Bauda moated castle
| Place: | Bauda (Grossenhain, Meissen) |
|---|---|
| Type: | Wasserburg |
| Dating: | High Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | 1100 - 1400 AD. |
Description
In the wet meadows of the Röderniederung, east of the village of Bauda, there are the remains of a medieval moated castle, clearly visible in the aerial photograph. As early as the 19th century. It attracted the attention of Karl Benjamin Preusker (1786-1871), the pioneer of Saxon archaeology, in the 19th century. The castle complex was entered in the Saxon list of monuments at a correspondingly early stage, namely as early as 1935. However, little is known about the castle itself. It was probably built at the beginning of the 12th century. It probably only existed for a few centuries, until the late Middle Ages.
Michael Strobel/Annemarie ReckConservation then and now
In Karl Benjamin Preusker's 1844 work "Blicke in die vaterländische Vorzeit" ("Glimpses of Prehistory", vol. 3, p. 133), the site is described as "recently still covered with oak trees several hundred years old". In addition, the round ditch is said to have been surrounded by the remains of a "mound", i.e. a rampart. Today, only the up to 35 m wide Bühl can still be seen as a flat elevation, while the round moat is a slight depression. The meadowland around the moated castle must have originally been very marshy, but today the area has been largely drained.
Michael Strobel/Annemarie ReckImage Source R. Heynowski, Foto ©LfA 2023.
First aerial photos
Only a few archaeological monuments in the Free State of Saxony have aerial photographs dating back to before 1945. As early as 1939/1940, the state curator Georg Bierbaum (1889-1953) used his contact with Major Hauffe, who was stationed in Großenhain at the time, to obtain the first aerial photographs of the monument. During the first aerial survey in November 1939, the moated castle was only faintly visible at the edge of the image. A photo taken in the summer of 1940 (photo) shows the site to the left of a drainage ditch much better. However, as the local records archive had been destroyed by the heavy bombing raids in February 1945 and lay buried under rubble, the black and white prints suffered considerable moisture damage.
Michael Strobel/Annemarie ReckImage Source Mittelformat-Schwarzweißnegativfilm Aufnahme 03.06.1940 ©LfA 1940.
New structures
The size of the castle can only really be grasped from aerial photographs taken over the last 30 years. In the dry summer of 2019 in particular, further, previously barely recognizable ditch structures emerged from the meadow. In addition to the round ditch and the Bühl, two rectangular areas became visible in the west and northwest, which were probably part of the fortification. It is unclear whether other ditch structures located to the south are also related to the medieval moated castle.
Michael Strobel/Annemarie ReckImage Source R. Heynowski, Foto, Blick nach Süden ©LfA 2019.
Literature
Karl Preusker, Blicke in die vaterländische Vorzeit. Sitten, Sagen, Bauwerke, Trachten, Geräte. Bd. 3 (Leipzig 1944) 127; 133 Taf. VI 32.
Michael Strobel, Wasserburg Bauda. In: Regina Smolnik/Ronny Zienert (Hrsg.), Höhenflüge. Luftbilder und Archäologie in Sachsen (Dresden 2024) 82–83.
Note on monument protection
Archaeological monuments are protected by the Saxon Monument Protection Act. A permit under monument law is required for ground interventions or construction measures.
Permalink
https://archaeo-sn.de/en/ort/bauda-moated-castle/
Citation
Michael Strobel/Annemarie Reck, Bauda moated castle. In: Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen, Website archaeo | SN (24.05.2024). https://archaeo-sn.de/en/ort/bauda-moated-castle/ (Stand: 09.02.2025)
