The Erdställe in Neukirchen-Balbini

Four Erdställe are known in Neukirchen-Balbini alone. They all are located in the old town centre.

(Map basis: www.geoportal.bayern.de, design: Manntau)

Cross sections of the Erdstall beneath the house Hauptstr. 9 in Neukirchen-Balbini. (Drawing: Theo Männer und pupils of Neunburg secondary school)

One is situated beneath the Schießl-Hof (2). Access is through the cellar. In the basement of the house ‘Beim Dehnbauern’, formerly house no. 2 (today Hauptstraße 9 (1)), an Erdstall was documented before the old house was demolished in 1980. Its entry had stone walls and was narrow and curved, its tunnels had several branches and two chambers. In one wall, there was a small niche, and several drill holes were observed. In one of the chambers, bones, iron fragments, and glass shards were discovered. Charcoal and burn marks indicate that there once has been a fire, but it remains unknown whether the fire was used for cooking or for heating. How was the smoke supposed to clear, how could fresh air have got into the passages? When the house was torn down, a shaft, 1.9 m deep and with an opening of 50 x 80 cm, was registered.

Regarding the other two Erdställe (3, 4), there is no documentation. While the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege lists them as ground monuments, their status is based only on oral information by local residents that in part had been collected several decades earlier.

Plan of the Erdstall beneath the house Hauptstr. 9 in Neukirchen-Balbini. (Drawing: Theo Männer und pupils of Neunburg secondary school)

The excavation team at the Schießl-Hof, 1978. In the back, left to right: Ewald Brunner, Harald Zisler, Karl-Heinz Dommer. Sitting in the front, left to right: Michael Fleischmann, Lothar Jobst, Otto Reimer. Standing: Maria Ruhland, Theo Männer, Johann Ruhland. (Photo: Theo Männer)

Finds from the Erdställe in Neukirchen-Balbini

In the Erdstall at the Schießl-Hof, a large amount of objects have been discovered, particularly pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries. These finds probably rather belong to the period when the tunnels were backfilled, not when they were built.