Kemenate Ziegenrück: The Residential Tower of a Medieval Castle
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Kemenate Ziegenrück is the 15th-century residential building of Ziegenrück Castle, in Ziegenrück, Germany. The castle formed part of the Saalfeld group of imperial estates, property held within the imperial domain, and its position helped guard a Saale crossing on a north–south road.
Medieval ownership and administration
Ziegenrück Castle is first recorded in 1222. The Counts of Orlamünde owned it before it passed to the Landgrave of Thuringia, a territorial ruler, in the early 14th century. Heinrich II Reuss of Plauen, who held the medieval administrative office of Vogt of Plauen, also owned the castle temporarily. From the late 13th century, the Lords of Obernitz served there as ministerials, members of a service elite who carried out administrative or military duties for a lord.
In 1448, Duke Wilhelm of Saxony transferred the town and castle to Veit von Obernitz for 2,000 gulden as a pledge that could be redeemed. In 1485, the castle passed to the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty and became an administrative seat.
Later history and associated sites
After several fires, parts of the castle were demolished or altered during the 18th and 19th centuries. It later served for a long period as a youth hostel. At the abandoned settlement of Sornitz in Moxa, a former water castle probably served as an outer bailey, or outer fortified section, of Ziegenrück Castle.
Remains
Layout and surviving structures
Castle spur and ditches
The castle occupied a rocky spur high above Ziegenrück and the Saale, between the Dreba and Sornitz valleys. Steep slopes protected three sides of the site. Ditches divided the castle into three sections and defended its approach road; the first two ditches survive. Ziegenrück and the later town lie in the deeply cut valley of the winding Saale, between Bleiloch Reservoir upstream and Hohenwarte Reservoir downstream.
Residential tower
The Kemenate is a broad residential tower, a regional type found in Thuringia. Its base measures 17 by 13 metres, and the building rises 20 metres. Walls 1.6 to 1.8 metres thick enclose a cellar and four storeys. The windows are irregularly placed, while loopholes are evenly spaced below the roof. Kemenate Reinstädt and Kemenate Orlamünde, both in the Saale valley, are architectural counterparts. The three buildings are rare, well-preserved examples of this Thuringian tower type, associated with a distinctive group of residences along the upper Saale–Elster line.
Keep
The keep, the castle’s principal defensive tower, had a diameter of 10 metres. The outlines of its foundation walls remain visible.
