Hohenstaufen Castle

Oldest picture of the castle Hohenstaufen from 1470 ( Oberhof Church Göppingen)

The Hohenstaufen Castle is a ruined medieval hilltop castle above the village of Hohenstaufen, a district of Göppingen in Baden- Württemberg.

Geographical Location

The hill fort is situated on the summit of the Hohenstaufen in 684 m above sea level. NN height.

The name " Stauf " ( a drinking vessel ) refers to the cone shape of the mountain, of an inverted Stauf appears comparable to or associated and carried a hilltop settlement already in the late Hallstatt period.

History

The Hohenstaufen castle was built according to written sources in 1070 by the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick I of Swabia. It is worth noting that it was built before elevation to Duke Frederick ( 1079 ), ie, at first she was no imperial castle, but allodium the Hohenstaufen. The Hohenstaufen was to the 13th century ancestral castle of the royal and imperial family of the Hohenstaufen. 1181 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was staying at the castle, 1208, died here Queen Irene, the recently murdered widow of Philip of Swabia. Staufer service people who were at the same time Burgmannen on the Hohenstaufen, built in the area, which could be called a " Staufer country " even then, own castles, castle about Hohenrechberg.

After the fall of the Hohenstaufen in 1268 the castle of King Rudolf of Habsburg was declared a kingdom castle. The strategically and ideologically important place basis at a constant bone of contention between the Counts of Württemberg and the Empire.

Since 1372 the Hohenstaufen was in the hands of the Counts of Württemberg. After the expulsion of Duke Ulrich in 1519 complaining Georg Staufer of exposure Staufen, who passed himself off as a descendant of the old imperial family, the Hohenstaufen successfully for themselves. So the castle was defended only by a small team, when it was probably occupied by insurgent peasants in late March or early April of 1525 and destroyed. Stones of the castle were used to build the Göppinger castle.

In Middle Ages and early modern times had the market town Hohenstaufen in the capacity as Burgweiler special privileges within the Office Württemberg Göppingen.

Especially after the Empire of 1871 was the Castle Hill as a German national monument. Patriotic Hohenstaufenring clubs planned the establishment of a representative monument of the Hohenstaufen. But this did not happen.

A Göppinger community of interest occurred in 2010 with a controversial plan for a sympathetic restoration of the castle to the public.

Description

In two excavation campaigns 1936-1938 ( Walther Veeck ), and from 1967 to 1971, the castle foundations were exposed and secured. Central parts of the castle were destroyed in the Staufer 1975 for the erection of a kiosk without archaeological investigation. 2010 construction work to secure the plant were completed. The existing ruins were partially extended. At the foot of the mountain a documentation center recalls the history of the castle and dynasty. As Staufer memorial can also the neighboring parish church of St. Jacob are known as " Barbarossa Church."

Since 1 June 2002 stands on the Hohenstaufen in memory of the Hohenstaufen Hohenstaufen a Tele.

Ruins (2010)

View over the ruins of the valley

Ruins

Staufer Tele on the Hohenstaufen