Edelhof (Crainfeld)
The Edelhof is a half-timbered house in Crainfeld in the municipality of Grebenhain in the Vogelsbergkreis in Hesse . It was built in 1685 as the residential and administrative building of the high school authorities of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt court of Crainfeld . The building at Kreuzstrasse 1 is a protected architectural monument .
history
The history of the Edelhof is closely linked to the Crainfeld court, which was first recorded in the early 14th century and which existed until the administrative reforms in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1821. However, the Edelhof was not the venue for the actual court meetings , as these took place on the court square on today's local street "An der Cent" in Crainfeld under two linden trees. Rather, the building was the residential and office building of the Oberschultheiss, who administered the Crainfeld court on behalf of the Hessian landgraves.
The old cellar, which runs at an angle of 25 degrees under the current building, points to a previous building of today's Edelhof. The older Crainfeld Schultheißenhaus was plundered on June 1, 1622 together with the rest of the village including the church by mercenaries from the army of Christian von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and set on fire.
In 1685, Heinrich Christoph Ellenberger, who was then high school in Crainfeld, had the Edelhof rebuilt in the same place. Until 1826, the Edelhof remained in the possession of the Ellenberger family and their descendants as a hereditary fief . One of them was Johann Paul Buff, Charlotte Buff's great-uncle . In 1787, however, Johann Heinrich Paul Buff, the last high school student who actually lived in Crainfeld and performed his office here, died. Subsequently, the court of Crainfeld was administered together with the neighboring court of Burkhards from the hunting lodge Zwiefalten near Eichelsachsen . The seat of the princely land rider initially remained in the Edelhof.
In 1831 the heirs of the Land Commissioner Johann Sebastian Brückner sold the Edelhof to the Crainfeld blacksmith and alderman Heinrich Schmalbach I. His grandson Heinrich Schmalbach IV was a member of the Hessian-Darmstadt Landtag from 1876 to 1886 and from 1896 until his death in 1909 and lived also in the Edelhof.
From 1850 to 1870 an inn was operated in the building. It has been an agricultural property ever since. Shortly after the first Hessian Monument Protection Act was passed in 1902, the Edelhof was included in the list of monuments of the then Grand Duchy of Hesse.
description
The two-storey half-timbered building from 1685 is attributed to the otherwise hardly known carpenter Hans Muth, who is said to have come from either Ilbeshausen or Lauterbach . Muth is also considered the carpenter of the Teufelsmühle built in 1691 in Ilbeshausen. In terms of the basic construction, the Edelhof corresponds to the typical regional Ernhaus . Characteristic is the uninterrupted half-timbering with rich carvings and diamonds on the side front to the courtyard, which, with the exception of the corner, does not show the usual man . The carvings mostly depict animals or mythical creatures. A reference to the owner of the property is established by the figure of Justitia with sword and scales. On the corner post is the figure of a mercenary with a halberd .
In front of the gable side is a bay window in which the office used to be. The half-timbering on the gable side is decorated with St. Andrew's crosses. There is also the Latin building inscription (with the initials of the client): SI DEUS PRO NOBIS QUIS CONTRA NOS ("If God is for us, who is against us"). The year of construction is carved on the top of the gable. The back of the building, facing away from the courtyard, is simple half-timbered and completely clad.
The Edelhof also has a barn and stables that are more recent.
literature
- Heinrich Walbe: The Hessian-Franconian framework. (= Schriften des Volks- und Heimatforschung , Volume 4.) Wittich, Darmstadt 1942. / extended edition, 1954.
- Heinrich Winter: The farmhouse and the petty bourgeois house in the Lauterbach area. (= Lauterbach Collections , Volume 22.) Hohhausmuseum, Lauterbach 1959
- Alfred Schneider: In the footsteps of the Lauterbach master builder Hans Muth. Von Teufelsschänke, Teufelsmühle, Edelhof and other Vogelsberg half-timbered houses , Lauterbach 1994
- Carsten Eigner: The Edelhof - cultural monument through the ages. From the eventful history of one of "the purest half-timbered houses" in the state of Hesse , in: Heimat im Bild . No. 16, 2014. Supplement to: Gießener Anzeiger , Kreis-Anzeiger , Lauterbacher Anzeiger .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 4.5 ″ N , 9 ° 20 ′ 53.3 ″ E