Castle of Bernstein

The Bernstein is a castle built on a granitic peak which dominates the commune of Dambach-the-City, in the the Low-Rhine. It is located at 562 m of altitude ().

Etymology

The legend reports to us that the castle would have been built on the rock where a family of bear placed, from where his name. Indeed, Bernstein (or Bärenstein ) means litérallement rock with the bears (of Bär , bear and Stein , rock).

History

The castle is one of the oldest fortress of the Alsace, even oldest. It is quoted for the first time towards 1009. The current ruins are quite posterior and date from the end of the XII {{E}} or of the beginning of the XIII {{E}} century.

Bernstein belonged at the origin with the counts d' Eguisheim-Dabo, landgraves of Low-Alsace. The first mention of the castle goes back to Hugues IV of Eguisheim whereas it supported the emperor Henri II against the bishop of Metz. For protecting best, the count brought to it his wife, Heilwige, mother of the pope Leon IX. The castle was Alleu of Eguisheim-Dabo of 1144 with 1225.

The count Adalbert II, is combined with Otton IV with dimensions of the bishop of Strasbourg, Conrad, in the conflict which opposes it to Philippe de Souabe for the election under Germanic Roman Emperor. The original building was probably destroyed at the end of the XII {{E}} century by Philippe, during a punitive forwarding. The counts d' Eguisheim, thereafter, rebuilt it and altered in volumes that we currently know to him.

The two sons of Adlabert II die during a tournament organized by the count of Flanders, Baudoin IV. His/her daughter, Gertrude, married to Thiébaud Ier, thus became the only heiress. Thus Bernstein fallen in the possessions of the duchy of Lorraine with died of the count, in 1211.

With died of Gertrude de Dabo in 1225, the fortress was the object of sharp quarrels. Indeed, in spite of three marriages, it did not give the day to any child. Supported by the bishop of Strasbourg, the count Simon de Linange (Sigismond von Leinigen), third husband of Gertrude, occupied the castle. But finally, the bishop, revoking his protection, will sempara of Bernstein at the end of a one month old seat in the year 1227. Bernstein officially was granted évêché by the Peace of 1236 with the approval of the emperor Frederic II.

The castle left ruined this episode. The bishop restored it carefully and made of it the seat of vast a baillage episcopal whose administration was entrusted to a governor.

At the end of the XIV {{E}} S, the building was used as residence to the bishops Jean de Lichtenberg of 1354 with 1365 and Lambert of Ball in 1374.

In 1421, mercenaries of Strasbourg invested it with the support of the middle-class men of Dambach at the time of the war of Dachstein. In 1422, the Peace of Whorl returned it to évêché. The Armagnacs were unaware of it in 1444. At the time of the revolts of Bundschuh, it was used as refuge to the insurgent peasants.

At the end of the XVI {{E}} century, the bishop bought the town of Benfeld and the seat to it from sound bailliage in 1580 transferred. The castle was deserted and remained with the abandonment. It was plundered and set fire to by the Swede in 1632. At the time of the revolutionary period the castle was used as discharge system to the peasants of the surroundings and was sold as a national good.

Architectural evolution

The first contructions on the site of Bernstein probably date from prehistory. There remains about it the current Northern enclosing wall. It is about a dry stone wall scrupulously following the ridge edge of the terrace.

While referring for the use of the time, the castle quoted about 1009 was to be a construction made primarily out of wood.

The current vestiges of the castle present a great homogeneity, it however was the subject of additions and rehandlings to the wire of the centuries.

The essence of the fortress was built in several shifts of construction between the end of XIIe and the first third of XIIIe century. The oldest part is the high castle (keep, palas and Romance tower). Thereafter, were built the low castle then the advanced works (front court, drawbridge, garden and turn of angle).

Well later, the palas was transformed of kind to create a ditch with the foot of the keep, the Romance tower was raised and the built bastion. The absence of excavations and the bad condition of the vestiges do not make it possible to date work precisely. One can nevertheless locate them at the neighborhoods of XIVe century.

To adapt to progress of artillery, the holy-Marguerite tower was built in the North-western angle of the low castle towards the end of XVe century. At the same time, the ditch of the keep was transformed into cistern. The walls girding the high court were also spillplates at that time.

Description

The fortress is entirely built out of granite. The ruins having arrived us are rather well preserved. The building takes sitted on one stops granitic on two levels. This delimits three distinct parts clearly, namely the high castle located about stops higher West, the low castle located on stops lower Is, and finally the advanced works being pressed on the Southern face of the rock.

The high castle

The high castle is the oldest part of the fortress, but also best preserved. It misses, indeed, only some stone lines. Of West Is the high castle articulates itself in several elements: the keep, the cistern, the palas, the Romance tower and the high weephole.

The pentagonal keep faces the mountain of Dachfirst and is presented in the form of a shield. Its vestiges are an approximate height of 18 meters. At the XIXe century its crénaux was still perfectly visible. The interior of the keep is currently still accessible, which makes it possible to note the exiguity of the places. One from of deduced that the function of the keep was purely soldier. At most, the lower level could it be used as dungeon. The keep introduces two meutrières on her Southern face, a door directed in the East with 11m of the ground approximately and latrines towards the Northern face on the same level. The access to the keep was done by a footbridge sheltered and retractable since the roofs of the palas.

The palas comprises two stages. The first level was bored, at the origin, of ten loopholes, four giving towards the South and the six others towards North. The loopholes of the West of the palas were condemned during the installation of the cistern. The gate of access is in the East. The second level sheltered the room of pageantry and various rooms. The Southern frontage is bored of four coupled windows in the East and five simple windows in the West. The windows all are in lime pit curves. The wall East also comprises a coupled window with the vertical of the gate. The mullion comprised two carved bears. Difficult, on the other hand, to describe the openings towards North except for an embrasure on the side of the Romance tower. Indeed, the Northern wall of the second level in near total disappeared.

A tower, called Romance tower , is drawn up in the north-eastern angle of the high castle. It rose on four levels. The first of them is located slightly below the palas. Its ceiling is higher than that of the other parts (approximately 5 meters). The wall East is bored of a loophole. The second level was to be a more sumptuous part in measurement where it comprised a ribbed vault and walls bored on the four dimensioned by a coupled window towards the East, a simple window towards North and the South and finally a door in lime pit curve towards the West. It is probable that the vault was destroyed during the later rise in the tower. The masonry of the third level is different from that of the lower levels. The access to the three levels was done starting from the palas. The remainders of the fourth level present traces of crenels. One also notes an additional door, later, allowing an access to the roofs of the palas. The Romance tower seems, finally, to have sheltered the vault castrale.

Is high castle is occupied by the high weephole which occupies space between the two turns. It is currently encumbered by important embankments. The staircase of access between the parts low and high of the castle the cross-piece of Is in West. Two terraces of unequal surfaces are located on both sides staircase. In the North-eastern angle, a staircase gave access towards the holy-Marguerite tower. The retaining wall East comprises a meutrière making it possible to supervise the low castle. The Northern wall obviously was elevated during later installations. Borings in the adjacent wall of the Romance tower, the remainders of a rectangular opening to the North as of the subjacent corbels let imagine the presence of a stage prolonged by a small building in corbelling on the enclosure. The weephole could thus have three levels.

A cistern of recovery of rainwater was arranged between the keep and the main building.

The low castle

The low castle is currently presented as a space of approximately 40 meters of West in Is on 13 meters of North have Southern. Few vestiges remain of the medieval time. The North-eastern angle is currently occupied by the ruins of a hunting lodge of the XIXe century

The North-western angle is occupied by the tower holy-Marguerite . With judging some by its localization and its structure, its function was primarily defensive: it made it possible to supervise the main door of the low castle. The tower, of rectangular form, is bored meurtières, adapted to the firearms, located in quincunx on the frontages East and South. Two accesses gave access to the tower: one on the Southern frontage, located at 6,50 meters of the ground and equipped with a drawbridge, constituted the outlet of a staircase prependiculaire to the principal staircase. The other, on the Western frontage, gave on the high weephole. The right of the tower, a postern allowed the passage towards Northern outside. Certain authors place the vault castrale in the tower of the low castle.

Other buildings forming the main building existed in the court, as well on the Northern wall as the Southern wall. Within sight of the remaining traces, they rose on two stages. It is noted however that their first level was blind with dimensions enclosing wall. Certain windows remain in the oriental party of the court: they are simple or geminated, in lime pit curves or rectangular. On the other hand, the state of the ruin is not sufficient to deduce the fitting from it from the openings in the Western part.

Advanced works

The advanced works are at the foot of the high castle to the South-eastern angle of the rocky outcrop. They include/understand of Is in West three parts principal: the bastion, the garden and court front.

The bastion presents a wall curved towards the outside of the castle. In South-east drew up a tower of angle. This one constituted the only protection of the access to the fore peak the construction of the bastion in XVe century.

The garden prolongs the bastion. Its Southern wall rises on sousbassement rock being able to reach several meters. The East, the right of the bastion, a passage gives access towards the Northern ditch. The entry of the passage towards the underground well is located in the South-western angle: a Romance gate gave access to the well via a passage arches nine meters length.

The court before is the part best preserved among the works advanced. It court constitutes the single access to the castle. In the part Is, one distinguishes the Romance gate clearly. This one was equipped with a drawbridge and a rectangular postern in the South. In the North of the gate a wall separated the court before garden. It is bored of a door and a loophole. The remainders of corbels and stone arc make it possible to deduce the presence from a covered way. By a narrow corridor of approximately twenty meters out of five, the front court leads to the gate of the low castle.

The fortress also had a wall enclosing . The Northern part still perfectly visible though is very ruined. By traversing the Southern covered way, the visitor notices the presence of a stone alignment levelling the ground in the continuity of the Northern wall. One can thus imagine that the enclosing wall was also prolonged on the Southern face.

Analyzes military

In its design, the castle of Bernstein presents a perfect defense. The natural site is particularly favorable: the fortress is built on a rocky outcrop which, cumulated to the surrounding ground, offers important uneven on practically all its circumference. The military architecture is, as for it, particularly clever: a thick pentagonal shield, pointed in the direction of the attack, masks and protects all the dependences built in row.

Put in situation, the building comprises important weak points. The rocky outcrop, and thus the castle, point towards a close hill - towards the East -, but not on the side of the attack. Indeed, the attackers find a ground more favorable to South-east. In addition, the water provision comes from a well located outside the two principal parts (high and low castles). To preserve this access to water condemns any idea of construction of a ditch of enclosure to this place and makes the works advanced all the more vulnerable.

These elements undoubtedly explain the later adaptations of the castle, namely construction of the bastion and the installation of a cistern to the foot of the keep. The evolutions of the armament, and in particular the appearance of the guns, finally made the castle obsolete. At the end of XVIe century, Bernstein had lost its strategic importance and soldier and was thus abandoned.

With a few kilometers in the South, draws up another fortress, the Ortenberg which presents great similarities. Built between 1262 and 1269, it seems to be inspired by the architecture of Bernstein while drawing started from its experiment.

Current vestiges

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