Sehusa Castle
The castle Sehusa is a former castle of Guelph in Seesen in Lower Saxony . It is the successor to a moated castle first mentioned in 1282 . In the 16th century, the moated castle was redesigned into a renaissance building, which includes the oldest and still existing middle component. The name Sehusa is derived from Sehusen (Seehausen) as an earlier name for Seesen. The castle is the landmark of the town and is now home to the Seesen district court .
Building description
The appearance of the original moated castle is not known. Documents on the castle dating back to 1448 contain a wide range of information about the buildings on the castle grounds, but do not allow an overall picture of the earlier appearance. The presence of a drawbridge is known . The office and clerk's office were located in the gatehouse above the drawbridge, which no longer exists today . The castle complex was protected against approach by the surrounding Evekensee, which was later drained. Behind the castle there are remains of medieval ramparts.
The oldest part of the castle that still exists today is the 17 meter long and 10 meter wide, four-story main building. It was created in the 16th century under Duke Julius when the moated castle was converted into a Renaissance building. The main building is the middle part of today's building ensemble. It is made of rubble stones that are plastered. The fortified character of the building is evident from the wall thickness of 2.75 meters on the ground floor and 1.25 meters on the third floor. In front of the main building is a polygonal Renaissance stair tower with baroque framed windows and a French roof dome . The portal of the stair tower is adorned with a ducal Braunschweig coat of arms and names the year 1592 as the completion of the renovations. In 1664, according to some sources not until 1673, there was a major fire in which the half-timbered structure of the main building with its four corner towers was destroyed. There was no restoration. Two side wings dating from 1870 and 1885 have been added to the main building.
history
The name of the castle Sehusa is based on the earlier place name of Seesen, which was Sehuson and Sehusen (Seehausen) and goes back to a lake that no longer exists. The exact time the castle was built is not known. According to a document in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Otto II gave the Gandersheim Abbey the Sehusaburg in 974 . However, the document has been questioned several times and it is not certain whether it does not mean another castle location outside of the village. Another mention of the castle as castrum sehusen takes place in a document from 1282 during the time of Duke Heinrich the Wonderful . The document describes fortification work on the castle using timber from the forests of the Walkenried monastery . In the 13th century, Sehusa Castle was the center of an administrative district of the Dukes of Braunschweig . The exercise of administrative and judicial they left in their territories often bailiffs , and so for the year 1287 a iudex et projecting semester called, whose jurisdiction as a forester on the resin area between Sieber and Oder extended. In 1314 the court belonging to the castle was pledged to the city of Goslar cum ducatu et vorstehove nostro . In 1448 there were several huts in the Seesen bailiwick . The up to the year 1448 reaching back records of bailiffs provide information about their administrative tasks and judicial activities at the castle, which later became the princely administration building was. Around 1500 the castle was the Wittum of Duchess Margarete, the wife of Duke Frederick the Restless, for a few years . Over the years, the castle was pledged several times. In 1520 the von Klenke had it as a fiefdom for Duke Heinrich the Younger . Eventually it became the seat of the Seesen Office.
Today, the Sehusa Festival takes place every year in September around the castle as the largest historical festival in Lower Saxony. A Christmas market has been taking place in front of the castle since 2012 .
literature
- Karl Steinacker : The architectural and art monuments of the Duchy of Braunschweig , Volume 5, Gandersheim district, 1910
- Hans Adolf Schultz : Burgen und Schlösser des Braunschweiger Land , Braunschweig 1980, Die Burg Seesen , pp. 106-107, ISBN 3-87884-012-8
- Hans Maresch, Doris Maresch: Sehusa Castle. Seesen hunting lodge in: Lower Saxony's castles, castles & mansions , Husum Verlag, Husum 2012, ISBN 978-389876-604-3 , pp. 226–227
Web links
- Entry by Stefan Eismann on Sehusaburg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Description and history of Sehusa Castle by the Seesen District Court
- Description with floor plan
- Description at burgenarchiv.de
- Brief description by the city of Seesen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Patze: The Guelph territories in the 14th century . In: Hans Patze (ed.): The German territorial state in the 14th century . tape II . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1987, ISBN 3-7995-6614-7 , p. 44 .
- ↑ Maresch, Hans and Doris: Lower Saxony's palaces, castles & mansions as a book title with table of contents from the Husum publishing group
Coordinates: 51 ° 53 ′ 27 " N , 10 ° 10 ′ 19.8" E