Fortress

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Citadel (Budapest, Hungary)
Citadel-like Grimmenstein Castle with the city of Gotha (rounded and partially casemated castle), 1572

A Zwingburg is a strongly fortified, fortress-like castle from which the surrounding land is dominated. Fortresses were built primarily in the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages to secure sovereign territory in areas where the population was not considered to be sufficiently loyal to the ruler. Due to the weak infrastructure of medieval Europe, castle building was one of the most important means of exercising power, which is why it was one of the royal rights ( regalia ).

The chapter "Technical words (lexicon)" in "Burgenkunde" by Otto Piper writes about "Zwingburg", quote: "Popular expression for a castle under foreign rule".

An occupation castle is a fortress built on enemy territory.

Zwingburggen in Germany

In the Middle Ages, city dwellers viewed many larger lordly city ​​castles and especially citadels from the end of the Middle Ages as forts . That is why medieval cities had such castles razed, and in the late Middle Ages also citadels . As early as 1256, the Free Imperial City of Mühlhausen razed the Imperial Castle Mühlhausen (moated castle) located in / next to it , which it had previously conquered. In 1306 the citizens of Eisenach bought the Klemme moated castle and tore it down. In 1308 they had to rebuild it themselves. In 1440 the citizens of the twin cities of Berlin-Cölln protested in Berlin's indignation against the construction of a new (water) castle on the outskirts of Cölln . Ultimately, the facility (Berlin Renaissance Palace) was built anyway. The city of Bitterfeld bought the ruinous castle there from the Saxon elector under pretexts in order to have it demolished afterwards. The Hanseatic City of Rostock had a (provisionally built?) Ducal-Mecklenburg citadel razed in 1573 after purchasing a permit.

Many cities were looking for ways to get rid of an unpleasant castle or even a citadel. This was partly due to financial reasons, as the maintenance of such systems had to be co-financed by the citizens. With this justification, the mighty Mansfeld Fortress was finally razed over the town of the same name from 1674 onwards , although the castles of the Counts of Mansfeld located in it were certainly not touched.

In practice, all citadels can be viewed as compulsory festivals against the respective city. City castles are to be regarded as fortresses if they were integrated into the city wall and separated from the city side by moats and fortifications. In addition, forts and some citadels always had an entrance outside the city wall and usually one inside. The fortress and citadel could thus be defended against attacks from the city side. In this case, supplies for the defenders could be brought into the castle or citadel from outside the city.

The old illustration of Grimmenstein Castle, which was already a classic citadel when it was built and one of the first fortifications built in the German Empire in the 15th century, exemplifies the principle of a fortress / citadel.

Examples:

English castles of occupation in Wales

After several English conquests of the principalities of Wales , especially under King Edward I between 1276 and 1283, England had large castles built in Wales, often in the style of castles :

In practice these were garrisons for British occupation troops. Often they were large moated castles or systems on islands in large lakes. The latter could hardly be reached by the contemporary siege engines . Systems have also been built on cliffs above the sea coast or on islands off the coast of Wales. A number of systems could be reached and supplied by ship on the waterway.

Occupation castles of the German expansions to the east

preserved core castle of the Reichsburg Rochlitz , formerly with two outer castles

The  German castles / main castles built on Slavic territory during several German expansions to the east - especially from the 12th century - especially to the right of the Saale and also north of the Unstrut  - can definitely be classified as fortresses, as they were built on enemy territory. They were mainly located on the larger rivers Unstrut, Saale, Weisse Elster, Elbe, Zwickauer Mulde and Freiberger Mulde. Particularly well-known former castles are: Naumburg (Nuemburc / Saale, gone), Schönburg / Saale , Wendelstein / Unstrut , Burgscheidungen / Unstrut , Camburg / Saale , Rudelburg / Saale , Saaleck / Saale , Giebichenstein / Saale , Schkopau / Saale , Zeitz / Weisse Elster , Weißenfels / Saale , Neuenburg / Unstrut , Bernburg / Saale , Plötzkau / Saale , Magdeburg / Elbe (defunct Palatinate), Altenburg (former Palatinate), Leipzig (Reichsburg, defunct), Rochlitz / Zwickauer Mulde (Reichsburg), Groitzsch / Weisse Elster , Leisnig / Freiberger Mulde , Colditz / Zwickauer Mulde , Strehla / Elbe , Meißen / Elbe (predecessor of the Albrechtsburg as well as older moated castle and "Altenburg").

Occupation castles of knight orders

please refer:

Teutonic castles in Poland, the Baltic States, Russia and Finland

Many - if not all - castles of the Teutonic Order in the Slavic territories occupied or conquered by the Order can be regarded as forts in enemy territory. The systems of the 14th and early 15th centuries are often fort castles .

Please refer:

Others

See also

literature

  • Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a weir system, Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994

Web links

Wiktionary: Zwingburg  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Piper : Castle Studies. Construction and history of castles. 3rd edition 1912 Munich. New edition Weltbild Verlag GmbH, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-554-7 , technical terms: Zwingburg p. 684.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a fortification. Fortified palace buildings of the early modern period , Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , Die Pleißenburg in Leipzig, pp. 56-60, especially p. 57.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a fortification. Fortified palace buildings of the early modern period , Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , notes and illustration of the Ludgerusburg Citadel in Coesfeld, p. 274.
  4. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a fortification. Fortified palace buildings of the early modern period , Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , Moritzburg in Halle p. 220.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a fortification. Fortified palace buildings of the early modern period , Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , Die Martinsburg in Mainz, especially p. 108.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: "The castle as a fortification. Fortified castle buildings of the early modern era", Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , Freibergers Schloss p. 72.
  7. ↑ Ulrich Schütte: The castle as a fortification. Fortified palace buildings of the early modern period , Wiss. Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 1994, ISBN 3-534-11692-5 , The solid castles after 1650, Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz p. 274.