The technical fortune of the king himself rescued the king 841 years ago. Medieval construction technology is still raising questions today.
Near the scene. In the picture, Erfurt’s Cathedral in the fall of 2007. The catastrophe of the year 1184 occurred at the Erfurt Archbishop Castle, or according to other sources in his office building. Wikimedia Commons / “Thuringius” (PD)
Sometimes a person’s life gets caught in the technical details in a special way. This was a fortunate 841 years ago to notice the King of Germany and the future emperor Henrik vithe spirit of which was saved by the alcove, the recess of the room at the Erfurt Archbishop Castle.
Most other nobles attending the court days were not as lucky as about 60 guests died as the floor collapsed. Some of them died in a very humiliating way: by drowning in a human outbreak.
About this tragic and macabre case, the so -called Erfurt’s toilet disaster multiple in several German news, for example On the website of the Broadcasting Company BR2. The subject is also mentioned in the academic literature (Source 1, Source 2).
July 26, 1184, the accident originated in a dispute between two characters. Thuren’s landscape Ludvig III and the Archbishop of Mainz Conrad They did not get any condition in any way about land ownership.
So King Henrik, at that time at the age of 18, called his father’s emperor Fredrik Barbarossan that is, Fredrik red beard with authority Conversely assemble the courtyard days, a meeting of a semi -style noble and bishop. The meeting would serve as a diplomatic mediation body.
The place was selected as Erfurt in the eastern part of Germany because the dispute concerned of the Erfurt region. According to some sources, Henrik himself was also in the move in that direction, the war on the eastern border of the kingdom against the Polish.
Emperor’s tomb. Henrik VI is buried in Sicily in this sarcophagus. Picture from 2023. Wikimedia Commons / “Arnoldius” (CC BY-SA)
On July 26, all the invitations had arrived and they gathered on the second floor of the castle. However, the beams on the wooden floor had decayed over time and gave up shortly after the meeting began.
An estimated one hundred men’s nobles of noble collapsed in the first floor of the log snippets – and there the floor also gave in. In this way, the victims of the accident crashed into the ground floor, and many of them sank into the huge human outbreak of the castle.
The doubt about deaths
About 60 people died – but there is quite a disagreement in different sources of how the causes of death were distributed. In some modern sources mentions only two drowned in a sewer or toilet, where According to other estimates A significant part of the six of ten died would have been lost.
German In an expert interview with the WDR Master Radio Company Last summer, in turn, it is satisfied to say that the exact amount of drowned people is unknown.
In the absence of better knowledge, one can guess that there were several feces -drowned feces. However, many dozen sound like an unlikely option. Even if the castle might have been big, a 30 or 60 -man -driven screaming pit does not sound very credible by default.
In any case, it is clear that some and perhaps most of the victims were simply died of falling or under compression under the ruins.
King Henrik was saved from a grim death because he sat on the edge of the meeting room in an alcove with a rocky floor instead of a wooden floor. For the same reason, quarrels Ludwig and Conrad survived.
Although in retrospect, we know that the history of mankind is full of many kinds of failure, and medieval hygiene standards have been incomplete on the current dimension, this story raises some questions in the modern reader. Why on earth was the toilet placed inside the castle and not as an outdoor room? Hasn’t the scary -rising rotten and carcass smell from the feces through the floorboards?
We can only guess the answer.
King Henrik vi followed his famous father Fredrik For the Emperor’s throne in 1191. After their reign, some historians gave him a cruel name.
Henrik died in 1197 at the age of 31 in Malaria in Sicily, on his way to a crusade in the Middle East. 3 and 4. Between the Crusades Crusade of 1197 has not received its own established order number in history writing.
The story has been published in the past Technology & economy.