Location: Würzburg, Bavaria Map
Constructed: 1631 by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
Tel. (0931) 355 1750
Fortress Marienberg (Festung Marienberg) or Festung Marienberg stands in Würzburg, Bavaria region of Germany. Fortress Marienberg was found in 1631 by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. However first human settlement dates back to the Bronze Age. In the early 8th century it was a site of a small fortress of Franconian- Thuringian tribe chieftain. Saint Mary's Church or Marienkirche was erected here about the same time (AD 704). In the 13th century it was further increased in size and defenses. In 1253 the castle was transformed into a private residence of the prince- bishop of Wurzburg. In May 1525 the German Peasants' War or Bauernkrieg hit the walls of the structure. A peasant army with a total of 15,000 people laid a siege to a fortress. Ironically Bishop Konrad II von Thungen fleed his private residence just before the attack. Army of the Swabian League surrounded a peasant army that camped out under the walls and towers. They slaughtered over 8,000 people in a single day of a battle. During Thirty Years' War Fortress Fort was captured by Johann Philipp von Schonborn who led Swedish armies. After the capture Fortress Marienberg was badly damaged so it had to be reconstructed in Baroque architectural style.
The fortress was built on a mountain tongue on the left side of the Main about 100 meters above the river. The west side is the only flat side of the mountain. On the north side are the gardens and allotments that were laid out in the course of the State Horticultural Show in 1990. The other two mountain slopes are vineyards. The small slope on the eastern flank of the castle is the Schlossberg, on the southern flank the Inner Bar.
Fortified settlements were probably located
here as early as the Late Bronze Age (Urnfield Culture) and the
Early Iron Age (Hallstatt Age). After the Great Migration, the
Franks came in the 6th century. At the beginning of the 8th century,
the Marienkirche, the oldest church in Würzburg, was built, in which
the Würzburg bishops were initially buried, as the tombstones
testify to. Below the fortress facing the Main is the town's oldest
church in the valley, St. Burkard.
The fortress has been
rebuilt several times in the course of history. The oldest surviving
parts are from 704 (small Marienkirche).
Around 1200 a castle
complex with a keep and deep well was built, the Palais des Konrad
von Querfurt. From 1253 to 1719 Marienberg Fortress was the
residence of the Würzburg prince-bishops.
In
1525, during the Peasants' War, the Marienberg Fortress was defeated
without success. For the supporters of Bishop Konrad II von Thüngen,
the fortress remained a retreat in the otherwise devastated Diocese
of Würzburg, until troops of the Swabian League and an army of the
bishop returning from exile defeated the poorly organized farmers.
The rebellious farmers suffered a heavy defeat at the gates of the
city of Würzburg.
The fortress commander during the siege by
the peasants was Provost Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg
(1497–1536). He commanded 18 squads, which were distributed
according to plan on different sections of the fortress, in
addition, he kept an intervention reserve with him. Rotenhan pulled
the troops together from the castle garrisons of Werneck,
Rothenfels, Homburg and Karlburg in good time. There were a total of
400 people at the fortress, of which a little over 240 were capable
of carrying weapons. The prominent people included Count Wolf von
Castell, Canon Hans von Lichtenstein, Canon Melchior Zobel von
Giebelstadt, Hans von Grumbach, Otto Groß, Sigmund Fuchs, Hainz von
Stein, Wolf von Fulbach, Matern von Vestenberg, Werner von Stetten,
Sebastian Geyer, Lorenz von Hutten, Wendel von Lichtenstein, Andreas
Stein von Altenstein, Georg Wemckdinger, Barthel Truchseß, Götz von
Thüngen and Philipp Bernheimer. The war council included the court
master Sebastian von Rotenhan, Philipp von Herbilstadt, Eustachius
and Bernhard von Thüngen, Carl Zöllner, Friedrich von Schwarzenberg,
Hans von Bibra and Silvester von Schaumberg. Also present were dean
Johann von Guttenberg, Konrad von Bibra and other Würzburg canons.
A small memorial near Tellsteige on the slope of the Marienberg
Fortress reminds of the farmers' heaps and their concerns. Tilman
Riemenschneider is said to have sided with the peasants as a member
of the city council and was therefore imprisoned at Marienberg
Fortress for six weeks after the uprising collapsed. The historic
Hof zum Stachel inn in Gressengasse was a meeting place for the
revolting citizens and farmers at the time and was recognizable as a
pub sign for the initiated on the Morgenstern (Stachelkugel).
During the German Peasant War in 1525 there were
widespread uprisings of the common man in the Würzburg monastery, in
which some representatives of the (lower) nobility also took part,
for example Count Georg von Wertheim. The then incumbent
Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Konrad II von Thüngen, had already fled
on May 6, 1525 when the rebellious peasants approached the city (the
peasants had already looted his ancestral castle in Thüngen). The
city of Würzburg joined the uprising on May 8 and 9, 1525. On the
part of the Würzburgers, the "Häcker" (wine-growing workers) and the
"security guard" set up by Würzburg citizens took part: "... which
initially prevented a lot of mischief, but then took part in the
plunder itself." that the pauern ufruhr most parts of the uss the
constant khome ... ”“ In Würzburg alone 63 castles were demolished.
”In addition, 31 monasteries in the Hochstift Würzburg were
plundered, including the monasteries Ober- and Unterzell and
Himmelspforten. Today's estimates assume around 15,000 besiegers.
The contemporary Würzburg city clerk Martin Cronthal estimated the
number of attackers at 38,000. The attacking commanders included
Florian Geyer and Götz von Berlichingen. Sebastian von Rotenhan, as
the commander of the Marienberg, had 240 to 250 able-bodied men
under his command to defend this last castle in the bishopric, which
he divided into 18 squads. Each of these squads had to provide 4 men
as tactical reserves.
The area to be defended was approx. 45
m × 100 m, with the long side very close to the east-west axis and
the broad side on the north-south axis. The current designation
"fortress" is not technically correct for the development of the
facility at that time. At this point in time it was rather a
"castle". It was a concentric fortification system that lay on the
ridge of a hill and had slopes sloping down on three sides and could
only be reached more or less at ground level from the west. In the
middle of the area was the still standing keep with a height of
approx. 40 m, which was surrounded by a rectangular ring wall with
the above dimensions, which was also the castle complex. This
circular wall (= castle complex) was in turn surrounded by a wall
with the original name "Wolfskeelscher Bering", later called
Scherenbergring. (Each named after the prince-bishops Otto II. Von
Wolfskeel 1333-1345 and Rudolf II. Von Scherenberg 1466-1495, who
were responsible for buildings.) The Scherenbergring, with its round
towers, was at the level of weapon technology and offered better
resistance than outdated, angular ones against fire from heavy
weapons Towers and at the same time enabled the defenders to line
the area in front of it with appropriate loopholes without the
attacking troops being able to operate in blind spots undisturbed.
The geographical weak point (to the west) was protected by the
Scherenberg Gate, which still exists today, and a ditch in front of
it.
The forward-looking (cartographer) Sebastian von Rotenhan
had started preparing for the defense early on. It is said that on
April 20, 1525 the mayor and some councilors of the city of Würzburg
presented themselves on the Marienberg to inquire about the reason
for these measures. A visible element of this readiness to defend
was above all the deforestation of the slopes and a pleasure garden
in the northeastern area of the site that no longer exists today.
A palisade wall was built from this wood outside the
Scherenbergring. In addition, additional loopholes were broken into
walls and towers. Among the elements of this readiness to defend
that are not visible from the outside are above all the ammunition
of the castle with "fireworks" (pitch and sulfur) and the breaking
of connecting corridors within the castle grounds, which later
allowed the defenders to defend the defenders much faster in the
event of an alarm To reach points of the castle or to strengthen
them with additional forces. (Comparable to modern paratrooper
tactics, for example during the siege of Bastogne in December 1944.)
Sebastian von Rotenhan had alarm bells set in all directions for
this purpose. Further measures were the conversion of the
"Ratsstube" (to the north) and the "Haferboden" (to the east) into
gun emplacements.
The actual siege began with troop movements on May
13, 1525: First, the fortress area was enclosed. In the north,
coming from the Mainviertel from Zell, the Karlstadt farmers camped,
who were later reinforced by the Odenwälder Haufen. In the west, in
Höchberg, the Odenwälder (Lichte) Haufen had been encamped since May
7th. In the south of the Black Heap, Florian Geyer's troops, coming
from Heidingsfeld and Eibelstadt. The Main runs in the east below
the Marienberg, and parts of the city of Würzburg lie on the other
side of the Main. The demand for the surrender of the fortress and
other conditions (acceptance of the Twelve Articles of the Peasants;
100,000 guilders; razing of the facility) were rejected.
On
May 14, 1525, at 4 a.m. from Nikolausberg to the south, fire was
opened on Marienberg fortress. Additional (urban) artillery was
erected to the southeast near St. Burkhard below the fortress.
However, the peasant artillery only managed to damage the outer
picket fence because the shooting distance (approx. 550 m) was too
great for the field snakes used at the time. The potentially
dangerous "Rothenburg Gun" was not brought by the farmers in time.
The crew of the Marienberg Fortress did not allow themselves to be
provoked and instead opened fire on the Main Bridge at around 6 a.m.
to disrupt this connection line. Further targets of the fortress
artillery were the German House (to the north) and the Judenplatz
(to the east / today marketplace) in order to dissolve the crowds in
these areas. The Main could only be crossed by the farmers and
townspeople using a wooden pontoon, which was erected below the Main
Bridge in response to the bombardment.
The shelling caused
considerable material damage in the city and became a psychological
burden. The farmers decided on May 15 for a nightly surprise attack
on the important cannon position on the main side of the fortress to
“try to see if one wanted to tear the entrenchment against the place
and the sockets behind it.” The picket fence fell, but the defenders
held their ground with firearms, pitch and sulfur, stones and
boiling water. Most of the fighting probably took place in the
north-eastern part of the defense system ("gein der Täle" = hollow
path from the city beginning in the area of the Main Bridge up to
the fortress). However, Martin Cronthal also reports of dead in the
(neck) ditch that was "cut to pieces and buried in it" facing west.
Given the mass of attackers, it is obvious that there was fighting
around the entire defense system. The noise of the fight could be
heard as far as the city. There was a general mood among the
citizens that one should not let the “Christian brothers” perish in
such a “way”. Nobody from the city dared to stand by the attackers,
however, because the night was "pitch black" and the "story" was so
big.
During a second storm, the farmers managed to take parts
of the courtyard enclosure for a short time (today the Echterscher
Vorhof with horse troughs). However, they were quickly thrown back.
However, this was by no means a militarily sensitive area, which was
also not part of the core area, but merely an enclosure for a coal
store and accommodation for 21 craftsmen and other workers. Even if
the farmers had been able to hold their position, the neck ditch,
the barrier wall and the curtain wall would still have to be
overcome and that from a position that was permanently under fire
and could only be reached via long and easily disruptive supply
routes. A total of around 200 farmers were killed in these attacks.
After the failed storms, the farmers built two entrenchments in
the area of the “Tael”, but they could not develop any offensive
potential and only insufficient protection against the gun
emplacements laid out by Rotenhan in the east (“Haferboden”) and
north (“Ratsstube”) of the Fortress grounds. The exact timing of the
quickly abandoned attempt by some farmers in the St. Burkhard area
to dig a tunnel into the Marienberg and to blow it up cannot be
determined.
On May 18, 1525, the farmers tried again with
additional guns from Nikolausberg to shoot the fortress ready for a
storm. This time von Rotenhan returned fire and smeared the opposing
positions with such intensity that their attendants had to take
cover to such an extent that it was not possible for the farmers to
continue the duel. The siege ended on May 23 with the withdrawal of
the Neckartaler and Odenwälder heaps and the subsequent desertion of
Götz von Berlichingen on May 28, 1525.
However, the actual
escalation of violence did not begin until after the failed siege,
when the relief army of the Swabian Confederation, led by
Bauernjörg, arrived in the region. On June 2, 1525 there was a
battle against approx. 7,000 farmers near Königshofen (approx. 30 km
south-southwest of Würzburg), in which approx. 6,000 farmers were
killed. The enormous failure rate of 85% on the part of the farmers
resulted from a combination of weak leadership and the breaking of
tactical discipline. Despite a favorable spatial starting position
in the face of the enemy, the peasants moved haphazardly backwards
and were gutted by the enemy cavalry. On June 4th, 1525 the events
of Königshofen near Giebelstadt (approx. 15 km south of Würzburg)
were repeated. A rural army of 4,000 to 5,000 men was wiped out
here.
After a fire (triggered by
Prince-Bishop Friedrich von Wirsberg) on February 22, 1572, parts
of the castle and the court library had been destroyed, the new
Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn began redesigning the
center of prince-bishopric power in the Würzburg Monastery from
1573. operated as a renaissance castle, which has been preserved in
its former form and which helps shape the silhouette of the city of
Würzburg. Initially, repairs were carried out on the prince's
building on the city side, and from 1575 the architect Georg Robin
from Ypres advised the prince-bishop on the reconstruction of the
west wing, the old armory and the inner castle. In 1579, Julius
Echter had his new library, which later became famous, set up in the
south wing.
The castle presented itself as a four-wing
Renaissance palace complex with 17 gable gables (which disappeared
again in the 19th century) after the north wing with the
Marienkirche and the fountain house were restored after another fire
from 1601 to 1607 according to plans by the Nuremberg architect
Jakob Wolff.
During the Thirty Years' War the Swedes under
Gustav II Adolf conquered the fortress on October 18, 1631. The
conversion to a baroque fortress was only made by the Frankish
prince-bishops who returned after the expulsion of the Swedes.
Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn (1642–1673) and his
successors had numerous other military fortifications and bastions
built. A total of twelve kilometers of walls were built.
The
new gate was completed by Johann Philipp Preuss in 1652/1653 as a
“new” entrance to the prince-bishop's palace. The rich ornamental
and figurative decoration of the sandstone fronts probably comes
from Zacharias Juncker the Elder. J., however, was largely renewed
in the 20th century. The Neutor shows motifs relating to the ruler's
government, such as allusions to the Peace of Westphalia that took
place a few years earlier with Johann Philipp von Schönborn.
Next to the keep inside the castle there is a well house, in which
the 102 meter deep fortress well is located. It was excavated around
1200 and is fed by two springs and seepage water. The well is
bricked to a depth of 75 meters and then carved into the rock. The
shaft has an average diameter of two meters at the top and widens to
four meters at the bottom. Up to 1600 the water was pumped with a
winch and a pedal bike.
The prince's garden was first
mentioned in 1523 and was essentially laid out by Johann Philipp von
Schönborn (1605–1673). At that time it was still a medieval-style
garden. From 1699 to 1719 it received its present form under
Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Greiffenclau zu Vollraths. The
figures were originally created by Jakob von der Auwera. Today there
are replicas here.
Johann Philipp von Greiffenclau had already started further
restoration work on the prince-bishop's palace at the beginning of
his tenure in 1699. The Marienkirche, which served as the palace
chapel, was refurbished. In the meantime, the (acanthus) stucco work
of the rooms in the bishop’s apartment, which in some cases was
overly richly decorated, was created by the Swiss Franciscan Kilian
Staufer and the Lombard Giovanni Pietro Magno (1655 - around 1723)
with his assistant Giovanni Battista Clerici (1673–1736) (The
Remains a decoration created by Pietro Magno have been preserved in
the southern pavilion of the Fürstengarten). The gate of the
Ravelins “Teutschland”, which was probably built in 1708 by Andreas
Müller (1667–1720), is called “Äusses Höchberger Tor” and has
cannon-shaped column shafts with relief depictions of Saints John
and Philip, the namesake of the Prince-Bishop.
The
Maschikuliturm was built from 1724.
Maria Renata Singer von
Mossau was held as a prisoner at the Marienberg Fortress, she is
considered the last Franconian victim of the witch burns.
In
the Main Campaign in 1866, the Prussian army took the Marienberg,
which served as a royal Bavarian fortress, under fire. The shelling
triggered a violent fire on the Marienberg, but the Bavarian
fortress artillery was able to return fire effectively, and the
Marienberg remained undefeated until the armistice, which was
concluded on the same day as the first bombardment (July 26, 1866).
In 1871 the fortress housed over 5000 French prisoners of war.
Also in 1917 there were around 80 French, Russian and English
officers as prisoners there.
On April 30, 1933, a camp for
voluntary labor service opened at Marienberg Fortress, which
initially accepted 200 unemployed people placed by the employment
office. The National Socialists used the castle as an "SA relief
agency camp whose important social and educational task is to
retrain unemployed young SA comrades". The Marienberg court has
become “a celebration of the community spirit”.
Under the
Lord Mayor Theo Memmel, supported by the Bavarian Prime Minister
Ludwig Siebert, extensive renovation measures were carried out on
the Marienberg Fortress.
In 1938, the city history museum
opened on the fortress and the Institute for Student History and
University Studies, sponsored by the German Student Union and the
Reich Student Council.
During the bombing of Würzburg on
March 16, 1945, the fortress was badly damaged and was rebuilt from
1950 onwards.
There are other buildings around the outer courtyard, including the new armory designed by Andreas Müller and built between 1704 and 1712 on the esplanade in front of the Echter Bastion. The castle is surrounded by several bastions and other gates, on its south side in the vineyards is the Maschikuliturm, a four-storey battery tower that was built in 1728 by Balthasar Neumann. A rare perspective of the fortress is shown in the picture View of the Marienberg Fortress by Erich Heckel, which is exhibited in the museum in the Kulturspeicher near the Würzburg pictures.
The mountain
height was already around 1000 BC. Inhabited by the Celts in the 6th
century, the Franks took possession of the hill. The first St.
Mary's Church was built around 706; the Merovingian rotunda, which
was later rebuilt several times, is one of the oldest buildings in
Germany. The church is located in the inner courtyard, which also
houses the octagonal well and the round keep, built around 1200. It
was then that Bishop Konrad I of Querfurt began to fortify the
castle.
The castle surrounding the castle courtyard is
bordered on three sides by towers, the Randersackerer Turm (sun
tower) in the southeast, the Marienturm in the northeast and the
Kiliansturm in the northwest. On the Marienturm there is the same
image of Maria in a halo as on the tower of the Marienkapelle on the
market (in line of sight). The inner courtyard is accessed through
the Scherenberg gate. Around 1500, the "Bibra staircase"
commissioned by Prince-Bishop Lorenz von Bibra was built as access
to the bishop's apartment in the prince's building and in 1511 the
new stair tower was completed. From 1572 onwards, Prince-Bishop
Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn initiated large-scale new buildings
and renovations in the Renaissance style. Between the Scherenberg
Gate and the Museum for Franconia is the outer portal of the Echter
Bastion with the Echtertor, completed in 1606, above which a statue
of the Archangel Michael, the “Imperial Patron and Guardian Angel of
the Counter Reformation”, is attached.
The Fürstengarten is a viewing platform with a garden at the
eastern end of the fortress on a former gun platform. It was built
from 1650 to 1700 in the style of the hidden Renaissance gardens of
Italy ("giardini secreti") by Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn.
It can be reached from the innermost courtyard next to the fortress
church. It is geometrically arranged with fountains, flower beds and
pavilions.
Use today
Museums
The fortress now houses
the Museum for Franconia with the Princely Building Museum. In
addition, there are several restaurants (the castle restaurants)
with event rooms and some apartments that are rented out by the
Bavarian Palace and Garden Administration.
Parking area
After the State Garden Show in 1990, the State Garden Show Park was
created within the extensive fortifications that extend as far as
the Main. This also includes the garden by the Friedensbrücke, named
after Philipp Franz von Siebold.
The
building complex is a monument.
The description reads:
"Marienberg 239; Marienberg 240; Marienberg 241;
Marienberg
Fortress
In front of the fortress: Maschikuliturm
Near
fortress; Oberer Burgweg 2: Marienberg Fortress
Celtic ring
wall in the 1st millennium BC BC, Franconian-Thuringian ducal fort
since the early 8th century, expansion into an episcopal castle
since the beginning of the 13th century, reinforced in the 14th and
15th centuries. Under Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1573–1617) it
was converted into an episcopal residential palace. Expansion into a
fortress under Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn and his
successors through extensive bastion fortifications from 1650.
Restoration 1936–1939. Reconstruction since 1945.
Main castle:
extensive square with corner towers, the wings in the core medieval,
before and around 1600 by Georg Robin, Wolf Behringer and Jakob
Wolff d. Ä. renewed;
Marienkirche, early
Romanesque rotunda with rectangular choir around 1600; with
equipment;
Free-standing keep, 12th century;
Fountain house,
around 1600;
The main castle is enclosed on three sides by a
tower-reinforced, medieval ring, and in the west the Scherenberg
gate;
On the east side of the baroque prince's garden, around
1650.
Outer bailey: three-wing complex with real bastion,
around 1600;
Portal by Michael Kern, 1605;
Horse pond. Armory
and commanders' building, two-wing complex surrounding a second
forecourt, 1709–1713 with the collaboration of Joseph Greissing
(seat of the Mainfränkisches Museum).
Fortifications in the
Vauban system approx. 1650 - approx. 1730 by Michael Kaut, Johann
Fernauer, Johann Philipp Preiß, Wilhelm Schneider, Giovanni Domenico
Fontana, Andreas Müller, Maximilian von Welsch, Balthasar Neumann
With the following bastions: Caesar, St. Johann Nepomuk, St. Johann
Baptist, St. Nikolaus, Mars, Bellona, Werda, St. Sebastian, St.
Michael,
As well as the outer works: Franconia, Reichsravelin,
Teutschland, Teufelsschanze, Höllenschlund and the Maschikuliturm.
Neutor, 1652/1653;
Schönborntor, 1649;
inner
Höchberger Tor, 1684;
outer Höchberger Tor, 1708;
between the
bastions vineyard walls, dry stone walls, 17th / 18th centuries
century