![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/St._Brigida_Bueraberg.jpg)
The Büraburg was a prominent
hill castle
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles ...
with historic significance, on the
Büraberg hill overlooking the
Eder river near the town of
Fritzlar
Fritzlar () is a small town (pop. 15,000) in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history.
The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers. Thirty-eight meters (125& ...
in northern
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
(Germany). Only foundation walls remain, and a church dedicated to
St. Brigida.
A Christian monastery was located on the hill already in the seventh century. It was occupied by the Franks c. 690, who fortified it with a castle and kept a mounted garrison there. The Franks supported the missionary efforts of
Saint Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...
, who cut down the
Donar Oak
Donar's Oak (also Thor's Oak or, via ''interpretatio romana'', Jove's Oak) was a sacred tree of the Germanic pagans located in an unclear location around what is now the region of Hesse, Germany. According to the 8th century ''Vita Bonifatii auct ...
in nearby Geismar and established a short-lived bishopric in Büraburg.
Background
Strategic importance
Hessia
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Darm ...
, from the early seventh century on, served as a buffer between areas dominated by the Saxons (to the north) and the Franks who brought the area to the south under their control in the early sixth century and occupied
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
(to the east) in 531.
By 650, the Franks were establishing themselves as overlords, which is suggested by archeological evidence of burials, and were building fortifications in various places including
Christenberg
Christenberg is a hill in Hesse, 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 th ...
. By 690 they were taking direct control over Hessia, apparently to counteract expansion by the Saxons, who built fortifications in
Gaulskopf and
Eresburg
The Eresburg is the largest, well-known (Old) Saxon refuge castle (''Volksburg'') and was located in the area of the present German village of Obermarsberg in the borough of Marsberg in the county of Hochsauerlandkreis. It was a hill castle buil ...
across the river Diemel, the northern boundary of Hessia. Büraburg (which already had a Frankish settlement in the sixth century) was one of the places the Franks fortified in order to resist the Saxon pressure, and according to John-Henry Clay the Büraburg was "probably the largest man-made construction seen in Hessia for at least seven hundred years". Walls and trenches totaling one kilometer in length were made, and they enclosed "8 hectares of a spur that offered a commanding view over Fritzlar and the densely populated heart of Hessia". The presence of a mounted garrison is deduced from archeological finds, including spurs, harness fittings, and fragments of weapons.
During the
Saxon wars
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought ...
of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
, it was an important fortified base of the Franks, but with the final submission of the Saxons in 804 it lost its military significance.
Religion
The area around Fritzlar shows evidence of significant pagan belief from the first century on. Geismar was a particular focus of such activity; it was continuously occupied from the Roman period on, with a settlement from the Roman period, which itself had a predecessor from the fifth century BC. Excavations have produced a
horse burial
Horse burial is the practice of burying a horse as part of the ritual of human burial, and is found among many Indo-European speaking peoples and others, including Chinese and Turkic peoples. The act indicates the high value placed on horses in ...
and bronze artifacts. A possible religious cult may have centered on a natural spring in Geismar, called ''Heilgenbron''; the name "Geismar" (possibly "energetic pool") itself may be derived from that spring. The village of , now a part of
Gudensberg
Gudensberg () is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany. Since the municipal reform in 1974, the nearby villages of Deute, Dissen, Dorla, Gleichen, Maden and Obervorschütz have become parts of the municipality.
Geography
Gudensberg is situated ...
near Fritzlar and less than ten miles from Geismar, was likely an ancient religious center: the basalt outcrop of Gudensberg is named for Wodan, and there is a two-meter tall quartz
megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
called the ''
Wotanstein'' in the center of the village.
Büraburg itself contained a Christian settlement before Boniface. The
St. Brigida church was dated to the time of the
Hiberno-Scottish mission
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity spre ...
by
Joseph Vonderau
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
, a Fulda archeologist who excavated Büraburg in the 1920s. According to Wand, the church must have been founded later; he states it probably served the Frankish fortress whose construction he dated c. 690. Though one scholar considers that Wand's later dating is correct and that there is no reason to assume the church was already named for St. Brigid, recent scholarship suggests perhaps Vonderau was correct in assuming the Hiberno-Scottish background. For instance, after renovations from 2002-2006, pieces of wood were found in the chancel arch that dated back to between the mid-sixth century and 667/668. This may mean that the church predates even the mission of
Saint Kilian
Kilian, also spelled Cillian or Killian (or alternatively ga, Cillín; la, Kilianus), was an Irish missionary bishop and the Apostle of Franconia (Franconia is nowadays the northern part of Bavaria), where he began his labours in the latter ha ...
, who may have preached in the area in the 680s and was killed in Thuringia in 689—or it may mean that older wood was used to construct the church. Wand's excavations (1969-1996) revealed a monastic complex whose oldest layer contains a cistern lined with stone; one of those stones featured an inscription of the
Benedictine cross. The complex could have housed an abbot with up to six monks. Excavations have shown traces of at least sixty buildings (not all from the same time period).
John-Henry Clay considers it likely that the church was indeed Hiberno-Scottish and dates from the earliest fortification, using wood from some nearby building. The connection between Kilian and Boniface is not unique; in Wurzburg Boniface promoted Kilian's cult, and he may have used the cistern in Büraburg as a baptismal font, continuing missionary work that already started before he came to the area.
Donar Oak and bishopric
![Donareiche2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Donareiche2.jpg)
In 723 AD the Anglo-Saxon missionary
Saint Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...
arrived in the area on his mission to convert the central and northern German tribes to Christianity. Seeking to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity, he and his followers felled a
sacred oak dedicated to the god Donar (
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
) by the local tribe of the
Chatten
The Chatti (also Chatthi or Catti) were an ancient Germanic tribe
whose homeland was near the upper Weser (''Visurgis''). They lived in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of that river and in the valle ...
/
Chatti
The Chatti (also Chatthi or Catti) were an ancient Germanic tribe
whose homeland was near the upper Weser (''Visurgis''). They lived in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of that river and in the valle ...
. His hagiography claims that when Thor failed to punish Boniface for his infraction, the locals agreed to be
baptized
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
.
Using the wood of the oak, Boniface erected a small chapel dedicated to Saint Peter at a site nearby, in what soon became the important religious, intellectual, and trade center of Fritzlar. Between 723 and 741 Büraburg may have been led by an abbot Humbert, or so local traditions hold.
[Clay 203-204.] In 742 Boniface established a bishopric at Büraburg, the first in Germany north of the
Roman Limes
(Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome marking the borders of the Roman Empire, but it was not used by the Romans for that purpose. The term has been ex ...
, but after the death of the only bishop,
Witta, in 748 the bishopric was incorporated by
Lullus
Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically conside ...
, Boniface's successor as archbishop of
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, into his own diocese. From 747 to 786 Büraburg was administered by an auxiliary bishop, Meginoz, but this post was not filled again after Meginoz's death.
Current situation
Excavations have unearthed extensive fortifications from the 7th and 8th century AD on the hilltop. Today, a church dedicated to
St. Brigida stands at the site, containing parts of the original church building from the 7th century.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buraburg
Chatti
Hills of Hesse
8th-century Christianity
Hill castles