Burg Landeck: A Medieval Noble Castle Ruin in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Burg Landeck, also called Schadelandeck, is a medieval noble castle ruin in Germany, in the village of Landeck, now a district of Teningen north of Emmendingen. Medieval nobles built its upper and lower sections around 1269, within the broader building activity of the thirteenth century. The hilltop castle became part of the political and feudal history of the Breisgau, a historic region of southwestern Germany centered broadly on the area around Freiburg.
Geroldseck ownership
In 1260, Dietrich, the bailiff of Landeck, was named in a document. A bailiff was an administrative or judicial official. Dietrich followed the Lords of Geroldseck, and in 1277 the castle became the joint property of the brothers Heinrich and Walther von Geroldseck.
Count Egino II of Freiburg and the citizens of Freiburg besieged Burg Landeck in 1298. Two years later, Heinrich von Geroldseck transferred the castle through the Order of St. John to Johann Snewlin, a citizen of Freiburg. The Order of St. John was a medieval religious-military order that also held property and lordships. A small town beside the castle had disappeared before 1400, while the castle chapel of St. Catherine was first mentioned in 1315 by its co-owner Heinrich von Rappoltstein.
The Snewlin von Landeck family
Konrad Snewlin was first recorded with the designation “Snewlin von Landeck” in 1354. From 1394, Hanmann Snewlin von Landeck lived at the castle with his cousin Heinrich von Wiesneck. That year, Hanmann pledged half of the castle to Heinrich, including the lower castle, the goat stable, the bakehouse, and the cellar beneath the chapel.
Hanmann’s three sons divided the castle among themselves in 1428. A further dispute over its division brought Anthony and Bastian Snewlin von Landeck into litigation in 1490. In 1498, the indebted Landeck family had to accept the castle as a fief from Margrave Christoph of Baden. A fief was property held from a superior lord within a feudal relationship. In 1511, Bastian Snewlin von Landeck sold half of the castle to his feudal lord, the Margrave of Baden.
Destruction and later history
Insurgent peasants destroyed Burg Landeck in 1525 during the Peasants’ War, an uprising in which rural communities challenged aspects of lordship and social order in the German lands. The castle was not rebuilt. In 1538, Margrave Ernst of Baden purchased the remaining castle site together with the village of Köndringen.
The ruined castle lies in Landeck, now part of Teningen, and is regarded as one of the better-preserved castle ruins in the Breisgau. Architectural and historical research has examined its surviving structures and development.
Remains
Burg Landeck is a ruined hilltop spur castle on a limestone rock 285 metres above sea level. A spur castle is built on a projecting ridge or spur of higher ground. The buildings use rubble-stone masonry and are arranged as an upper castle and a lower castle. Immediately west of both sections are masonry remains probably belonging to an outer bailey, a fortified area outside the main castle. A dividing ditch between the upper and lower castles survives as a shallow depression.
Upper castle
Upper enclosure and palas
The upper castle forms an approximately elongated rectangular enclosure surrounded on every side by a curtain wall, the enclosing defensive wall. Its principal building is a tall, tower-like palas, the main residential and representative building of a medieval castle. The four-storey structure contains three fireplaces and has especially rich windows on its north side, which served as the principal representative facade.
Three sides of the upper palas are formed by the curtain wall, while its south side faces the former castle courtyard. The building stands directly on natural bedrock. On the north side, a large relieving arch redistributes structural pressure over a fissure in the rock. Another relieving arch at the eastern gable bridges and stabilizes a crack in the bedrock. At the northeast corner, the rock runs directly into the castle wall, and the eastern gable has ashlar quoins, finely cut masonry blocks reinforcing a building corner.
Lower castle
Lower palas
The lower castle has an approximately triangular plan. Its broad palas measures about 20 by 10 metres and contains double windows from the late Romanesque and early Gothic periods, two successive medieval architectural styles. The surrounds of the windows on the northwest facade are made of red sandstone. A horizontal roll-moulding cornice runs across the building, while two fireplaces occupy its narrow northeast side. The eastern wall along the eaves is slightly curved, and a passage leads toward the chapel.
Castle chapel
The castle chapel projects slightly from the wall line at the northeast end of the lower palas. Its Gothic chancel arch opens toward the sanctuary, and the chapel retains windows, the visible springing of a cross-ribbed vault, and console figures. A cross-ribbed vault is a vaulted ceiling supported by intersecting stone ribs. The chapel is directly connected to the lower palas.
A passage beneath the chapel once led toward the basement level of the lower palas. The passage is now blocked. Together, the surviving chapel, the lower palas, the upper palas, curtain walls, ditch, bedrock construction, and probable outer-bailey masonry preserve the principal physical divisions of the ruined castle.
