Niederalfingen Castle (german: Burg Niederalfingen), also called the Marienburg, is a spur castle on a rocky hill spur above the Kocher valley near the village of Niederalfingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies within the parish of Hüttlingen in the county of Ostalbkreis.

History

The castle was built around 1050 as a Hohenstaufen fortification to guard the important local trade routes. After 1300, it went into the possession of the Lord of Seckendorf, in 1368 to Count Eberhard the Jarrer of Württemberg, in 1415 to the Lord of

House of Hürnheim A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

and in 1551 the now mighty castle was acquired by the

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and vent ...

family from Augsburg, by whom it was converted and expanded between 1575 and 1577. In 1838, the castle came into the ownership of the Kingdom of Württemberg. It eventually passed to the state and, since 1966, has been used as an educational and recreational facility. From 1993 to 2000 comprehensive renovations were carried out.

Present usage

The castle is used today as a youth training centre, recreational facility and rural school hall of residence (''Schullandheim''). The former advocate's buildings under the castle walls now house the local history museum for the parish of Hüttlingen.

Site

The site, which developed from a '' zwinger'' castle with a gateway, has an inner bailey with connecting wings, an

outer bailey 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 ...

and substantial enceinte walls. It also has a prominent 30-metre-high '' bergfried'', with a copper tower, an area of 9.8 × 9.8 metres and wall thickness of 3.2 metres, which is square below and hexagonal above, furnished with embrasures. The

castle chapel Castle chapels (german: Burgkapellen) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the ...

was dedicated to

St Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, St. Barbara and St. Catharine. The feudal castle is and example of the Romanticism of the 16th century.

Literature

* Katholische Studierende Jugend Wernau: ''Burgkurier''. Eigenverlag. Wernau * Max Miller, Gerhard Taddey: ''Handbuch der historischen Stätten Deutschlands. Band 6. Baden-Württemberg''. Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1965 * Friedrich Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des Deutschen Mittelalters''. Würzburg, 2000

External links

Marienburg Niederalfingen

{{Castles in Ostalbkreis Renaissance architecture in Germany