Rochsburg Castle (German: Schloss Rochsburg), which was probably founded in the late 12th century, stands on a rock spur, surrounded on three sides by the Zwickau Mulde river, above the eponymous town quarter in Lunzenau in Saxony. The medieval site and its division into the inner bailey, outer bailey and two zwingers is still easy to recognise. In its present appearance the schloss dates, however, to the Late Gothic and Renaissance periods. Its main construction phases date to 1470 and 1548; it is an important example of Renaissance architecture in Saxony. Over centuries the Rochsburg has formed the centrepiece in the Saxon district of Rochsburg.
Lunzenau is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Zwickauer Mulde, 16 km west of Mittweida, and 18 km northwest of Chemnitz.
The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle. It is protected by the outer ward and, sometimes also a zwinger, moats, a curtain wall and other outworks. Depending on topography it may also be called an upper bailey or upper ward.
An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary buildings used for the management of the castle or the supply of its occupants. These domestic buildings could include workshops, livestock stalls and stables; storage facilities such as barns, sheds and granaries, as well as quarters for servants such as maids, farm workers, and even the castle governors or castellans. In many cases there was also a brewery, a bakehouse and a kitchen, if the latter was not located in the hall or palas. An outer bailey was often called a base court in England. Depending on topography it could also be referred to as a lower bailey or lower ward, the keep being in the upper bailey or ward. Chepstow Castle has lower, middle and upper baileys.
East German postage stampSchloss Rochsburg around 1830Outer wardWall walkEntrance
Although a certain Gunteros de Rochsberg was mentioned several times from the 1190s, it is not certain whether the castle itself was built before 1200. Gunteros was first mentioned in 1195[1] in a Wettin document. The name of the Barony of Rochsburg appears several times in the records of the early 13th century.
The House of Wettin is a dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors and kings that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt. The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire. Members of the family became the rulers of several medieval states, starting with the Saxon Eastern March in 1030. Other states they gained were Meissen in 1089, Thuringia in 1263, and Saxony in 1423. These areas cover large parts of Central Germany as a cultural area of Germany.
In 1283, there is the first record of the burgraves of Altenburg as the vassals of the Wettins at Rochsburg.[1] In 1296, the "castrum Burggravii Rochsberg" is named as the apparently preferred residence of Dietrich II of Altenburg.[1]
Burgrave also rendered as Burggrave, was since the medieval period in Europe the official title for the ruler of a castle, especially a royal or episcopal castle, and its territory called a Burgraviate or Burgravate. The burgrave was a "count" in rank equipped with judicial powers, under the direct authority of the Emperor or King, or of a territorial imperial state—a prince-bishop or territorial lord. The responsibilities were administrative, military and jurisdictional. A burgrave, who ruled over a substantially large territory, may also have possessed the regality of coinage, and could mint their own regional coins.
Altenburg is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located 40 kilometres south of Leipzig, 90 kilometres west of Dresden and 100 kilometres east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region between Gera, Zwickau and Chemnitz with more than 1 million inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of 33,000. Today, the city and its rural county is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region.
In 1329, the castle went, through marriage, to Otto of Leisnig, whose descendant, Albert II, ran into financial difficulties and sold the Barony of Rochsburg on 10 March 1448 to Henry, Lord of Gera. The lords of Gera enfeoffed their newly acquired territory four years later to Zschaslaw of Schönfeld for 1500 Schock Freiberg groschen over a period of five years. Because he did not get his money back, Rochsburg became a Wettin amt and Zschaslaw of Schönfeld its Amtmann. On 28 October 1467 the Count of Hohnstein seized the Rochsburg in a coup de main operation. What motivated him to do so has not been established. For two years he remained there undisturbed before, in 1469, Electoral Saxon troops used the absence of the count to recapture it.
Groschen was the name for a silver coin used in various states of the Holy Roman Empire.
Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to a US township or county or English shire district.
The Amtmann or Ammann was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most senior retainer (Dienstmann) of an Amt; the administrative office of a territorial lord (Landesherr) created to manage the estates of manors (Gutshöfe), castles and villages. The estates were both administrative as well as juridical districts. The Amtmann was usually a member of the nobility or a cleric. In towns, he was also often a member of the wealthy classes amongst the citizenship. He resided in an Amthaus or Amtshaus and collected taxes from the district (Amtsbezirk), administered justice and maintained law and order with a small, armed unit.
The castle went in 1470 for 4,000 guilders as a fief to the politically, influential, electoral advisor and Oberhofmarschall, Hugold IV of Schleinitz (1435–1490), who began in 1470 to undertake comprehensive building work to convert the castle into a schloss, work that lasted 12 years. This work was entrusted to senior state architect, Arnold of Westphalia, one of the most important architects of his time in Central Europe. But Hugold IV of Schleinitz was unable to enjoy the Rochsburg for long. After lengthy negotiations with the state court, a decision was issued in 1488, that he had to return the castle to Duke Albert of Saxony, repay the 4,000 guilders deposit and pay another 4,000 guilders as compensation for the cost of construction.
A fief was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable property or rights granted by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the personal ceremonies of homage and fealty. The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade, and tax farms.
The Hofmarschall was the administrative official in charge of a princely German court, supervising all its economic affairs.
Schloss, formerly written Schloß, is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace or manor house. In the United Kingdom, it would be known as a stately home or country house.
Reeves once again managed the now ducal (Albertine) amt of Rochsburg. In 1503 the Rochsburg was entirely burned down, carelessness in the kitchen being the cause. The brothers, Henry and Götz of Ende, on the adjacent Kriebstein took advantage of the opportunity and exchanged their Barony of Kriebstein for the Rochsburg territory.[1]
A Vogt in the Holy Roman Empire was a title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice over a certain territory. The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei. The term also denotes a mayor of a village.
Kriebstein is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany.
In 1547, when Electoral Saxon troops plundered and razed the weakly defended castle during the Schmalkaldic War,[1] Henry's son, Wolf of Ende, sold the castle and Barony of Rochsburg for 60,000 guilders to the three lords, George, Hugo and Wolf II of Schönburg, who were thus able to further expand their considerable estates in the upper valley of the Zwickau Mulde. They not only rebuilt the ruined site a year later, but with its dormers and windows, gave it the appearance that it still has today. Even the damage by a subsequent fire in 1582, was quickly repaired by the Schönburgs; at that time almost all wooden ceilings were replaced in the form that is still visible today. In 1574 a two-storey maison de plaisance was built in front of the castle gates to a round plan. Today it is the last surviving example of this type of building in Saxony.
In 1637 Christian Ernest of Schönburg became the only owner of the Rochsburg by buying out the others. He left his mark in the layout of the castle gardens.
Increasing financial difficulties forced the owner in 1911 to open up several rooms in the castle to the public as a small museum.[1] In addition, an initially, purely Roman Catholicyouth hostel was opened in the buildings.
Until 1945, the Rochsburg remained in the possession of the House of Schönburg who had been elevated to counts in 1700. In 1945, the aristocratic family was dispossessed and the property was seized by the state of Saxony.[1] Three years after the end of the Second World War, the museum was reopened with a larger floor area and has since displayed furnishings from the 16th to 19th centuries. The youth hostel also reopened that year.
In 1952 the then county of Rochlitz took over the Rochsburg. In 1992, Rochlitz was absorbed into the county of Mittweida, who continued to use the property.
The castle consists of a quadrangular inner ward with the remains of a Late Romanesque hall or residence and the bergfried in the centre, which is partly made of brick and was built in 1200 and the early 13th century. There is also an adjoining domestic courtyard with a triangular ground plan. The Zwickau Mulde flows around the position on three sides and the Rochsburg is well protected by natural features and is only accessible over the drawbridge that spans the neck ditch.
In the inner courtyard of the inner bailey there is a 53-metre-deep castle well within a wooden wellhouse.
The castle chapel of St. Anne in the south wing of the castle has several architecturally notable features. Its recently restored ribbed vaulting was probably made by Caspar Kraft in 1523. Its altar, made of sandstone, was finished in 1576 in the Late Renaissance style by castle architect and sculptor, Andreas Lorenz.
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Rochlitz Castle or Rochlitz Palace lies in the west of the town of Rochlitz in the county of Mittelsachsen in the Free State of Saxony. It was built on the site of an imperial castle, erected in the second half of the 10th century, which fell into the possession of the Wettin margraves in 1143. Its appearance, which includes several Romanesque wings, is considerably influenced by its remodelling into a margravial schloss in the fourth quarter of the 14th century. Further conversions and additions followed at the end of the 15th and in the 16th centuries, when the castle became a secondary residenz, dower house and hunting lodge for the Wettin family. The castle or palace was the residence for members of the Saxon princely house eight times. From the 18th century the castle served as an administrative centre ; in 1852 it became a gaol, which necessitated considerable alteration. The museum founded in 1892 was gradually expanded and, today, takes up almost the entire castle.
Walter Bachmann: Die Rochsburg. In: Mitteilungen des Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Vol. XVII, Issue 5-6/1928, Dresden, 1928, pp.221–246.
Matthias Donath (ed.): Schloß und Herrschaft Rochsburg. Beucha, 2006, ISBN3-934544-92-4.
Yves Hoffmann: Zur Datierung von Wohntürmen und Bergfrieden des 11. bis 13. Jahrhundert auf sächsischen Burgen. In: Historische Bauforschung in Sachsen. Arbeitsheft 4 des Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege 2000. pp.47–58.
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