Sporkenburg
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The Sporkenburg is a
late medieval The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
castle ruin about one kilometre south of Eitelborn in the district of
Westerwaldkreis The Westerwaldkreis ("District of Westerwald") is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Altenkirchen, Lahn-Dill, Limburg-Weilburg, Rhein-Lahn, the district-free ...
in the German 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 ...
.


Location

The ruins of the
spur castle A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that is sited on a spur of a hill or mountain for defensive purposes. Ideally, it would be protected on three sides by steep hillsides; the only vulnerable side being that where the spur joins the ...
lie within the parish of the village of Eitelborn in the
Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Massif ( or Rhenish ...
hills above the '' L'' 329 between
Bad Ems Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' (administrative community) Ba ...
and Arzbach. Located in the middle of the forest, the Sporkenburg is not easy to find. The easiest option is to follow the signs along the castle path (''Burgweg'') into the woods from the eastern exit of the village of Eitelborn aus (''Erlenweg'', near the cemetery). Pass through the barrier and take the right hand path from the crosstracks which leads gently downhill. Alternatively take the ascent from the L 329 from where the castle can be seen above the valley. The ruins are not managed and are freely accessible at any time.


Layout

The tower castle (''Turmburg'') is located on a roughly rectangular
hill spur A spur is a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge. It can also be defined as another hill or mountain range which projects in a lateral direction from a main hill or mountain range. Examples of ...
above the stream of Emsbach. The spur drops steeply away to the west, south and east. To the north the castle is protected by a length of ditch (''Halsgraben''). The outermost defences and the ward between the two curtain walls, the ''
Zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence ...
'', have almost completely disappeared. The inner ward (''Kernburg'') is 35 metres long by 18 metres wide. It does not have a
bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...
. On the north side the castle has a five-storey, slightly angled shield wall, reinforced with
bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from th ...
s, that has a height of almost 20 metres. In the western section of the shield wall is the entrance to the inner ward. On the south side of the heavily built-up inner ward is the ''
Palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...
'' with its Great Hall, whose outside walls have survived. The eastern part of the inner ward has been completely removed.


History

The Lower Engersgau was probably enfeoffed to the lords of the Electorate of Trier under Archbishop Poppo (1016–1047). From this estate, Archbishop Engelbert (1079–1101) gifted the village of ''Dezerhaid'' to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthew. In the late 13th century the settlement is recorded as a
fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
in the possession of Emmerich of Andernach and Henry of Lahnstein. They began work on constructing a castle. The castle was destroyed, however, by Count Otto of Nassau, the advocate (''
Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
'') of Kurtrier. Whereupon Henry of Lahnstein transferred his rights to Dezerhaid to Henry II of Helfenstein. Henry II of Helfenstein had the Sporkenburg rebuilt, probably not on the old site, in the year 1310. He assigned it to the Archbishop of Trier Baldwin (1307–1354) as a fief. The castle developed into the centre of the lordship of ''Helfenstein-Sporkenburg''. In 1515 John of Helfenstein sold the castle to John and Quyrin of Nassau (not to be confused with the counts of Nassau). In the deed the castle was described as ''vast buwefellig'' ("almost ruined"). In 1604 the castle went from the lords of Nassau to the ''von Metternich'' family. It was destroyed in 1635 by the French during the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...
. State chancellor Prince of Metternich sold the ruins in 1811. Its ownership transferred in 1900 to Prussia and in 1948 to Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1967 the State Office for Cultural Heritage began a gradual restoration of the remaining remnants of the walls.


Literature

* Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff: ''„Mit starken eisernen Ketten und Riegeln beschlossen ...“. Burgen an der Lahn''. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2008, , p. 154-159.


References


External links


Eitelborn municipality: The Sporkenburg
* Sporkenburg au


More photographs of the Sporkenburg
{{Authority control Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Buildings and structures in Westerwaldkreis Ruined castles in Germany