Wilzenberg

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Wilzenberg
View from the southwest to Wilzenberg with some houses in the Schmallenberg district of Grafschaft

View from the southwest to Wilzenberg with some houses in the Schmallenberg district of Grafschaft

height 658.3  m above sea level NHN
location at county ; Hochsauerlandkreis , North Rhine-Westphalia ( Germany )
Mountains Rothaar Mountains
Dominance 2.23 km →  Höhe at the transition of the Rothaarkamm from Albrechtsberg to Schmallenberger Höhe
Notch height 159.6 m ↓  immediately east-southeast
Coordinates 51 ° 9 '13 "  N , 8 ° 19' 52"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 9 '13 "  N , 8 ° 19' 52"  E
Wilzenberg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Wilzenberg
particularities - Wilzenberg Wallanlage
- Marienkapelle
- Wilzenbergturm ( AT )
Aerial photo (view from east to west):
Wilzenberg with Schmallenberg (back) and its districts Gleidorf (right), Winkhausen (bottom) and Grafschaft (left)

The Wilzenberg is 658.3  m above sea level. NHN high mountain on the western edge of the Rothaargebirge . It is located near Grafschaft , a district of Schmallenberg in the North Rhine-Westphalian Hochsauerlandkreis .

In addition to the remains of a hill fort, classified as a ground monument , there is a pilgrimage chapel from 1633, the 17 m high Wilzenberg tower from 1891 and a 28 m high cross . The mountain is classified as a geographical singularity .

geography

location

The Wilzenberg rises in the northwest part of the Rothaargebirge, in the Sauerland-Rothaargebirge nature park and in the outskirts of Schmallenberg. Its summit is 1.9 km southeast of Gleidorf , 950 m southwest of Winkhausen , 800 m north of Grafschaft . All three are districts of Schmallenberg, whose core town is 3 km to the west. The Lenne flows north past the mountain in an east-west direction and the county to the south . The federal highway 236 runs along the Lenne ( cf.Heidenstrasse ), which meets the federal highway 511 in Gleidorf , and along the county road the county road  17.

Natural allocation

The Wilzenberg belongs to the natural spatial main unit group Süderbergland (No. 33) and in the main unit Rothaargebirge (with Hochsauerland ) (333) to the natural area Lennekessel (333.6), with its north, west and south flanks in the main unit Sauerland sinks (335), Subunit Fredeburg Chamber (335.1) fall into the natural area Schmallenberger Grounds (335.10).

Protected areas

The Wilzenberg nature reserve ( CDDA no. 389954, designated 2008; 73  hectares in size) lies on large parts of the Wilzenberg and, apart from the lower areas of its western flank, there are parts of the Rothaargebirge landscape protection area (HSK sub-area 1) (CDDA no. 323981 ) on the mountain ; 1994; 140.53  km² ).

history

On the Wilzenberg there are two ramparts (ring walls ) from the Iron Age (200 BC) and the early Middle Ages (9th to 10th centuries AD). The older fortifications from the pre-Roman Iron Age are around 6 hectares in size. The younger, smaller castle complex from the early Middle Ages is mentioned several times in connection with the Grafschaft monastery . In documents and documents of the monastery, three names of nobles were mentioned who are associated with the younger castle complex.

One of these aristocrats was a Count von Wilzenberg ("Haoldus comes de Wiltzenberg, qui contulit monasterio proprietatem ipsius montis"), who was only mentioned once in a document from the monastery. But there is no evidence that a Count von Wilzenberg ever lived on Wilzenberg.

According to tradition and legends, the castle on Wilzenberg was also attributed to a Countess Chuniza . It is documented that in 1072 Archbishop Anno II of Cologne acquired the area on which the Grafschaft monastery was built from a certain Chuniza and her son Tiemo. However, there is no evidence that Chuniza had her seat on the Wilzenberg. The noble lords of Grafschaft (then "von Grascap") were brought into connection with the castle complex; in the middle of the 13th century they moved their seat to Burg Nordenau (today Burg Rappelstein ). There is also no evidence that the noble lords of Grafschaft previously had their seat on Wilzenberg.

Up until now it has not been possible to clarify who actually lived in the younger castle complex. Further documents can prove that the named persons were actually alive at the time. The death of a Count von Wilzenberg was documented in the Borghorst Abbey book of the dead . Countess Chuniza probably belonged to the Gison family . 1073 Graf were Giso II. And Adalbert von Schauenburg and Adalbert's four sons at the castle Hollende in weather of followers of Duke Otto of Bavaria killed in revenge for a plot against Otto. From 1101 to 1107 there was a Count Tiemo in the upper Eder -Lahn area. The noble lords of Grascap were probably a branch of the older Battenberg family ruling in the county of Wittgenstein or belonged to the branch of the noble lords of Hachen .

Say

There are some legends that are still popularly known in the Sauerland today about the Wilzenberg :

A legend tells of a medieval robber baron's castle on the mountain, in which the giant lords of Grascap lived, who were appointed by the gods. The castle on the mountain was connected to the Nordenau castle (today Rappelstein castle ) via an underground passage . The robber barons hid their gold and silver in a cave between Schmallenberg and Gleidorf. According to legend, the large "Grafschaft", to which Bilstein , Wittgenstein and Grafschaft belonged, was divided among the three sons of the family.

According to another legend, the noble lady Chuniza delusionalized seven husbands one after the other. She killed them with poison. When the murders became known, Countess Chuniza deceived the persecutors with a ruse on her flight to Nordenau Castle. She had her horses' horseshoes forged the wrong way round to hide the escape route.

According to other legends, there was a giant who lived on the mountain or who defeated the local count from Nordenau Castle.

Pilgrimage site and excavation site

Wilzenberg, also known as the "Holy Mountain of the Sauerland", is a well-known place of pilgrimage . The pilgrimage sites visited annually by pilgrims from Schmallenberg and Grafschaft include: a. the Marienkapelle, stations of the cross , a free altar with crucifixion group and a high cross. The pilgrimage sites are located between two nested hill fortifications that have been the subject of archaeological excavations on several occasions .

Plan of the ramparts at Wilzenberg

Between 1900 and 1914 the first excavations were carried out on the Wilzenberg by the Westphalian Antiquities Commission . The age of the older ramparts was unknown until 1950, despite some excavations. Due to a weapon discovery (largest weapon discovery from the Iron Age in Westphalia) on April 7, 1950, when two iron swords and four lance tips were found, a chronological classification was possible. Objects that were found during an excavation in 1984 made it possible to date the younger castle complex more precisely.

During the last excavation in 2002, archaeologists from the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL) uncovered a four-meter-long piece of a 2200-year-old fortification. According to the excavation findings, the Fortification from the Early Iron Age had a post slit wall characteristic of the Celtic region .

Lady Chapel

Side view of the chapel
“Brauers-Deyk” ( brother pond ): source on the western slope of Wilzenberg

Even before 1500 there was a small chapel on the Wilzenberg . The Grafschafter monastery accounts have named a brother on the Wilzenberg since 1508 . This hermit lived in a hermitage near today's chapel. According to records, he led a godly life and lived on alms given by the pilgrims, whom he sheltered. The Brauers-Deyk spring ( brother pond ) on the western slope , which is located in a small pond to the west below the chapel, will have received his name from this brother Klausner. In 1626, Abbot Gabel Schaffen had the first 70-foot-high Wilzenberg cross built. Six years later Schaffen built a new chapel, which in 1755 got its current size. Topographic maps show a 635.1  m high point a few meters south of the chapel .

Hochkreuz

New high cross from 2015

The 28 meter high cross was built in 1972 for the 900th anniversary of the monastery and the town of Grafschaft by the local Catholic parish in a laminated wood construction . It stands above the Freialtar on the way to the Wilzenberg tower about 280 m west of the summit ( ⊙ ). After it had surprisingly overturned in July 1980 due to a frayed tether, it was rebuilt in a slightly shorter length within a month. In the following years, however, there was increasing damage to the wooden structure. Due to the upcoming repair costs, the church council decided, after an assessment by a structural engineer, to completely renew the building in spring 2015. This time it was decided to use a steel structure. The new summit cross was erected on August 7, 2015. The location and height of the cross remained unchanged. The cross weighs about 5 tons. The crossbars are 8.50 meters long. The exchange cost around 35,000 euros.

Wilzenberg Tower

Wilzenberg Tower

On the summit of the Wilzenberg stands the Wilzenberg tower, built in 1889 , a listed , steel observation tower that was raised in 1989 to a height of 17 m , from which the view falls, for example, into the Rothaar Mountains and down to Schmallenberg. A trigonometric point at a height of 655.4  m is marked on topographic maps near the tower .

Traffic and walking

The Wilzenberg can be reached from the west on an asphalt road that is open to the public as far as a hikers' car park in the forest. From here, the road that continues uphill is blocked by a barrier and can only be used by cyclists and pedestrians. There are also several hiking trails on the mountain:

See also

literature

  • Wilhelm Bleicher : The pre-Roman metal ages . In: Wilhelm Kohl (Hrsg.): History of Westphalia. Vol. 1: From the beginning to the end of the Old Kingdom . Schwann, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-590-34211-0 , pp. 138f. ( Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia  43, 1).
  • Torsten Capelle: Wall castles in Westphalia-Lippe . Ed .: Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Münster 2010, ISSN  0939-4745 , p. 21, no. FBW6 ( Early Castles in Westphalia special volume 1 )
  • Albert K. Hömberg : The Wilzenberg at Schmallenberg . In: Albert K. Hömberg: Between the Rhine and the Weser . Essays and lectures on the history of Westphalia. Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 1967, p. 98ff. ( Writings of the Historical Commission for Westphalia  7, ZDB -ID 2369822-6 ).
  • Philipp Hömberg: The ring walls on the Wilzenberg . In: Josef Wiegel: Contributions to the history of the city Schmallenberg. 1244-1969 . Ed .: City of Schmallenberg. City administration, Schmallenberg 1969, p. 171ff.
  • Philipp R. Hömberg: The Wilzenberg near Kloster Grafschaft, town of Schmallenberg, Hochsauerlandkreis . Antiquity Commission for Westphalia in the Provincial Institute for Westphalian State and Folk Research - Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Aschendorff, Münster 1986, ( Early Castles in Westphalia  6, ISSN  0939-4745 ).
  • Philipp R. Hömberg: The Wilzenberg near monastery Grafschaft . In: Schmallenberg Sauerland - Almanach . 1990, ZDB -ID 1026570-3 , pp. 105-117.
  • Frenn Wiethof: Monumenta Grafschaftensis . Ed .: Spar- und Kreditkasse Schmallenberg, Schmallenberg 1975.

Web links

Commons : Wilzenberg  - Picture Gallery

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Topographical Information Management, Cologne District Government, Department GEObasis NRW ( information )
  2. ↑ a b c d Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  3. ↑ a b On the German basemap from 2011 657.8 m are indicated, the digital terrain model also shows such a height point . Nevertheless, the current (2020) map services (BfN, TIM) show 658.3 m in the usual scales.
  4. ↑ Monument of the Month - October 2009 ( Memento from February 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 25, 2010
  5. ↑ a b Martin Bürgener: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 110 Arnsberg. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1969. →  Online map (PDF; 6.1 MB)
  6. ↑ Martin Bürgener: Geographical Land Survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 111 Arolsen. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1963. →  Online map (PDF; 4.1 MB)
  7. ↑ Michael Baales , Eva Cichy, Anna Helena Schubert: Archeology in Südwestfalen , LWL, p. 69, Münster, 2007 (PDF; 7.99 MB)
  8. ↑ Philipp R. Hömberg: The Wilzenberg near Kloster Grafschaft, town of Schmallenberg, Hochsauerlandkreis (Early Castles in Westphalia 6) , p. 12, Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Aschendorff, Münster 1986, ISSN 0939-4745
  9. ^ Paul Zaunert : Westfälische Sagen , p. 119, Diedrichs, 1927
  10. ^ Adalbert Kuhn: Sagen, Customs and Fairy Tales from Westphalia , The Count on the Wilzenberg and the Hüne (208) and Hünensagen (209) , First Part, p. 189, Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1858
  11. ↑ a b Photo of the information board for the pilgrimage sites on commons.wikimedia.org
  12. ↑ Philipp R. Hömberg: The weapon find from Wilzenberg. ( Memento from February 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sauerland. Journal of the Sauerland Heimatbund. No. 1, March 1976, p. 106 (PDF; 2.26 MB)
  13. ↑ News from Wilzenberg , August 29, 2002, accessed October 3, 2009, lwl.org
  14. ↑ Michael Baales, Eva Cichy, Anna Helena Schubert: Archeology in Südwestfalen , LWL, p. 51, Münster, 2007
  15. ^ Photo of the information board about the Hochkreuze, on commons.wikimedia.org
  16. ^ Sauerlandkurier : New high cross erected on the Wilzenberg - construction made of steel , from August 9, 2015, accessed on August 9, 2015
  17. ↑ a b Climatic hiking and walking trails around Grafschaft on the website grafschaft-schanze.de