Kuckuckstein Castle
Kuckuckstein Castle in Liebstadt in Saxony is located on a rocky outcrop (380 m above sea level) above the Seidewitz river valley at a very favorable location for controlling the trade route from the Elbe valley via the Eastern Ore Mountains to Bohemia ( Kulmer Steig ).
location
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Liebstadt and thus Kuckuckstein Castle are about 15 km south-west of Pirna in a valley between the deep-cut valleys of the Gottleuba and Müglitz, about the same height as Bad Gottleuba and Glashütte . At this point Molchgrund and Hennersbacher Grund merge into the Seidewitztal. The castle is enthroned on a gneiss rock about 30 m above the market square of Liebstadt.
Below the castle in the valley are the former manor and the castle nursery. Above there are still remnants of an English-style landscape park.
The actual castle can be reached via a drawbridge via the castle stairs or the access road to the castle slope. The keep (with three vaults one above the other and another storey), gatehouse and a connecting building enclose a first small courtyard. A narrow passage leads to the large courtyard, which is formed by the "Tafelhaus" (main building) in the southwest, the "Wasserhaus" in the southeast and the kitchen building with a battlement in the northeast.
The castle was built on four levels. The lowest (cellar and vaulted cloak in the table house) and the second level are partially carved into the rock. The second level is the lowest tower vault of the keep. The third is the main level, which is at the level of the drawbridge. In addition to the upper floors, the fourth level also includes the knight's hall in the third vault of the keep and the “chapel room” above. In the other buildings, the battlements and the attic storeys make up the fourth level.
history
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The castle was first mentioned in a document in connection with the enfeoffment of Günther and Heinrich von Bünau by Friedrich the Younger (Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen) on September 4, 1410. This happened as a result of the Dohna feud , in which the burgraves of Dohna perished against the margrave of Meißen (here Wilhelm I of Meißen ) and completely lost their possessions in the burgraviate of Dohna (including Liebstadt). The von Bünau brothers were rewarded with this enfeoffment for their military services to the margrave in this feud, including Weesenstein Castle (1406) and Liebstadt (1410).
One can assume, however, that the settlement and castle (more likely a castle at the time ) were built much earlier. It is not clear whether the settlement or the castle was built first. In a document dated October 19, 1286, the owner Otto von Dohna awarded the town (civitas) to the diocese of Meißen . There is no mention of the castle here. The castle apparently remained in the hands of the Donins . It can be assumed that it already existed, since otherwise a walled city would not have served this place. It is therefore very likely that the town and castle were built in the second half of the 13th century. Other traditions even assume that the castle was built as a border fortress between 930 and 940 under Heinrich I.
The name "Kuckuckstein" is found for the first time in 1791 in an alphabetical directory of all " writers and officials " in the Electorate of Saxony . Even with this name, it is unclear since when it was used. Since the cuckoo was called " Gauch " until the 16th century , the castle should actually have been called "Gauchstein" until then. The cuckoo was also a heraldic animal in the Middle Ages and stood for vigilance - in contrast to the lion (wildness - Lauenstein or Löwenstein castle ) and the bear (power - Bärenstein castle ). This could explain why the Bünaus no longer used this name after the castle was destroyed during the Dohna feud (1385–1402).
Reconstruction only began in 1453. The castle was built on the foundations of the old castle in the style of Arnold von Westphalia . A corresponding inscription can still be found on the outer wall of the palace .
During the Thirty Years' War , like many German towns, Liebstadt was often ravaged by mercenaries. In 1643 the castle was stormed and looted by the Imperial Hatzfeld mercenaries.
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The von Bünau family owned the castle for over 200 years . In 1651 it fell to Lieutenant Colonel Detlev von Wedelbusch , the second husband of the widowed Anna Sophie von Bünau, who in turn, widowed, sold the castle on December 13, 1694 to Lieutenant General Cunno Christoph von Birkholz . During the possession of the von Birkholz (verifiable until 1741) the castle was extensively renovated in the Rococo style. In the following years the owners of the castle changed several times.
It was not until 1775 that district commissioner Hans Carl August von Carlowitz bought the castle from the bankruptcy estate for 40,407 thalers. In addition to the town and castle, the villages of Wingendorf , Herbergen , Göppersdorf , Döbra and Berthelsdorf as well as extensive forests also belonged to the property. The mining rights originally belonging to the castle , however, had already been assigned by the Bünaus to Duke Georg for 700 Rhenish guilders and the high hunt in 1737/38 by the Birkholz for four game and 100 Meissen guilders annually to Elector Friedrich August II .
The castle remained in the possession of the von Carlowitz family until 1931 . Among the members of this family at this time were a number of physically and mentally gifted representatives. Therefore, a new spiritual and sociable life moved into the castle. The castle was made more homely and partly refurbished in the romantic style. In 1798, for example, Novalis was a friend of the family at Kuckuckstein Castle and the lord of the castle Carl Adolf von Carlowitz (1771–1837) had himself portrayed with his wife in 1805 by the Dresden painter Anton Graff . The owner also professed freemasonry . At the same time, Carl Adolf also supported Heinrich von Kleist with the publication of the “ Phöbus ” magazine . In 1800 a Masonic lodge was set up in the castle and decorated with mysterious, early romantic paintings. The castle library also has some valuable Masonic writings.
The period at the beginning of the 19th century left a strong mark on the owners of the castle and throughout the region. The coalition wars, which culminated in the region around 1813, led to destruction, disease, hardship and misery among the population; looting and pillage occurred among the French as well as the Russians. The battles between Russian and French troops and their allies led to a large number of skirmishes between the Erzgebirge and Elbe , of which evidence is still available today (Napoleon's hill at hostels, memorial plaques and cannonballs in Dohna and much more).
On September 9, 1813, Napoléon I stayed in the castle after watching the enemy retreat from the heights north of Liebstadt near Borna . His armed forces still had 400,000 French who camped in and around the city. During this time, Carl Adolf von Carlowitz actively campaigned against the Napoleonic occupation and also served the Russian tsar as major general of the cavalry . However, he did not come into direct contact with the enemy, as he did not reach the Saxon Jägerkorps (2,900 men) he had set up until April 1814. But Paris had already capitulated on March 16.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of family members made a name for themselves, but not the castle. The distress caused by the inflationary period in the 1920s meant that Kuckuckstein Castle had to be sold again. It was auctioned by Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg in 1931 .
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After the Second World War, the castle was expropriated , became public property and was administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and, since 1952, by the city of Liebstadt. The museum was set up in 1954 and was initially headed by the teacher Walter Jobst , who was very committed to the preservation of the castle and made great contributions to research into local history in the Eastern Ore Mountains with a large number of publications . At the same time he brought his collection of local history objects, especially from the native bird and plant world, to the museum's holdings. In addition, the museum has a number of historical objects from Freemasonry such as lodge badges , Masonic aprons and oil paintings depicting former lodge brothers from the Saxon lodges.
In 1995 the castle became the property of the city of Liebstadt, which had been putting it up for sale since autumn 2003 because of the high maintenance costs. The market value was estimated at 380,000 euros. The Austrian entrepreneur and management consultant Ralph Neunteufel was awarded the contract from the three bidders. According to media reports, he wanted to pay 300,000 euros for the castle plus 41,000 euros for the property. However, the conclusion of a heritable building right contract failed because Neunteufel did not provide an additionally required guarantee. The subsequent negotiations with the Saxon Homeland Security Regional Association also remained unsuccessful, as the association had to refuse to take over the castle after examining the financial requirements.
In 2006, the Liebstadt city council put the castle up for sale again. Prospective buyers were Michael Graf von Plettenberg (factory planner from Ludwigsburg, purchase bid is a matter of negotiation), an association consortium consisting of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, the support association Schloss Kuckuckstein and the health resort development and support association Bad Gottleuba-Berggießhübel (purchase bid symbolically 3 euros), Günter von Bünau, one Descendant of the former lords of Bünau (purchase bid 128,000 euros) and again Ralph Neunteufel. At 155,000 euros, the latter offered the highest purchase bid, which was decisive for the city council in a schematic decision, so that the sale to the Austrian was decided on July 4, 2006 without checking the applicants' resources and their abilities to implement the proposed concepts. Neunteufel's concept of use envisaged - after the renovation - a public and private use of the castle. To this end, he contractually committed to invest at least € 500,000 in the construction by 2012. The city of Liebstadt, which had previously closed the local history museum, which was set up with great commitment during the GDR era and failed to renovate the considerable structural damage to the building, is now accusing the owner of not having fulfilled this renovation obligation and has been suing the castle owner for several years. In June 2016, the Dresden Regional Court proposed an amicable settlement by rescinding the purchase contract, which the city council initially rejected.
In the course of the legal dispute, Kuckuckstein Castle came back into the possession of the city of Liebstadt in January 2018, which shortly thereafter sold it again in private ownership. The first renovation work was carried out under the new owners in the course of 2018. In autumn 2018, the magician Peter Kersten returned to Kuckuckstein Castle for the first time in a long time.
Current
At the beginning of 2018 it was announced that as part of a settlement, the castle would return to the ownership of the City of Liebstadt by April 2018. Schloss Kuckuckstein would like to sell them again to a private investor, a couple of entrepreneurs from the community.
Owners in chronological order
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| 930-940 | probably by Henry I built |
| around 1286 | Otto von Dohna |
| until 1402 | owned by the Donins |
| 1402-1410 | owned by the Wettin family |
| 1410 | Enfeoffment of Günther and Heinrich von Bünau by Landgrave Friedrich the Younger (?) |
| 1461 | Heinrich von Bünau (1) |
| 1493 | Günther (2) and Rudolph (3) von Bünau, siblings |
| 1501 | Günther (2) from Bünau |
| 1515 | Günther (4) von Bünau, son of Günther (2) von Bünau |
| 1554 | Günther (5) and Rudolph (6) from Bünau, sons of Günther (4) from Bünau |
| 1592 | Rudolph (6) von Bünau remained childless |
| 1615 | Günther (7) from Bünau, son of Günther (5) from Bünau |
| 1633 | Rudolph (8), Günther (9) and Heinrich (10) von Bünau, patronized as minors |
| 1651 | Rudolph (8) from Bünau |
| 1654 | Günther (9) von Bünau, acquisition from Rudolph (8) von Bünau |
| 1655 | Enfeoff from Colonel Sergeant Detlef von Wedelbusch (stepfather of Rudolph (8) von Bünau) as the second husband of the widowed Anna Sophie von Bünau |
| 1662 | Anna Sophie von Bünau |
| 1691 | Sale by Anna Sophie von Bünau to her son-in-law, the Electoral Saxon Rittmeister Cuno Christoph von Birkholz |
| 1741 | District Court Assessor Hofrat Dr. Wolf Alfred Behrisch |
| 1743 | Sale to the Pirna ship and trade master, Kommerzienrat Johann Christoph von Hanisch (60,500 thalers) |
| 1751 | Sale to Commerzienrat Carl Siegfried Francke (75,000 thalers) |
| 1775 | Auctioned by Hans Carl August von Carlowitz (40,407 thalers) |
| Carl Adolf von Carlowitz | |
| 1833 | Friedrich Paul Aemil von Carlowitz |
| 1851 | Georg Carl von Carlowitz |
| 1860 | Carl Adolph von Carlowitz |
| 1931 | Auctioned by Ottomar von Mayenburg (for 244,000 Reichsmarks) |
| from 1932 | Administration by Major General Eckart von Loeben |
| 1945 | Expropriation and transfer to public property (administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) |
| 1952 | Liebstadt becomes the bearer of the castle |
| 1995 | Transfer to the ownership of the city of Liebstadt |
| 2003 | the castle is advertised for sale |
| 2007 | the Liebstädter city council sells the castle to "Global Castle Management GmbH" (owner: Ralph Neunteufel) |
| 2018 | After a legal dispute over the renovation work agreed in the 2007 purchase agreement, the castle is once again the property of the City of Liebstadt |
| 2018 | renewed privatization, sale to "Natur-Romantik GmbH" (owners: Susanne and Jens Höhnel) |
Structural development
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It can be considered certain that the castle was built as a castle with a protective function for the trade route from the Elbe Valley via the Ore Mountains to Bohemia. Whether this happened in the 10th century or in the 13th century is initially irrelevant for this function. It is also clear that with the destruction as a result of the Dohna feud in 1402 and the Hussite invasions around 1429 (Kuckuckstein belonged together with the castles Lauenstein, Bärenstein and Weesenstein to the line of fortifications against the Hussites ), hardly anything was left of the castle. With the reconstruction by Günter and Heinrich von Bünau from 1453 (this year can be found on the Söller ), the Liebstadt Castle was built on the foundation walls of the castle. These foundation walls include a gate in the water house (currently the oldest part), a late Gothic arched curtain window in the gatehouse and a gate in the large courtyard. In the course of the reconstruction, Rudolf von Bünau had a chapel room set up in the tower after a penitent trip to the Holy Land in 1476, since after this penance he was allowed to hold house services.
The castle underwent considerable renovations and extensions between 1519 and 1554. The water house with its Renaissance gables probably also came from this time .
After Detlev von Wedelbusch took over the castle in 1655, the damage from the Thirty Years' War was repaired and the gardens in the valley began. His son-in-law, Christoph von Birkholz, had the garden in the valley expanded in the French style and added a bathhouse to the water house. He furnished the castle in the baroque style .
After 1742 the castle was rebuilt again. Behrisch had the half-timbered storey removed, Hanisch built the Rote Vorwerk in the city and an inn on the site of the town hall.
When the castle became the property of Carl August von Carlowitz (1774), the castle underwent a thorough renovation (1774–1781), but this did not lead to any changes to the entire complex. Rather, the property was strengthened as an agricultural production facility. For example, a new sheep farm, an oil mill and other mills were built. In addition, the outer works were expanded and a new greenhouse was built in the palace garden.
Furthermore, in 1786 a landscape park in the English style was created on the Schlossleithe with a summer house and next to it in 1789 a "cone slide" and some other elements corresponding to the style (vases, figures, grottos). In keeping with the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, to which Carl August's sons, Carl Adolf and his brother Hans Georg von Carlowitz, felt obliged, structural changes and fittings were made to the palace in the early romantic style.
Hans Georg von Carlowitz had the castle rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style from 1796 to 1802 ; the romantic "Kuckuckstein Castle" was created. For example, the top of the tower was blown up and rebuilt by 1797 with the chapel room, Söller and tower helmet, as was the gate portal on the drawbridge. Inside the castle walls were moved and painting, glazing and carpentry work was carried out. Carl Adolf's study was made up of two rooms, the cross vaults painted with sun, moon and stars, and decorative landscape paintings between the arches. In 1798 a pleasure house was built on the Roten Vorwerk (the so-called “ Schulenburg ”, presumably so named after the mother's maiden name), but it was burned down by the Napoleonic troops in 1813. In 1800 the Carlowitz set up a Masonic lodge in the castle , which is decorated with mysterious early romantic paintings.
In 1851 the castle was rebuilt again by Georg Carl von Carlowitz (curtain arched windows in the panel house, roofing of the external stairs). Between 1886 and 1889 the large inner courtyard was created in its present form and the “knight's hall” was expanded in the third vaulted tower. In 1906 a wooden gallery with a pulpit bay was built in the small courtyard. Most of the interiors of the castle were auctioned in the 1930s, so that today hardly any furnishings can be found at Kuckuckstein Castle. This also applies to the originally very extensive library, of which only little has been preserved.
When the castle was sold to the investor Neunteufel, an expert report (as of January 2008) showed a number of structural defects. 27 points with an acute need for action and renovation were documented. The Global Castle Management GmbH had committed itself to the acquisition in 2007 to invest 500,000 euros in restructuring measures within three years. However, the costs for a fundamental renovation were already estimated at around 3 million euros.
Significance and current use
Kuckuckstein Castle is now considered a rare architectural monument of the early neo-Gothic and early romantic periods . Together with the large farm, a charming landscape was created at the end of the 18th century, with the castle complex and landscape park forming an impressive backdrop. The forms often have no function whatsoever ( loopholes that cannot be used as such, capitals made of wood that simulate stone, or columns painted on walls). However, this is an expression of historicism at that time. The conversion forms a certain unit and is therefore valuable, especially because this early “sentimental” neo-Gothic is very rare.
The local history museum has been housed in the castle since 1954, and it also organizes guided tours through the rooms of the castle.
For a number of years, from 1985 onwards, the palace and knight's hall were used as a framework for the television program of the GDR television program Magic at Kuckuckstein Castle with "Zauberpeter" Peter Kersten . This restored hall has served the Bad Gottleuba-Berggießhübel registry office as a backdrop for weddings since 1994 ; it can also be rented for other celebrations.
Trivia
- In 2012, Kuckuckstein Castle served as the backdrop for the film adaptation of the fairy tale “ Snow White and Rose Red ”.
See also
literature
- Martin Braess: Kuckuckstein Castle and the town of Liebstadt near Pirna . In: Communications from the Saxon Homeland Security Association . Vol. IX / 1920, pp. 222-224.
- Jürgen Helfricht : Kuckuckstein Castle. In: True stories from Saxony's most beautiful valley (Müglitztal) . Taucha 2000, ISBN 3-89772-022-1 .
- Regine Hengelhaupt: The haunted castle in Saxony . Taucha 2000, ISBN 3-89772-015-9 .
- Regine Hengelhaupt: Carl Adolf von Carlowitz and Kuckuckstein. in: Dresdner Hefte 20/2002, H. 69, S. 53-58.
- Alfred Meiche : Historical-topographical description of the Pirna administration . Dresden 1927.
- Otto Eduard Schmidt : Kuckuckstein Castle. In: Communications from the Saxon Homeland Security Association . Vol. XXI / 1932, pp. 101-128.
- Wolfgang Schumann: The neo-Gothic conversion of the Kuckuckstein Castle in Liebstadt . In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . Issue 12/1966, pp. 2-15.
- František Šuman among others: The Lords of Bünau in Saxony and Bohemia. Iniciativa pro Děčínský zámek, Děčín 2006; ISBN 80-239-6852-1 .
- Heinz Thörner: Kuckuckstein Castle in Liebstadt . Liebstadt 1982.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kuckuckstein's lord of the castle gone - what now? , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from December 18, 2010
- ^ The lord of the castle wants to return Kuckuckstein , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from June 2, 2016
- ↑ New magic at Kuckuckstein Castle , Dresdner Latest News from November 2, 2018
- ↑ Hope for the magic castle , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from February 1, 2018
- ↑ Jana Klameth: Castle renovation is already running , Sächsische Zeitung, Pirna edition of January 4, 2008, p. 16
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 48.7 ″ N , 13 ° 51 ′ 30 ″ E