Schönfels Castle
| Schönfels Castle | ||
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.jpg) Schönfels Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Altschönfels Castle | |
| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Received or received substantial parts | |
| Standing position : | Emperor nobles, clericals | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Schönfels | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 40 ′ 32 " N , 12 ° 24 ′ 3" E | |
| Height: | 379 m above sea level NN | |
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The castle Schönfels is a typical hilltop castle on 393 m above sea level. NN in the Schönfels district of the Lichtentanne municipality in the Zwickau district of Saxony . It was built on a rock spur made of diabase rock in the 12th century as the center of medieval colonization and feudal seat . In the 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was redesigned in the late Gothic and Renaissance styles .
At the castle there is a museum opened in 1975 and a castle restaurant.
history
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Directly above the medieval imperial road Via Imperii , Heinrich I built a defense system in Schönfels between the years 929 to 980 to protect against the Wends .
The first owners were the von Schönfels , who were first mentioned as von Schoninvels in a document from Bishop Engelhard zu Naumburg dated April 25, 1225. After 1200, the bailiffs of Gera and Plauen owned the medieval castle as a fief and held it until the Vogtland War in 1354 and beyond. In 1326 Heinrich II. Reuss von Plauen had sole control of Schönfels, and in 1349/50 Heinrich Reuss von Plauen had the castle of Margrave Friedrich the Strict of Meissen as a fief. In 1368, Emperor Charles IV confirmed the fiefdom of the Russians over Schönfels. After the death of Heinrich IV. Reuss von Plauen, Lord of Ronneburg, in 1398, the complex fell to the Wettins , and from that year Dietrich von Planitz, as bailiff, managed the account for Margrave Wilhelm I over the Vogtei Schönfels with Werdau and Stenn. In 1402 Margrave Wilhelm I left the Bailiwick of Schönfels to Dietrich von der Planitz .
Otto von Scheidingen acquired Schönfels Castle in 1450 and was enfeoffed with it on July 3, 1456.
In 1459 the von Weißenbach family acquired the castle and held it until 1586. The later Bishop of Meißen Johann V. von Weißenbach came from this family . As a result of the division of Leipzig , Schönfels became part of the Ernestine electorate in 1485 , but fell to the Albertine electorate in 1547 after the Ernestines surrendered in Wittenberg . The years from 1586 to 1770 are characterized by multiple changes of ownership. The von Milckau , von Carlowitz , von Groß zu Altenhain and von Dieskau families were among the castle owners of that time .
From 1770 to 1945 the castle was owned by the von Römer-Rauenstein family monastery . The Zwickau merchant family, ennobled by Martin Römer in 1470, was closely connected to the Saxon mining industry for over five centuries , particularly involved in the Schneeberg silver mining and thus made large fortunes. Her family foundation was run by two gender seniors, who distributed the income from the manor to the members of the family. However, since they had their own goods and residences in the wider area, the castle - with the exception of the forester's apartment in the lower castle - was practically uninhabited between 1770 and 1945. This explains the excellent historical state of preservation of the castle complex, which has always been carefully preserved over centuries, but has never been modernized.
In 1945 the expropriation and the transfer to public property took place . After extensive restoration , taking into account the protection of historical monuments , the complex was opened to the public as a museum in 1975. In 1988 the film The Story of the Goose Princess and her faithful horse Falada was shot in the castle before it was used again as a film set in 1994. That year the filming of Included - The Night With a Murderer took place there.
Since 1995 the castle has been owned by the Lichtentanne community, which also runs the museum. It is funded by the Vogtland-Zwickau cultural area. The Friends of Schönfels Castle e. V. (Chairman: Benno von Römer ) participates conceptually and financially in the renovation of the monument, the preparation of the annual program of events and exhibitions as well as public relations.
description
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Schönfels is a hilltop castle that was founded around 1200 and its core castle was built on an oval floor plan as a two-courtyard castle. An expansion took place mainly in the 15th to 17th centuries. The complex includes battlements , arcades , keep , outer bailey and gate hall with sound hole . There is also a late Gothic plank room . The castle chapel from the 17th century is equipped with a valuable winged altar . The altar paintings are by Mathias Crodel the Younger . It also has a wooden cabinet organ from around 1730, which is unique in Europe.
literature
- Emil Herzog: History of Schönfels Castle and its owners . In: Karl von Weber (ed.): Archives for the Saxon history . Volume 4, Issue 1, Leipzig 1865, pp. 20-35 ( online ).
- Richard Steche : Altschönfels. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 12. Issue: Zwickau Official Authority . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1889, p. 3.
- Ina Schumann, Andreas Hummel: From the forester's apartment to the lower castle: renovations and restorations at Schönfels Castle, municipality of Lichtentanne, district of Zwickau . In: From churches and castles. Commemorative publication for Günter Hummel, contributions to the early history and the Middle Ages of East Thuringia 7, Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2016, pp. 275–288. ISBN 978-3-95741-049-8
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schönfels headquarters on Schlossarchiv.de, accessed on June 16, 2016
- ↑ Rüdiger Bier: 1500 years of history and stories about the stately seats of church divisions and castle divisions and other news about castles, palaces and manors on the Saale and Unstrut from the beginning of the Thuringian Empire until today. Eigenverlag, Naumburg 2009. Table of contents
- ^ Matthias Donath: Castles and palaces in Saxony. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2012, p. 166 f.