Baroque Neschwitz Castle
The baroque palace Neschwitz is at the same place Neschwitz , about 15 km northwest of Bautzen in Saxony and counts with the corresponding castle park to the culturally and historically significant castles in the Lausitz .
history
The history of Neschwitz Castle can be traced back to the Middle Ages and is always closely linked to the respective ownership of the former manor as an agricultural unit.
From the beginning until 1721
When the Ascanian Margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg divided Upper Lusatia into the bailiffs of Bautzen and Görlitz in 1268 , a place called "Nyzwaz" appeared in the deed of division, today Neschwitz in the Bautzen district in Saxony. At the time of this division one on here has already Hoyerswerdaer Blackwater located Wasserburg confessed.
Fiefs from Neschwitz at that time were the knights of Schreibersdorf , an aristocratic family originally from the Lower Silesian Jauer . The for 1454 handed conversion of the old water castle into a Renaissance castle can be traced back to this family, because already in 1286 immerses Lucas of Schreibersdorf in a court protocol, Balthasar of Schreibersdorf was 1474 Amtshauptmann of Bautzen and in 1492 the brothers were Hans Caspar and Dietrich von Schreibersdorf the gentlemen on Neschwitz. The Schreibersdorfs started pond farming here in 1543 , later Neschwitz became one of the centers of carp production in Upper Lusatia.
In the early 16th century, the land-owning aristocracy fell into a prolonged economic crisis and the great gentlemen were to manors with easy Mannlehn , that is, they could be inherited only a direct, masculine and mature descendants. When the Bohemian-Hungarian King Ferdinand I did not keep his promises to strengthen the feudal rights of the estates after the so-called Upper Lusatian Pönfall of 1547, the ownership structure on Neschwitz changed more often.
The estate remained in the hands of the Schreibersdorfers until 1572, with a few interruptions, when Dietrich von Schreibersdorf sold it to the imperial councilor Hans Haubold von Schleinitz , whose family was widespread in Lusatia. Hans Haubold was bailiff of Upper Lusatia from 1572 until he was deposed by Emperor Rudolph II as a result of an intrigue in 1594 and died in deep bitterness on January 1, 1595 at Neschwitz Castle.
After the governor's death, Neschwitz went to Friedrich von Pannewitz , who then sold the estate in 1600 to Hans von Ponickau the Younger , who was the governor of Bautzen in 1562 and who also owned the estates in Prietitz , Elstra , Königswartha and Debra . His successor was Georg Rudolph von Ponickau , who in 1604 donated the position of Hüfner to the parish council of Neschwitz and in 1608 introduced new school regulations. Furthermore, in 1615 he stipulated that the respective owner of a certain meadow in the Neschwitzer Flur had to pay 18 groschen per year to the school. The efforts of Georg Rudolph von Ponikau to raise Neschwitz to a market town failed due to the approval of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I.
After the Ponickau family, the von Theler family acquired the estate. In 1674 Neschwitz belonged to Anna von Theler , who included a legacy in her will for the pastor, the poor and the school. Then her son George Bernhard von Theler became lord of the castle. The last of the Thelers, Conrad Heinrich , sold the property to Schack von Rumohr . Rumohr owned the property until 1721.
The era from Württemberg to Simonis
When Prince Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg-Winnental took over the property in 1721, the castle grounds were completely changed.
The prince , who had been in the military service of King August II since 1703 , had met Ursula Katharina von Altenbockum , Imperial Princess of Teschen and divorced Princess Lubomirska, who became the king's mistress that same year at the Dresden court . Now, almost twenty years later - August II had long since taken favor with other women and the prince had fought for him in numerous battles - the king evidently found pleasure in a solid relationship between Ursula Katharina and Friedrich Ludwig. In any case, the latter showed the greatest interest in the still attractive woman, and so he needed an "appropriate" bride present. So he acquired the Neschwitz property and commissioned the then Dresden master builder Johann Friedrich Karcher to completely rebuild it.
Karcher structured the five and a half hectare site strictly geometrically into a French-style park . The old castle was torn down except for the old cellar vaults of the former moated castle, which can still be seen today, and a 5 meter high hill was built on top of it. On top of this hill, Karcher had a baroque two-story building with a mansard roof , structured by pilasters , surrounded by a two-sided terrace . A large main hall that spanned both floors became the focal point of the house. The commissions for the vases and sculptures made of sandstone, such as the sculptures of Adonis and Venus on the side walls of the castle, went to Johann Benjamin Thomae , a student of Permoser .
The longitudinal axis of the castle runs at a 45 ° angle to the north-south direction from southwest to northeast. For this purpose , the main axis of the castle park was laid out at right angles , from the castle in a north-west direction. The main axis extends from the castle to the so-called Blue Gate , a jewel of the blacksmith's trade. Karcher created a transverse axis perpendicular to the main axis, approximately in the golden ratio of the distance between the castle and the blue gate , which points exactly to the Neschwitz church in the southwest and is occupied by two gatehouses at the park entrance. In the opposite direction the view was clear or led to the forest. At the intersection of the main and transverse axes, a roundabout of around 35 meters was created. Using both main axes as axes of symmetry, 4 small functional buildings were built, namely a men's pavilion, a bath and kitchen pavilion, a library and a theater pavilion.
In the alignment of the two pavilions facing away from the castle, a balustrade was added running parallel to the transverse axis, which follows the arc of the central roundabout towards the main axis and opens there towards the Blue Gate . The passage is adorned with two larger than life statues of Atalante and Meleagros , which were also created by Johann Benjamin Thomae.
Furthermore, a new farmyard was built and - after all, beer and spirits were part of a lavish party, for which the whole complex was intended from the outset - a brewery with a distillery. A stables for 40 horses and a zoo with a hunting lodge completed the whole thing.
Since Neschwitz has had experience in pond management and hydraulic engineering for centuries, it was obvious that water art also played a role in the design of the park. The castle hill was framed with a moat and a pond was created within the park to the southwest next to the castle.
In 1723 the construction project was finished and Prince Friedrich Ludwig was able to move into the palace with his newlywed wife. They used it as a summer and hunting residence. However, the joy of ownership did not last very long. In 1731 the prince, who had meanwhile been promoted to Saxon-Polish cavalry general and imperial general field master, received from Emperor Karl VI. the supreme command of his troops in Italy. After the death of King August II in 1733, when there were armed conflicts over the succession to the Polish throne with France, Friedrich Ludwig died on September 19, 1734 in the battle of Guastalla .
The imperial duchess, now a "von Württemberg" according to the marriage agreement (the Winnental line had come to a standstill again), lived very secluded in Dresden until her death in 1743 and had sold most of her lands to the Saxon Electoral Chamber. However, she sold the Neschwitzer possessions in 1737 to Alexander Joseph Count Sulkowski , the foreign minister of King August III. In 1757 he sold the castle to Johann Heinrich Simonis, the son of the secret Russian war councilor Johann Heinrich Simonis , who in 1735 had negotiated the Vienna Preliminary Peace between Poland, Russia and Saxony.
The von Riesch family's time
In 1763 a new chapter began in the history of this property.
The Seven Years' War also had catastrophic consequences in Neschwitz. Repeated army camps set up near the village by Austrian and Prussian troops resulted in confiscations, arson and mistreatment of the inhabitants, so that the estate and palace, but especially the population of Neschwitz, were on the verge of ruin. In this situation, it turned out to be a stroke of luck that Wolfgang Freiherr von Riesch bought Gut Neschwitz in 1763 and chose the castle grounds as his summer residence.
The Rieschs originally came from the Canton of Zurich and were a well-respected and wealthy family in Saxony. Wolfgang von Riesch was the electoral Saxon Privy Councilor and highly honored with the Swedish North Star Order . He had also made a career in Vienna, where he was court banker and imperial councilor. He used his wealth for the beautification and expansion of the palace complex as well as for charitable purposes, but initially he gave the residents of Neschwitz wages and bread. The park was expanded to include an English-style part that was placed between the balustrade and the Blue Gate . Here three fountains lying in one axis and a hunting pavilion were created
In 1766 the baron decided to finally settle here with his family and commissioned the Saxon court architect Friedrich August Krubsacius , who had become famous for building the Dresden country house , to build a new large castle on the other side of the Blue Gate . The construction of the New Palace lasted until 1775.
The baron had several sons. The oldest, Isaak Wolfgang Freiherr von Riesch, born in 1749, was an electoral Saxon privy councilor and royal Polish chamberlain and was also known for the financial support of the Bohemian composer Johann Baptist Vanhal . Isaak took over the management of the house in 1776 and in 1788 had an obelisk with a relief portrait and a memorial plaque erected at the end of the park's transverse axis opposite the park entrance in memory of his father .
He managed the estate and castle with great competence, and from his travels through Europe he brought many art treasures with him to Neschwitz, which are housed in the old, no longer inhabited Baroque castle, to an excellent collection of paintings, books, antiquities, minerals, coins and conchylia were designed. In this context, the great hall of the palace was decorated in the Pompeian style in 1806 . He also continuously looked after the beautification of the park and was particularly concerned with the settlement of new tree species. In 1792 Isaac was raised to the rank of count and in 1800 he founded a majorate to consolidate and secure the family property and bound the property in a family entailment . As part of this foundation, it was also provided that around four hundred and fifty thalers a year from the income of the Majorate should benefit the poor and needy in the villages belonging to the property and that a doctor should also be provided for the poorly ill.
Isaak Graf Riesch died on March 25, 1810 and his brother, the Imperial Austrian cavalry general Johann Sigismund Graf Riesch took over the property. He carried on it in the spirit of his father and his brother, but could not prevent Neschwitz from being badly affected again as a result of the liberation wars against Emperor Napoleon and the related battles at Königswartha in 1813. Johann Sigismund died in 1821.
His son from his second marriage, Johann Wolfgang Sigismund Graf Riesch, took over the property in 1843 after his brother Franz Sigismund and his son Franz Theodor were temporarily the lords of the major, but hardly lived in Neschwitz.
At the end of the 19th century, due to childlessness, the legacy of the Counts Riesch passed to a Livonian line of the old noble family von Vietinghoff , who were now called Vietinghoff-Riesch. Arnold Gustav Heinrich (called Harry) Freiherr von Vietinghoff-Riesch, born in 1860 in Salisburg (Latvian: Maszalaca) in Livonia, became the owner of the Majorate Neschwitz and until 1928 he was also the state elder of Upper Lusatia. With his wife Marion Concordia Isabell Freifrau von Vietinghoff-Riesch, born von Funcke (1870–1945), he had 5 sons and 4 daughters, one of the sons was Arnold Freiherr von Vietinghoff-Riesch , with whom the last chapter of the Riesch era in Neschwitz started.
Arnold von Vietinghoff-Riesch was born in Neschwitz Castle in 1895, studied forest science at the Royal Saxon Forest Academy in Tharandt and, after initially helping his father manage the estate, he finally took over the entire family estate in 1939. In the 1930s, he turned Neschwitz into a model enterprise in agriculture and forestry; he also set up the Neschwitz bird protection station in the New Palace as part of the Saxon Heritage Protection Association , which existed until 1945. The work of Arnold von Vietinghoff-Riesch made the name Neschwitz known across national borders.
In the last days of the Second World War , the church school in Neschwitz and the theater pavilion in the palace gardens were destroyed. The communist mayor of Neschwitz, who was then appointed by the Soviet headquarters, had released the New Palace for looting. As a result, two weeks after the end of the war, on Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 1945, it was set on fire and burned down to the foundation walls, whereby the valuable documents from the bird protection station were also destroyed. In the same year Freiherr von Vietinghoff, regardless of his services to the land and forest, was expropriated as part of the land reform and the castle grounds were declared public property. Arnold von Vietinghoff-Riesch published his memoir Last Herr auf Neschwitz in 1958 . A Junker with no regrets
The years in the GDR
In 1948 the remains of the theater pavilion were removed. In the same year the ruins of the New Palace were torn down and a new school, which was urgently needed in Neschwitz, was built on its foundation walls. On January 2, 1952, classes began again.
From 1953 to 1970 Neschwitz was again the seat of a bird sanctuary, the most famous director of which was the ornithologist Gerhard Creutz (1911-1993). The station belonged to the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin and had its work rooms in the old castle, in which an exhibition could also be viewed. In 1958/1959 the two-storey ballroom in the Pompeian style from around 1800 was restored. Since 1961 concerts have been held annually in the ballroom and since 1978 changing exhibitions of contemporary art have taken place in the "small gallery" of the castle. Up until German reunification, maintenance and care measures in the palace and park were primarily carried out by the Kulturbundgruppe Neschwitz (now Kultur- und Heimatfreunde Neschwitz eV). At the time of the GDR, only the bare essentials were secured on the building mass of the Old Palace and the pavilion ; Between 1988 and 1990 the facade of the baroque palace was renewed.
Neschwitz Castle today
With the unification of the two German states in 1990, the municipality of Neschwitz became the owner of the palace and park. In doing so, they took on a difficult legacy, but made great efforts to preserve and maintain this historic palace complex with the limited funding that the Free State of Saxony made available.
The park and the pavilions have now been renovated again. In 1994, the Neschwitz Nature Conservation Station moved into one of the pavilions, which also operates a care station for injured birds. In the second, the so-called bath and kitchen pavilion, the tourist information of the municipality of Neschwitz and the ice cream parlor at the castle are located. Associations have also moved in as tenants. The Saxon bird sanctuary is located in the third pavilion .
Membership in the Garden Culture Trail on both sides of the Neisse and in the European Park Association Lusatia contribute to improving tourism marketing and the prospect of funding .
Numerous renovation work still needs to be carried out in the old palace itself. The roof beams suffer from the infestation of the house buck and must therefore be renewed. The wall and ceiling painting also needs restoration. Exhibitions can be viewed in the castle from April to October; the palace hall is used for civil marriages and palace concerts.
literature
- Walther Biehl : Neschwitz Castle in Upper Lusatia. A gem of old Saxon garden art. In: Communications from the Saxon Homeland Security Association . Volume 17, Issue 5-6, 1928, pp. 187-200.
- Erhard Hartstock: Origin and development of the Upper Lusatian pond economy (= publication series of the Saxon State Agency for Agriculture . Special issue 5). Dresden 2000, DNB 959743278 .
- GA Poenicke (ed.): Album of the manors and castles in the kingdom of Saxony. III. Section: Margraviate Upper Lusatia. Leipzig around 1860.
- Arnold Freiherr von Vietinghoff-Riesch: Last gentleman on Neschwitz. A Junker with no regrets. Limburg an der Lahn 1958.
-
Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal dictionary of all sciences and arts
- Schreibersdorff. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 35, Leipzig 1743, column 1159 f.
- Schleinitz. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 35, Leipzig 1743, columns 41-45.
- Theler. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 43, Leipzig 1745, column 596-600.
- Simonis, (Johann Heinrich). In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 37, Leipzig 1743, column 1488.
- Kultur- und Heimatfreunde Neschwitz eV: Community chronicle Neschwitz . 2008.
- Gerhard Heinz Kuban, Kultur- und Heimatfreunde Neschwitz eV: princes, counts, barons and barons of Neschwitz in the service of the emperor, the king and the elector. Neschwitz 2014, OCLC 913003475 .
Web links
- Official website of the municipality of Neschwitz
- Official Facebook profile of the baroque palace and park of the Neschwitz community
- Nature conservation station in Neschwitz
- Saxon bird sanctuary in Neschwitz
- schloesserland-sachsen.de
- about the baroque castle Neschwitz
- Castle park on the homepage of the garden culture path on both sides of the Neisse
Remarks
- ↑ There are different interpretations about the origin of the name Neschwitz . GA Poenicke reports that it may derive from nesswadzicz , which means something like not eating vesper bread , because in Neschwitz the after-work bell was always rung half an hour before sunset, because once a Neschwitz knight had offered his serfs one daily to waive half an hour of compulsory labor if they waived their right to the snack they were entitled to.
- ↑ The chronicles of the pond economy name the manor Neschwitz as early as 1543.
- ↑ One of these interruptions could have been in 1481, when a Martin von Maxen was mentioned in a document as the owner, another in 1488, when the Meißen bishop Johann VI. to Stolpen to Balthasar von Haugwitz called for Lords of Neschwitz.
- ↑ The von Schleinitz family also came from the first bishop of Leitmeritz (today Litoměřice ), Maximilian Rudolf von Schleinitz , which is an interesting cross-connection as the later owner of Neschwitz Castle, Ursula Katharina von Altenbockum , is buried in the Jesuit church of Leitmeritz.
- ↑ These school regulations were titled as follows: "Instruction how it is to be instituted with the boys in the school here in Neschwitz and the organist is commanded to be held."
- ↑ This money was supposed to be used to “treat the children with fasting pretzels to cheer them up on CharFriday after their exams ...” This provision was still valid until the middle of the 19th century, but due to the higher number of children the amount of money was no longer sufficient and had to be sufficient the church treasury.
- ↑ Georg Bernhard von Theler was born on February 17, 1649 in Neschwitz and took over the rule at the age of 22. With his first wife Amalie Elisabeth von Minckwitz he had 8 children until 1686. After that he married twice more.
- ↑ Schack von Rumohr was born after 1660 on Gut Olpenitz in Holstein. In 1681 he was an ensign in Prince Friedrich's regiment and there from 1683 to 1687 Premier-Lieutenant. He had an inappropriate connection, from which a child is said to come. That is why he left Holstein and went into foreign services. He became a colonel in Electoral Saxony and a district colonel in Lower Saxony. 1708 to 1720 he had disputes with Georg Bernhard von Theler over the sale of Neschwitz. His second marriage son, Georg Wilhelm von Rumohr, a real chamberlain from the Electorate of Saxony, was stabbed to death in a duel in 1734. This branch of the family died out at the beginning of the 18th century.
- ↑ According to an old legend, a golden carriage is said to be hidden in a twelfth cellar of the vault, but this cellar has not yet been found
- ^ Prince Friedrich Ludwig had secretly married the Imperial Duchess of Teschen on October 22, 1722 in Dresden
- ↑ to Poenicke not until 1764.
- ↑ in Germany also called the Polar Star Order .
- ↑ This is why the baroque palace is now often referred to as the Altes Palais .
- ↑ GA Poenicke writes about this in Castles and Manors in the Kingdom of Saxony : “The new castle contains the beautiful orangery house on the ground floor, 170 cubits long, 19 cubits deep and 16 cubits high, but in the middle above the orangery there is the Corps de Logis des Castle with a magnificent balcony. The orangery consists of the most varied of varieties and contains 400 trunks, including specimens of rare strength and beauty, four splendid trunks, which came to Neschwitz as a gift from Prince Esterházy from Hungary . Since the greenhouses that used to be in the garden have closed, in the colder months of the year the orangery is also used to keep the other perennial and exotic plants in the orangery. "
- ↑ Clams and snails.
- ↑ In comparison, Friedrich Schiller, as a history professor, earned only 200 thalers a year.
- ^ Johann Sigismund was born on August 2, 1750 in Vienna; he was also a knight of the Maria Theresa Order and owner of the 6th Dragoon Regiment.
- ↑ The fact that he had voluntarily fought against the Bolsheviks in a volunteer corps in Estonia in 1918 put him in particular danger.
- ↑ Last gentleman on Neschwitz. A Junker without regrets , Limburg an der Lahn 1958 (unaltered reprint in 2002 in the series From the German Adels Archive , Volume 3).
- ↑ The associated aviaries can be viewed on the southeast side of the Old Palace.
- ^ Regina Weiß: Boxberg project partner for garden culture path in: Lausitzer Rundschau November 24, 2009, Weißwasser edition, accessed on June 3, 2018.
- ↑ Regina Weiß: Park Association draws larger circles in: Lausitzer Rundschau June 14, 2017, Weißwasser edition, accessed on March 3, 2018
- ↑ (hnr.): Lausitzer Parkverbund grows from four to nine in: Der Märkische Bote March 3, 2018, Senftenberg u. Surrounding area, accessed on March 3, 2018.
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 24.1 ″ N , 14 ° 19 ′ 51.5 ″ E