Bielriet Castle (Ruin)

The lost castle of Bielriet is located about 1.5 kilometers north-northwest of the Wolpertsdorf district of Schwäbisch Hall in the Schwäbisch Hall district in Baden-Württemberg.

The former hilltop castle was situated on a spur extending northeast, approximately 140 meters above Cröffelbach in the lower Bühlertal valley. It controlled the river crossing there on the trade route between Schwäbisch Hall and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, as well as the valley ascents on both sides.

The castle's name is first mentioned in 1057 in connection with a donation to Fulda Abbey, for which an "Adelbraht de Bilirieth" served as a witness. An "Adelbertus de Bielrieth" – perhaps a son of the former – entered the Benedictine monastery of Comburg as a monk in 1085 and transferred his goods and rights to it, which included half of Bielriet Castle ("oppidi partem in Bilrieth"). It is presumed that the noble family of Bielriet was a collateral line of the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg. The family, whose most important representative Friedrich von Bielriet held important offices for Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, disappears from documentary records after 1190 and is likely to have died out in the male line. Probably through marriage to an heiress, the possessions of the noble family of Bielriet passed to Schenk Walter I von Schüpf around 1220/30. However, he did not use Bielriet as a residence but had the new Limpurg Castle built near Schwäbisch Hall around 1230, after which the Schenken von Limpurg named themselves. The castle was probably mostly occupied by Limpurg ministerials, who also called themselves "von Bielriet," e.g., Friedrich von Bielriet, who served as imperial bailiff of Schwäbisch Hall from 1278 to 1273. Around 1280, the castle was owned by the minnesinger Schenk Konrad von Limpurg, who was able to assert his rights against the claims of his nephew Friedrich. Schenk Friedrich von Limpurg seems to have inherited the castle after his uncle's death, as he sold it to Heinrich Küchenmeister von Nordenburg in 1287. He and his heirs now called themselves "Küchenmeister von Bielriet." According to a 16th-century chronicle, a Küchenmeister von Bielriet is said to have robbed the survivors of the Schwäbisch Hall Jewish pogrom of 1349. He first took them into the castle but then expelled them and kept their possessions. A castle chapel is mentioned in 1352 in connection with the endowment of a soul mass by Lupold and Dietrich Küchenmeister von Bielriet. In 1359, these two sold the castle to Kraft von Hohenlohe. It seems not to have been inhabited thereafter, although the chapel was still in use, as another soul mass endowment from 1369 shows. At the request of Emperor Charles IV, Kraft von Hohenlohe transferred several of his castles, including Bielriet, to Bohemia in 1361 and received them back as a fief. To settle debts, Kraft and Ulrich von Hohenlohe pledged Bielriet Castle to the Schwäbisch Hall city nobleman Eberhard Philipp in 1381 and completely renounced their rights in 1390. Philipp sold the castle to the council of his hometown in the same year. The council had it destroyed by an explosion with gunpowder. Because of this unauthorized act, King Wenzel imposed the imperial ban on the city for three years and only retrospectively gave his consent to the demolition of Bielriet in 1393. Since then, documentary and archival mentions only refer to a "Burgstall" (castle site).