ruins
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
of Breitenstein Castle (german: Burg Breitenstein) stand on a crag, high, on the northern side of the
Speyerbach
The Speyerbach is a left tributary of the Rhine in the Palatinate part of Rhineland-Palatinate. In Speyer, the river split into ''Gießhübelbach'' and ''Woogbach''. The Woogbach changes its name to ''Nonnenbach'', then flows into Gießhübe ...
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The castles is east of the village of
Elmstein
Elmstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim (district), Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Ge ...
in the county of
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...
in the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
.
History
The
rock castle
A rock castle (german: Felsenburg) is a type of medieval castle that directly incorporates natural rock outcrops into its defences to such an extent that the rock formations define the structure of the castle. Topographically, rock castles are c ...
was probably built in 1246 by Pope
Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV ( la, Innocentius IV; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254.
Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universitie ...
during the unrest over the excommunication of Frederick II. Not until 1257 was it mentioned in the records in connexion with a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
of Kropsberg,
castellan
A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...
of the Breitenstein and ''
Dienstmann
A ''Dienstmann'' (plural: ''Dienstleute'' or, in Austria, ''Dienstmänner'') was a medieval retainer or vassal and, later, a hired man, in German-speaking countries, particularly in Austria until the first half of the 20th century.
Usage
The t ...
'' of the
counts of Leiningen
The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Impe ...
. The knight was named in 1265 as Burkhard of Breitenstein. In 1339 James of Flörsheim was appointed as ''
Burgmann
From the 12th century in central Europe, a ''Burgmann'' (plural: ''Burgmannen'' or modern term ''Burgmänner'', Latin: ''oppidanus'', ''castrensus'') was a knight ministeriales or member of the nobility who was obliged to guard and defend castles. ...
''.
After the death of King
Rudolph of Habsburg
Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death.
Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which h ...
fighting broke out in 1291 between the
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
s and their opponents. At that time the
counts of Sponheim
The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a medieval German noble family, which originated in Rhenish Franconia. They were immediate Counts of Sponheim until 1437 and Dukes of Carinthia from 1122 until 1269. Its cadet branches ruled in the Imperial C ...
built a
siege castle
Counter-castles were built in the Middle Ages to counter the power of a hostile neighbour or as a siege castle, that is, a fortified base from which attacks could be launched on a nearby enemy castle.
Purpose
In castle science, and according t ...
just a few metres south of Breitenstein Castle. The two sites were separated from one another by a broad
neck ditch
A neck ditch (german: Halsgraben), sometimes called a throat ditch, at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry . The siege castle was mentioned in 1340 as Lower Breitenstein (''Nieder-Breitenstein''). In that year,
Count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
Walram of Sponheim was found guilty at the royal court in Munich of building a castle on the territory of the prince-bishopric of Speyer without permission and was to hand it over to the Speyer vassal (''
Lehnsmann
A ''Lehnsmann'' (plural: ''Lehnsleute'' or ''Lehnsmänner'') or ''Lehnsnehmer'' (also spelt ''Lehens-'') was a nobleman in the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries, who, as a liegeman was obliged to render service, goods in kind and loyalty to ...
''), Friedrich Horneck. However,
Count Palatine
A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an ord ...
Rudolph II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...
appealed against this decision and announced that the Sponheim lord was his vassal, so that he was allowed to retain the castle.
In 1357, a ''
Burgfrieden
The or 'c.fBurgfriedeat Duden online. was a German medieval term that referred to imposition of a state of truce within the jurisdiction of a castle, and sometimes its estate, under which feuds, i.e. conflicts between private individuals, were ...
'' treaty was agreed that specified that the larger siege castle would henceforth become the
inner ward
The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...
, and the older, smaller building complex would become the
outer ward
An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bui ...
.
After the castle was mentioned for the last time in 1382, it probably came into the possession of the counts of Leiningen and was likely destroyed in 1470–71 during a
feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one part ...
between its tenant family and the
prince-elector
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...
,
Frederick I Frederick I may refer to:
* Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht.
* Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978)
* Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105)
* Frederick I, Count of Zoller ...
– the so-called Electoral Palatine War.
After the ruins had been taken over in 1963 by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Castle Administration, conservation and safety measures were carried out on the walls in 1988 and 1989.
Site
The Late
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...
inner ward is built on a narrow rock base that, today, is only accessible to experienced
climbers
Climber may refer to:
*Climber, a participant in the activity of climbing
*Climber, general name for a vine
*Climber, or climbing specialist, a road bicycle racer who can ride especially well on highly inclined roads
* Climber (BEAM), a robot that ...
. The
shield wall
A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation,
but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...
, made of
rusticated ashlar
Two different styles of rustication in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below.">Florence.html" ;"title="Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence">Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and r ...
s on all sides, has survived almost to its full height. Seen from the uphill side its right-hand edge is sloping. The
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
s of the
chemin de ronde
A ''chemin de ronde'' ( French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; ), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement.
In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficu ...
on the inside of the wall display
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
elements. The attack side is guarded by a neck ditch hewn deep into the rock. Behind the shield wall rises a modest domestic building of which the
enceinte
Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...
has only partly survived. Access to the castle was not over the
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
, but up a staircase hewn out of the rock on the south side. Around the crag is an almost rectangular
lower ward
An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary buil ...
, of which only a few wall remains can still be seen. On the other side of the neck ditch, away and higher, are the remains of a separate outer ward with its own moat.
Literature
*
Magnus Backes
Magnus Backes (17 September 1930 – 21 May 2019) was a German art historian and historic preservationist. From 1983 to 1991, he succeeded Werner Bornheim gen. Schilling and Hartmut Hofrichter as the third of the General Directorate for Cultura ...
, Heinz Straeter: ''Staatliche Burgen, Schlösser und Altertümer in Rheinland-Pfalz''. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, 2003, .
* Manfred Czerwinski: ''Burgen – stolze Zeugen einer großen Zeit − Pfalz und Umgebung''. Verlag Superior, Kaiserslautern, 2002, .
* Walter Eitelmann: ''Rittersteine im Pfälzerwald''. 4th revised and considerably expanded edn. Pfälzerwald-Verein, Neustadt/Weinstraße, 1998, .
* Arndt Hartung, Walter Hartung: ''Pfälzer Burgenrevier''. 6th rev. edn. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Ludwigshafen, 1985, .
* Walter Herrmann: ''Auf rotem Fels. Ein Führer zu den schönsten Burgen der Pfalz und des elsässischen Wasgau''. Braun, Karlsruhe, 2004, .
* Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des Deutschen Mittelalters''. Bechtermünz-Verlag, Augsburg, 1996, .
* Elena Rey: ''Burgenführer Pfalz''. Superior, Kaiserslautern, 2003, .
* Alexander Thon (ed.): ''Wie Schwalbennester an den Felsen geklebt. Burgen in der Nordpfalz''. 1st edn. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg, 2005, pp. 40–43, .