Heidelsburg

The Heidelburg, also Bunenstein, is a former defense plant in the western Palatinate Forest ( Rhineland -Palatinate ), which goes back at least to Roman times. From the hilltop castle, the remains of two gates and stairs, walls and a cistern have survived.

Geography

The ruin is located 3 km southeast of Forest Fischbach Castle albums on a rocky ridge of Three Summer mountain in 340 m above sea level. NN right above the Schwarzbachtals.

The Heidelburg can not be reached by vehicles. From the car park at Gallows Hill House Waldfischbach- Burgalben a forest trail ( about 4 km, walking time about an hour ) is signposted. Several well-marked hiking trails lead from the parking lot dent in the summer Schwarzbach with different levels of difficulty and different lengths to Heidelburg. Most are gravel paths or small forest paths, can have depending on season and traffic levels, Zuwachsungen.

History

According to Roman coin finds that came to light in the 1970s, the Heidelburg was built at the latest between the 2nd century AD ( Hadrian ) and 351 ( German invasions ). After the position and shape of the plant and a Gallic coin find historians consider it, however, possible that an earlier building dating back to the Celts and its origin is already around 100 BC. It is also possible that the castle was expanded again in spätkarolingischer time; certain features of the processing chamber of the gate suggest. In a document of 1355 is a rock called Bunenstein and located at the same place as the Heidelburg, by Count Arnold of Homburg to Count Walram sold by two bridges. This should build on the rock, a castle, to which, however, it never came.

The authentic name is not known. The term " Heidelburg " has etymological relationship to " pagans " and only appeared during the Middle Ages, when the building had fallen for centuries. A local source of forest Fischbach mentioned the ruins around 1600.

In 1990 the plant came into the possession of the State Forestry Administration and castles of the State Office of Historic Monuments.

Plant

On the steeply to Schwarzbach sloping ridge of the historian Christian Mehlis (1883 ) and Friedrich Sprater was located according to the findings (1927 /28), which could make the excavations at two stages, one by natural sandstone rock faces added oval Walling with large blocks, a older construction of wooden poles reinforced. Within these walls stretched the Castrum, accessible through two gates of the west and east.

Today rudiments of defensive walls are still visible. The west gate was Sprater the late 1920s to build from the strong mossy original blocks again. The function of a depression in the region of the annular wall is unclear; maybe it was a cistern.

The Heritage Museum of Forest Fischbach Castle albums include a reconstruction model of the entire system.

In the first excavations in the 19th century a grave plate was exposed, showing a man with an ax and a woman with a basket. The ax was the symbol of the Roman Forest Manager, the " Saltuarius " and a homonymous name suffix on an inscription in the wall and a corresponding tool were also found in the vicinity of the plant. Although written sources missing, whether and to what extent the Romans have operated within the Heidelburg actually organized forestry, it nevertheless is the oldest known evidence of forest administration in late antiquity on Germanic soil. Therefore Tourist promotional materials tell of the Heidelburg as the oldest forestry office in Germany.

The grave stone is now kept in the Palatinate Historical Museum in Speyer. At the site in the area of the destroyed east wall there is a 1876 -built replica. The local museum in Forest Fischbach Castle albums has a woodcut, which comes from a local hobby carvers.

In addition to coins and Roman pottery shards and iron tools were found in the area of ​​the castle, which are exhibited in showcases the local history museum.

From the west gate of a circular route via the now completely overgrown by Buchwald plateau between the natural rock formations and the remains of the city wall runs. On the sandy soils ferns, heather and bilberry shrubs dominate the undergrowth. Individual trees are rooted in the crevices of rock walls, which are also used by climbers as a training ground.