Grafenschloss Diez

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Castle Diezer Castle
Diez Castle

Diez Castle

Alternative name (s): Grafenschloss Diez
Creation time : before 1073
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: preserved, renovated from 1995
Standing position : Count
Construction: Natural stone, half-timbered
Place: Diez
Geographical location 50 ° 22 '17 "  N , 8 ° 0' 24"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 22 '17 "  N , 8 ° 0' 24"  E
Grafenschloss Diez (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Grafenschloss Diez

The high medieval Grafenschloss Diez is a hilltop castle above the town of Diez in the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis , Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany .

location

The high medieval castle Grafenschloss Diez is enthroned on a porphyry rock directly above the old town of Diez. The place and the castle are located above the confluence of the Aar in the Lahn at a ford that was used by several old roads .

history

The coat of arms of Grafschaft Diez is still used today by the city of Diez
Diez Castle above the city of the same name - extract from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655
Diez Castle, 1914

The date, the builder and the motif of the first castle construction at this point are not known. When the place was first mentioned in 790 as "Theodissa", the existence of a Franconian military station to protect the ford is suspected.

According to tradition, the keep and the palace were built in the second half of the 11th century , but before 1073, by the Counts of Diez. The brother of Emmerich von Diez is said to have laid the foundation stone . Only the foundations of the main tower of this system are left today.

With the most significant expansion of the County of Diez from the second half of the 11th century , the castle was significantly expanded. In 1329 Diez received city ​​rights . After the division of the County of Diez into the Diez and Weilnau lines, Diez Castle remained in the joint ownership of both lines, which maintained representative residences here. At the end of the 13th century, Hermann von Weilnau, provost of the Georgstift in Limburg , had extensive construction work carried out on the castle.

In 1386 the last Count von Diez, Gerhard VII, died. His remaining dominion fell with the Castle Diez through his daughter Jutta to his son-in-law, Count Adolf von Nassau-Dillenburg ( House Nassau-Dillenburg Ottonische Linie). Adolf von Nassau-Dillenburg also died without male descendants. Half of his Diez inheritance went to his brother Engelbert von Nassau-Dillenburg , the other half to the Eppstein family . The Lords of Eppstein pledged half of their property to the County of Katzenelnbogen . With the death of Philip von Katzenelnbogen in 1479, the County of Katzenelnbogen fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse . In 1534 the Hessian landgraves sold half of their share (one eighth of Diez Castle) to Kurtrier . The remaining Eppstein share (a quarter) was inherited by the Counts of Koenigstein, who sold it to the Counts of Nassau Dillenburg in 1530. As part of the dispute over the extensive Katzenelnbogic legacy, the Nassau-Dillenburg house was able to achieve sole control of the castle with the Diezer Treaty of 1564.

Under the Counts of Nassau, Diez Castle was redesigned into an early Renaissance princely palace . Dutch craftsmen were preferred for the work.

With the division of the Ottonian House of Nassau in 1606, Diez Castle became the seat of the Counts of Nassau-Diez (or Orange-Nassau ). Since the center of their property was in the Netherlands , Diez Castle served as a widow's seat for Sophie Hedwig von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1592–1642) and Albertine Agnes von Oranien-Nassau (1634–1696). Because of the now inadequate housing situation, Albertine had Oranienstein Castle built near Diez in 1672 . In the following time the castle only served as an official building.

In 1778/1779 the castle was converted into a prison according to plans by the building inspector Sckell . The prison was expanded in 1806. The castle retained this function until 1928. From 1910, however, the prison was gradually moved to a new building in Freiendiez . Since the end of the 18th century, various crafts were carried out in the prison. The most important of these was the processing of Lahn marbles .

The city of Diez and Prussia wanted to hand the castle over to the Dutch royal family, but they refused. In 1953 a youth hostel was set up in the castle. In the 1960s, the Nassau Museum of Local History was set up in the castle. In the bailey some private homes were.

investment

View over the Lahn to the Grafenschloss

The castle consists of a core with a large outer bailey to the northeast . Due to numerous renovations, little can be said about the appearance of the medieval hilltop castle. According to building research , the castle was enlarged in the second half of the 11th century , when the county of Diez reached its greatest extent.

In the second half of the 11th century , the four-storey keep with its crenellated crown was built on older foundations. The tower has a footprint of 10 by 10 meters. He secured access from the outer bailey to the main castle. The steep hipped roof with four wich houses at the corners was added around 1425.

South of the keep is the walled courtyard with the three- story south palace , which was built in 1485 and has strong influences from Dutch craftsmanship.

The hall building at the southern tip of the castle has been preserved from the expansion work under Hermann von Weilnau. The St. Remigius Chapel between the Saalbau and the keep was probably also built under him (first mentioned in 1357). When the hall was expanded in 1455, the chapel building was integrated into the hall and the chapel was moved to the outer bailey.

The main castle ends with a low round tower to the north. It is unclear whether this is the remains of a 13th century keep or whether it was built as a roundabout in the 15th century . This building was built over when the prison was expanded in 1884.

The outer bailey was expanded from 1455 by Dutch craftsmen on behalf of the Nassau counts. The gate to the outer bailey was built in 1581. The gate has a rolling and half-timbered gable .

The cell wing and the workhouse in the western outer bailey were built when the prison was converted from 1779 and today they house the youth hostel.

The formerly existing neck ditch is largely filled and therefore no longer exists.

The Diez collegiate church and several Burgmannen houses from the 13th and 14th centuries have been preserved in the vicinity of the castle . The collegiate church was built from 1289 and is the burial place of numerous Counts of Nassau-Diez.

In 1995 the renovation of the castle began with the light plastering of the outer facade. The work was completed by 2007. The estimated cost is 7.68 million euros.

Todays use

Museum in the Grafenschloss Diez

Since June 24, 2006, the castle has reopened as a youth hostel of the German Youth Hostel Association (DJH) in its Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland regional association. The youth hostel extends over 3,100 square meters and offers 129 beds.

The completely redesigned successor facility to the old Nassau local history museum has been housed in the Grafenschloss Diez since October 3, 2007 after extensive refurbishment and renovation and has since been called Museum im Grafenschloss Diez . Topics of the permanent exhibition: Prehistory and early history, history of the Count's Castle, town history of Diez (from the Middle Ages to today), Prince's gallery. In addition, u. a. Special exhibitions and educational activities for children are offered. The museum covers an area of ​​830 square meters.

See also

literature

  • Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff : "Decided with strong iron chains and bolts ...". Castles on the Lahn . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2000-0 , pp. 44-49.
  • Michael Losse: The Lahn castles and palaces . Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-070-9 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Diez  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diez Youth Hostel. The youth hostels in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, accessed on January 13, 2020 .
  2. ^ Museum in the Grafenschloss Diez