Diedrichsburg

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Diedrichsburg
Diedrichsburg

Diedrichsburg

Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Receive
Standing position : Noble
Place: Melle
Geographical location 52 ° 13 '56.5 "  N , 8 ° 21' 4.8"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 13 '56.5 "  N , 8 ° 21' 4.8"  E
Height: 219  m above sea level NN
Diedrichsburg (Lower Saxony)
Diedrichsburg

The Diedrichsburg near Melle is a small hilltop castle on the Meller Berg ( 219  m above sea  level ) in the Meller Mountains in the Osnabrück district of Lower Saxony .

history

The present castle was built in the mid-19th century in neo-Gothic / neo-Romanesque style as an imitation of a medieval defense tower . It consists of a 26 m high tower in the style of a keep , flanked by two single-storey side wings in the style of a palace . There are no mantle walls or other fortifications; in this respect, it is more of a residential tower than a castle in the classic sense.

Today the castle houses a restaurant for excursion guests and occasional events. An exhibition on the local flora and fauna is set up in the tower room. The crenellated viewing platform on the tower is accessible and offers a wide view of the city of Melle and the surrounding area , especially after Hurricane Kyrill in 2007 snapped off many of the surrounding trees.

The castle is located in the middle of the more than 200 hectare Diedrichsburg wildlife park with numerous wild boars and a few roe deer . The enclosure and castle together form a popular excursion destination in the region and are part of the TERRA.vita nature park .

Recent history (from 1844)

Today 's Diedrichsburg was built between 1844 and 1860 as part of historicism ( castle romanticism ) on behalf of General Ernst Freiherr von Vincke. The von Vincke family had (and still has) a seat on the nearby Ostenwalde estate . The construction was completed under Ernst von Vincke's son-in-law, Count Werner von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg. The master builder was the royal Hanoverian building councilor Emanuel Quaet-Faslem , born in Belgium, active in Nienburg / Weser .

The castle was a popular destination as early as the 19th century. On May 16, 1909, the entablature and stairs of the tower were destroyed by fire. It was not inhabited and cultivated again until 1954. In 1963 the Vincke family opened the o. G. Game reserve created. In 1983 the castle was devastated again, this time by vandalism . The renovation from 1983 and the subsequent management from July 1, 1985 took over the Melle-Mitte beautification and traffic association .

Earlier story

Remnants of the foundations, a 30 m deep well and other archaeological finds from excavations around the above new castle confirm that there were buildings at the same location earlier, probably a refuge castle .

According to legend, a Teutoburg ( Volksburg , eponymous for the Teutoburg Forest ) stood on the site of the current castle more than 1000 years ago . The name Diedrichsburg is said to go back to the Saxon-Westphalian Count Dietrich von Ringelheim (also: Diedrich, Thiadrich, Theoderich), who came from the Immedinger family and was a great-grandson of Wittekind . He is said to have founded the castle or at least lived here. Diedrich's daughter, St. Mathilde , wife of Heinrich I and mother of Emperor Otto the Great , is believed to have been born in this castle around 892 and spent her childhood here.

It is unclear to what extent these legends are historically documented or speculative or whether they were “constructed” as a pseudo-historical background when the new castle was built.

Individual evidence

  1. Lower Saxony Navigator
  2. Information about the wildlife park at zoo-infos.de
  3. Information about the nature park on the website of the State of Lower Saxony ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.natur-erleben.niedersachsen.de
  4. a b c Info on Gut Ostenwalde and Diedrichsburg on gut-ostenwalde.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gut-ostenwalde.de
  5. Info on Dietrich and Mathilde von Ringelheim on genealogie-mittelalter.de

Web links

Commons : Diedrichsburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files