbruck painter Edgar Meyer bought the ruins from Johann Stafler, innkeeper at Mauls. In 1893–1897, Edgar Meyer built an almost new castle here, which corresponded to the romantic ideas of the time. At the time of purchase, the main tower of the castle with a side length of about 10 m and a wall thickness of 2.5 m from the 13th century and a residential building from the 14th century, which enclosed the west and south sides of the tower, receive. These parts of the building were included in the reconstruction. A round stair tower was added to connect the tower with the residential building. A chapel and a terrace were built on the north side. A third semicircular floor was added to the tower, which received light to the south through a series of arched windows. Meyer set up his studio here. A rectangular tower was erected in the middle of the structure, which towers over the building by three stories. The building was decorated with arbors , battlements reinforced auxiliary buildings and a facade painting. The complex was framed by a surrounding wall, using parts of the old wall. Below terraces with balustrades and observation towers were created.

In the course of the occupation of South Tyrol by Italian troops, the castle was burned down from November 18th to 19th, 1918, many works of art were destroyed. Edgar Meyer belonged to the Tyrolean Volksbund and before the First World War had taken a public position against the Italian claims on Tyrol . The ruin was confiscated by the Italian state in 1921 and sold in 1929 by the Ministry of Finance to the state-run Italian front-line combatants Opera Nazionale per i Combattenti . This sold the system to Carlo Viesi in 1939. The latter had three outbuildings, the gatehouse, the old coach house and the so-called gate building restored to some extent. In 1957 Carlo Viesi bequeathed the castle to his widow. Two other alleged intermediate owners (Mulder van Stellendam, Hans Keller) are not entered in the land register.

Welfenstein Castle today

Welfenstein today

In 1962 Eberhard Edward, a grandson of Edgar Meyer's first marriage, bought the dilapidated ornamental castle. This first had the expanded neighboring houses made habitable again, which had suffered severely from vandalism. At the suggestion of Mauls craftsmen, a roof was put on again and floor slabs were drawn in. Of the many decorative turrets from the romantic castle era, only a small tower in the northeast corner of the surrounding wall has been preserved. As a result of these economical maintenance measures, the complex has only approximated its original shape (tower with residential building).

literature

• Martina Edward Eicke: History of Welfenstein Castle in the Wipptal. The medieval castle - ornamental castle in the 19th century - fall and resurrection in the 20th century . In: Südtiroler Burgeninstitut (Ed.), Castles - Perspektiven. 50 years of the South Tyrolean Castle Institute, 1961–2013. Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2013, ISBN 978-3-7030-0838-2 , pp. 485–495.
• Oswald Trapp : Welfenstein . In: Oswald Trapp (ed.), Tiroler Burgenbuch. III. Band: Wipptal . Athesia publishing house, Bozen 1982, pp. 236–244.

Web links

Commons : Welfenstein  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office
• Welfenstein on burgen-adi.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Burg Welfenstein pictures. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .