Veste Landskron

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This article is about the Pomeranian castle. For other uses of Landskron, see Landskron (disambiguation).
Ruins of the keep

Veste Landskron or Lanzkron is a Renaissance water castle in the municipality Neuendorf B, Vorpommern-Greifswald district, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Built between 1576 and 1579, it deteriorated in the 17th century. Its ruins are a tourist attraction and frequently the site of cultural events.

Geography[]

Landskron is southeast of the junction of autobahn 20 and federal route , south of the village Janow (part of the Neuendorf B municipality) and west of the village Rehberg (part of the Spantekow municipality).[1] To the south is the Großer Landgraben valley, marking the border between Mecklenburg and Pomerania.[1] Made of boulders and bricks, it is situated on an elevation of glacial till surrounded by swampy meadows.[2]

Construction, buildings[]

Plan of the castle today
Scale model of the castle
Gatehouse
Inside the keep
Tower with platform

Construction was started in 1576 by , member of one of the oldest Pomeranian noble houses.[2] The von Schwerin family was divided in about 24 branches in the 17th century, whose members lived in Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Poland and Sweden.[2] Ulrich was the fifth son of another Ulrich von Schwerin, Großhofmeister at the Pomeranian ducal court.[3] He financed the building, which cost about 40,000 gulden,[4] from pay received for military service for the duke of Mecklenburg.[2] The castle was designed as a Renaissance style water castle.[5]

The rectangular main building, a keep about 25 metres (82 ft) long and 15 metres (49 ft) wide with three upper stories and a basement, was secured by four round towers attached to its edges, a wall and a moat.[4] One of the keep's towers (Hungerturm) was used as a dungeon to incarcerate abducted people held for ransom.[4] Attached to the keep's eastern front was the entrance building (Vorschloß), about 10 metres (33 ft) long and 12 metres (39 ft) wide.[4] In front of the entrance to the keep, which could be reached by a drawbridge, laid the courtyard (Vorburg), and both the keep and the courtyard were surrounded by an outer wall and another moat.[4]

In the west, the outer wall was immediately adjacent to the inner moat and comprised five small bastions.[4] The castle was entered through a gatehouse in the northern outer wall, comprising a guardhouse west of the gateway that led to the courtyard, and the stables in its eastern part, where also a well was located.[4] A second drawbridge,[4] made from copper according to legend, spanned the outer moat in front of the gatehouse.[2] Two other separate buildings stood on the courtyard - a chapel to the south and a kitchen to the east.[4] The castle was finished in 1579.[4]

Name[]

The initial and still most widely used name of the castle was Landskron ("Land's Crown").[2] Legend tells that the name was frowned upon by the Pomeranian duke, who pressured Ulrich to rename it Lanzkron ("Lance's Crown"), which is also in use as an alternative name.[2] Some locals believe that the duke advocated for this name change because of the birth last name of , which was Lanzkron.[citation needed]

Noble owners and deterioration[]

The date of Ulrich von Schwerin's death is unknown.[6] Landskron was inherited by one of his sons, Georg Ernst, who later passed it to his son Ulrich Wigand.[6] The castle deteriorated due to the impact of the Thirty Years' War, during which the villages around Landskron were burned down, and mismanagement.[2] When Georg Ernst died in 1651, Landskron was inherited by his daughter Anna, who married the Swedish noble von Anrieppe[6] (see Swedish Pomerania). Their daughter Agnes von Anrieppe married Jürgen von Pentz, who soon abandoned Landskron and in 1699 sold it to Philipp von Schwerin, a nephew of , advisor of the Brandenburgian elector, for 13,000 thalers.[6] Philipp von Schwerin did not rebuild the castle, which had further deteriorated during the Scanian War,[5] but moved his residence to nearby Rehberg.[2]

According to local folklore, the nobles at Landskron and the neighboring castles , Klempenow and Spantekow frequently engaged as robber barons holding up transports between the towns Anklam, Demmin, Friedland, Jarmen and Teterow.[6] Legend tells that they used golden horns to communicate with each other, allegedly confiscated from "Turkish" guards in the age of Barbarossa.[6]

Recent history[]

The ruins of the castle have attracted tourists since the 19th century.[5] In 1852, a tavern was built on the ruins of the kitchen building in the courtyard.[5] This building was occupied until the 1960s, but subsequently demolished.[4] Today, it is a tourist attraction and used as a site for concerts and other events.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Brunk, Jürgen; Dietzel, Peter (2002). "Ruine Veste Landskron. Wanderkarte" (in German). Retrieved 2010-08-06.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Brunk, Jürgen; Dietzel, Peter (2002). "Ruine Veste Landskron. Namen, die der Wind verwehte" (in German). Retrieved 2010-08-06., citing Lohfink, Ingeborg (1991). Vorpommern. Begegnungen mit dem Land am Meer (in German). Rostock: Hinstorff Verlag. ISBN 3-356-00418-2.
  3. ^ Berghaus, Heinrich Karl Wilhelm (1865). Landbuch des Herzogthums Pommern und des Fürstenthums Rügen. Enthaltend Schilderung der Zustände dieser Lande in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die Kreise Demmin, Anklam, Usedom-Wolin und Ukermünde (in German). 1. Dietze.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Brunk, Jürgen; Dietzel, Peter (2002). "Ruine Veste Landskron. Skizze der Burg" (in German). Retrieved 2010-08-06.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Amt für Raumordnung und Landesplanung Vorpommern. Regionaler Planungsverband Vorpommern. "Guts- und Parkanlagen in Vorpommern. Landskron" (in German). Retrieved 2010-08-06. (in English) (in Polish)
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Brunk, Jürgen; Dietzel, Peter (2002). "Ruine Veste Landskron. Geschichte und Fotos Burgruine Landskron" (in German). Retrieved 2010-08-06., citing Uecker, Fritz (1904). Pommern in Wort und Bild (in German). Pestalozziverein der Provinz Pommern.

External links[]

Coordinates: 53°45′57″N 13°22′45″E / 53.7658°N 13.3793°E / 53.7658; 13.3793

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