The Lost Fort

My Travel and History Blog, Focussing mostly on Roman and Mediaeval Times


23 Oct 2011
  Birthday Booty

St. Peter played nice this year and gave me another perfect, cold and sunny Sunday - and right at my birthday, too. So my father and I took another trip to places in Thuringia (more interesting sites can be found here) and looked for interesting things to see. The day ended with a nice dinner, but I didn't take photos of that. :)

Göllingen Monastery, westwork seen from the west

The St.Wigbert Monastery in Göllingen was fisrt mentioned in a charte dating to 1005 as daughter house of the Abbey Hersfeld, which makes it one of the oldest monasteries in Thuringia. Not much remains of the place, unfortunately, only the westwork and the crypt. The crypt dates all the way back to about 1005 while the rest of the westwork is from the 12th century.

Göllingen Monastery, crypt

The Benedictine monastery was in use as such until 1606; afterwards the buildings were used for various purposes and most of them detoriated and were dismantled. The geographic situation close to the German border didn't help matters, either. But after the reunion, what was left was restored and can be visited.

Runneburg, palas seen from the bailey

Runneburg Castle was called Castle Weissensee in the Middle Ages. It was commissioned in 1168 by the landgravinne Judith of Thuringia, a half sister of Friedrich Barbarossa, as suitable place to spend some time on her travels from the Wartburg futher south. The orginal buildings were a palas, a five storey keep, walls and a gate house. The palas later got an an additional storey with a great hall like in the Wartburg.

Palas seen from the outside

The castle later came to the Wettinian line of Thuringian landgraves who spent quite a lot of time there and at some point changed the interior layout of the palas. The castle was always in use even after the nobles prefered to build residences instead of draughty towers; for some time it housed members of the local government and after WW2, a school. But the buildings had to be closed in teh 1980ies because of their bad state of repair. Since the reunion, attempts are going to on to preserve and restore the castle.

Funkenburg Germanic settlement: watch tower and trench

The last point on the list was another reconstructed Germanic place, this time a fortified settlement, or castle - the seat of a thane, most likely. The Funkenburg has been partly rebuilt on the original site. Excavations had been going on between 1974 - 1980, but the money necessary for the reconstruciton could only be found after the reunion.

Gate with battlements (seen from the inside of the castle)

Today the place is a popular target for school field trips, though it was quiet on this Sunday afternoon. No Roman attack, either. *grin* There is no proof that such attacks ever happened in history, but both Germanic and Roman reenactment groups use the place for meetings and games.

Long house

There were settlements on the Funkenburg between 200 BC and AD 50. Most of the remains found in the area are Germanic (the usual pottery mostly) but some finds point at contacts with Celts and Romans. Those finds are today in various museums in Thuringia.

Storage hut

The castle has an outer and inner bailey, to use the Medieaval terminlogy. According to the post holes, there must have been about 60 huts in the area, plus storage pits, waste pits and such. The largest house - in the inner bailey - measures 8 x 14 metres; the seat of the chief or thane. Occupations involving lots of fire like the bakery and the smithy were located in the outer bailey.

Arminius must have lived in a place much like this.
 
Comments:
Happy Birthday!
I love the Germanic fortifications, thank you for posting. Great images.
Regards, Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/
 
Hi,
First off..happy birthday :-D
Second..I´m going to be taking part in a long term project to recreate the seige of Acre 1291 (in 1/72nd scale models) and I wondered if you have any recomendations for reading material.
Cheers
paul
 
Happy Birthday, Gabriele! Looks like it was a good one.
 
Great photos, and looks like you had glorious weather. Happy birthday!
 
Happy belated birthday, Gabriele! Lovely photos, and glad you had such great weather for the trip.
 
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The Lost Fort is a travel and history blog based on my journeys in Germany, the UK, Scandinavia, the Baltic Countries, and central Europe. It includes virtual town and castle tours with a focus on history, museum visits, hiking tours, and essays on Roman and Mediaeval history, illustrated with my own photos.


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Location: Goettingen, Germany

I'm a blogger from Germany with a MA in Literature and History, interested in everything Roman and Mediaeval, avid reader and sometimes writer, opera enthusiast, traveller with a liking for foreign languages and odd rocks, photographer, and tea aficionado. And an old-fashioned blogger who still hasn't got an Instagram account.
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Alv Erlingsson of Tønsberg


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Troublesome Cousins - Jogaila and Vytautas

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King Sigismund and the Hussite Wars


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House Luxembourg
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Roman History

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Forts and Fortifications

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Limes Fort Osterburken
Limes Fort Saalburg

The Hadrian's Wall
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The Fort at Segedunum / Wallsend

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The Pre-Varus Invasion in Germania
Roman Camp Hedemünden
New Finds in 2008

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Museum Park at Kalkriese

The Battle at the Harzhorn
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The Batavian Rebellion
A Short Introduction

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The Negau B Helmet

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Weapon Finds at Hedemünden
The pilum
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Religion
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Isis Worship
Memorial Stones
The Mithras Cult

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Roman Water Supply

Architecture
Roman Public Baths

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Roman villae
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Villa Rustica Wachenheim

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Children's Toys
Face Pots


Other Times

Neolithicum to Iron Age

Germany

Development of Civilisation
European Bread Museum, Ebergötzen
The Hutewald Project in the Solling
Open Air Museum Oerlinghausen

Neolithic Remains
Stone Burials of the Funnelbeaker Culture
The Necropolis of Oldendorf

Bronze Age / Iron Age
The Nydam Ship

Scotland

Neolithic Orkney
The Neolithic Landscape of Orkney
Ring of Brodgar
Skara Brae
Life in Skara Brae

Bronze Age / Iron Age
Clava Cairns
The Brochs of Gurness and Midhowe - Their Function in Iron Age Society

Scandinavia

Bronze / Iron Age
The Ship Setting of Gnisvärd / Gotland


Post-Medieval History

Explorers and Discoveries

Explorers
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Fram Expedition to the South Pole

Discoveries
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Raising a Wreck, Now and Then (Vasa Museum in Stockholm)

History and Literature

The Weimar Classicism
Introduction


Geology

Geological Landscapes

Germany

Baltic Sea Coast
Chalk Cliffs on Rugia
Flint Fields on Rugia

Harz Mountains
Bode Valley and Rosstrappe Cliffs
Daneil's Cave
Devil's Wall
Hübichenstein Rock
Klus Rock
Lonau Falls
Rhume Springs
Southern Harz Karst

Meissner / Kaufunger Wald
'Blue Dome' near Eschwege
Diabase and Basalt Formations
Hoher Meissner Karst
Salt Springs at the Werra

Solling-Vogler
Raised Bog Mecklenbruch
Hannover Cliffs

Great Britain

The Shores of Scotland
Staffa

Baltic Sea

Lithuania
Geology of the Curonian Spit


Fossils and Rocks

Fossilized Ammonites
Loket Meteorite (Czechia)



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