Losnich Castle
The Lönich Castle in Lösnich was the ancestral seat of the Lösnich knight family , which first appeared in documents in 1226.
The first written mention of the castle was in the year 1368 with the Electoral Cologne investiture same Ritter Heinrich Beyer of Boppard and his wife Lisa of Lösnich . The early documented mentions of the Lösnich knight family going back to 1226 suggest that the castle existed before 1368. In 1958, Kurt Böhner speculated in his volume of texts on the Franconian antiquities of the Trier region that the Lösnich moated castle could have replaced a Franconian farm near the river, which, following the Franconian model, was often laid out in the immediate vicinity of the water. This is supported by the fact that four Franconian sarcophagi were found around 1900 in the area of the “willow rake” and that a Franconian grave was examined in 1937 as part of excavation work by the Trier State Museum . More precise descriptions and sketches of the castle can only be found in the late 17th century, when it came into the possession of the Barons von Metternich and von Kesselstatt .
Castle
A site plan from 1693 shows that the castle stood on the present-day property at Fährgasse 1 across from the present-day rectory. It covered an area of approximately 100 by 100 feet (pedes rhenanos) within a 25- foot- wide trench.
The imposing cross-vaulted cellar of this castle can still be admired today under the former wine press house and farm building, which now houses several holiday apartments. The castle was a tower castle in the valley, which was supplemented by additional permanent residential and farm buildings and took into account the living needs of the knights. In contrast to the well-known hilltop castles , it was located in the village over which its owners commanded, i.e. near their agriculturally used property. In order to do justice to the economic and administrative functions of a castle, the necessary buildings for the storage or utilization of agricultural products were usually housed within the castle area or in the immediate vicinity as a separate farmyard. In Lösnich, too, the “Kelterhaus” belonging to the castle, which was converted into a manorial house in the 17th century, until it was finally used as a rectory in the 19th century. The enclosed space of a spacious garden, which often formed a counterpoint to the inevitable narrowness in the fortified area of the castle, is also typical for such castle complexes. In depictions from the 17th century, an extensive garden area is also shown in Lösnich.
The fact that the castle itself was a residential and defensive complex is shown by its furnishings with a central “residential tower”, moat and shield wall . The outer wall of the castle on the Moselle side was fastened at its ends with two round towers. The tower in a north-westerly direction protruded into this basement with its foundation. The castle's “ dungeon ” is said to have been located in this tower, which was allegedly walled up when the new farm and wine press house was built in 1808. The entrance to this tower, which is also walled up on the cellar side, with its still existing door arch made of red sandstone and a year that is no longer clearly legible, is still clearly visible in the cross-vaulted cellar. On the south side of the basement section, which was expanded in 1808, there is a water point that could have formed the fountain of the former castle. In the middle of the castle rose a square keep , to which a low residential building was attached. To the west of the castle in the Obergasse area there was also an old mill. The church and mill moat, now piped in this area, supplied the so-called mill pond, which supplied the water required to operate the mill.
Farm buildings
The "Old Rectory", a two-storey massive building, located in an easterly direction opposite the castle at that time, in the middle of a large garden area, still served as a manorial wine press house in 1683/84. It was not until Baron Wolf Heinrich von Metternich that this building, which until then had housed a total of four wine presses, was converted into a residential building.
The floor plans show that the building has been preserved in its internal and external structure without any major changes. In its design it corresponds to the former office buildings in Zeltingen, Bernkastel and Wehlen, which were also built at the end of the 17th century. The top hipped gables, the three-axis sides, the rectangular stone- walled windows with mighty iron bars as well as the wide central corridor , the stone chimneys and stucco-covered beamed ceilings and, last but not least, the very massive wooden staircase with well-carved beginners embody typical features of the construction method of the late 17th century . When entering the garden, just before the entrance door of the rectory, the beautiful column of the fountain on the left cannot be overlooked. Carved from red sandstone, it is crowned by a ball with garland decorations.
The year 1827 with the initials "GvK" of Baron and Count Georg von Kesselstatt is still clearly recognizable on the rectangular fountain trough . Sketches of the castle from 1675 and 1689 show the castle, which had already been destroyed, and can only give a limited impression of the original appearance of this late medieval complex. The already mentioned keep in the middle of the complex with the still recognizable remains of the castle wall and the moat indicate that this was a fortified complex. It is no longer possible to determine when the castle was built exactly.
Occupations of the castle
Like many other castles and palaces in the Moselle valley , the Lösnich castle suffered multiple occupations and ultimately its destruction as a result of the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War .
After the Beyer von Boppard family died out, three quarters of the castle was inherited as an Electoral Cologne fiefdom in the 16th century by the barons, later Counts of Chrichingen, and one quarter by the von Esch zu Selheim family. In 1622 it was Kurkölnian Rachtiger and Zeltinger "Schützen" who drove the then Chrichingian servant from the Castle of Lösnich. Count Lothar von Chrichingen recaptured the castle and forced the occupiers to retreat.
Swedish and French troops who moved through the Moselle region did not leave the castle unscathed in the following years either and occupied and plundered it. During the war, around 1637, the three Counts von Chrichingen, Franz Ernst, Peter Ernst and Lotharius died one after the other, leaving behind two underage children. In the same year a Mr. Hausmann von Namedy (“Husmann zu Namedy”) appeared, accompanied by an imperial “inspector” with a donation letter about the Lordship of Lösnich to take possession of the castle. The then criechingian servant Linius resisted, however, and in turn sent a request to Kurköln to protect the lordship and castle Lösnich from such harassment. However, there was a strange reaction to this request.
Immediately after the autumn of 1637, a commissioner from the Electorate of Cologne came to Lösnich, deposed the chrichingian servant in the castle and confiscated the feudal and allodial goods belonging to the castle . Soon afterwards these goods were handed over from Kurköln to a “Baron de Logier”. The hopes for peace, which were also nurtured in the Moselle and Eifel regions by the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, were disappointed for years afterwards. Looting and pillaging troops moved around for a long time, spreading fear and terror among the population.
Destruction of the castle
In 1652 the Gubernator zu Diedenhofen, also known as “Comte de Marolles”, who was floating around in this area, occupied the Lösnich castle, set it on fire and allegedly “demolished” it with the help of the neighboring Electorate of Trier and Electorate of Cologne. As a result, the castle was not rebuilt in its original form, as the illustrations of the complex from the late 17th century show.
Sources and literature
- The art monuments of the Bernkastel district , edited by Hans Vogts, reprint of the 1935 edition, published by the publishing house of the academic bookstore Interbook Trier
- The Franconian antiquities of the Trier region , Kurt Böhner, 1st part text volume, 1935, Verlag Gebr. Mann Berlin 1958
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Trier, Archive of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 5196, p. 299
- ↑ a b c d Trier City Archives, Archives of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 5196, p. 291
- ↑ a b Trier City Archives, Archives of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 5196, p. 277
- ↑ MRUB Beyer, Volume III, p. 241, No. 300
- ^ Trier City Archives, Archives of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 2826, report from 1690
- ^ The Franconian antiquities of the Trier region, Kurt Böhner, 1935, text volume 1st part, p. 70
- ↑ Trier Journal, Volume 13, 1938, pp. 267f
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Trier, Archive of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 5196, p. 300
- ↑ a b Stadtarchiv Trier, Archive of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 5196, p. 289
- ↑ Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Bernkastel, Hans Vogts, 1935, p. 236
- ↑ Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz, Best. 2 No. 2729
- ↑ a b c d Trier City Archives, Archives of the Imperial Counts of Kesselstatt, DK 2826, report from 1673
Coordinates: 49 ° 58 '30.3 " N , 7 ° 2' 34.2" E