Hilchenhaus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bay window with balcony of the Hilchenhaus in Lorch (Rheingau). Color lithograph v. François Stroobant from 1854

The Hilchenhaus is a stone house from the 16th century in Lorch in the Rheingau . It is considered the most important Renaissance building in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site .

description

The Hilchenhaus is a three-storey stone building with a monumental façade facing the Rhine, which contrasts with the half-timbered construction that is characteristic of the region . Two strong pillars support a two-story bay window . The balcony around the bay window on the first floor originally ran across the entire front of the Rhine. The four-story stepped gable with lunettes and volutes completes the Rhine front. The two and three-part windows are provided with rich sandstone components. On the side is a square stair tower that is dated to 1548.

history

Field Marshal Johann Hilchen von Lorch († 1548), who came from the important noble family Hilchen von Lorch, had the house built shortly before his death between 1546 and 1548, but did not see the completion. After his death, Maria, his only daughter, inherited the Hilchenhaus. She was the wife of knight Adam (III.) Vogt von Hunolstein († 1540) and had been widowed for eight years at that time. After her death in 1561, the still unfinished house fell to her son Johann (IV.) Von Hunolstein, who finally had it completed in 1573 with the completion of the gable.

In March 1675 and 1676, the Elector of Mainz Damian Hartard von der Leyen and his older brother, the Elector of Trier, Karl Kaspar von der Leyen, met at the Hunolsteinerhof , as the Hilchenhaus was called at that time. (Not to be confused with the former Hunolsteinerhof in Langgasse 12, today's Schönbornshof). The Elector of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn, also stayed in the feudal house in Lorch in 1696 on the return trip from Bad Ems to Mainz.

It was owned by the Hunolstein family until 1716. Due to a legally disputed inheritance, the house and property came to the heavily indebted Baron von Dürkheim in 1716. To cover their immense debts, they sold in 1722, among other things, the entire Lorch property for approx. 24,000  florins to baron Anton von Sohlern and Münda, who had been raised to the nobility by Emperor Leopold I in 1690 .

Anton von Sohlern had made a career with the Electors of Trier. In 1670 he appears as a secret councilor from the Electorate of Trier and is also the administrator of Boppard and Montabaur . In 1675 he was court director and in 1711 court chancellor. With his great influence, he is said to have wrested the approval of the electoral dignity of the Protestant electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Hanover) from the Trier elector Johann VIII. Hugo von Orsbeck after persistent refusal . Hanover is said to have shown its gratitude to Anton von Sohlern with a very large sum. In addition to his possessions, he was able to acquire many possessions that he left to his three sons

The "old" and the "new" Hilchenhaus in Lorch am Rhein. The half-timbered building on the left was the former main building of the Hilchen von Lorch family, it was closed in 1885 because it was dilapidated. Photo: Carl Hertel, Mainz (* 1832 Darmstadt, † 1905 Auerbach)

His son Baron Carl Heinrich von Sohlern got the acquired Lorcher property and took over the Hilchenhaus as his family's ancestral home. He gave himself and his family the suffix to Lorch in order to differentiate himself from the lines of his brothers, who called themselves Baron Anton von Sohlern zu Grarod and Baron Johann Hugo von Sohlern zu Nastätten . (The Nastätter line from Sohlern lives on to this day. From approx. 1890 to 2013 it had its family seat at Castle Gößweinstein in Franconian Switzerland . A descendant is the actor Gilbert von Sohlern .)

The Lorch line became extinct in the male line in 1821 with the death of Baron Franz Georg von Sohlern zu Lorch. So the inheritance came to his sister Maria, who was married to the Trier chamberlain and hunter captain Baron Carl Heinrich von Hausen.

The von Sohlern families and the von Hausen successors were not related to the Hilchen, but felt they were closely related to Johann Hilchen when they took over the property. So in 1838 the Baroness Amalia von Plettenberg - Engsfeld born. von Sohlern to renovate his epitaph in the parish church of St. Martin . Another renovation was carried out in 1880 by Ferdinand von Hausen, the last of this line.

Later ownership passed to the Count of Walderdorff . In 1885 the old Hilchen parent company, which was adjacent to the "new" Hilchenhaus, was closed due to its dilapidation.

The Hilchenhaus around 1900
(Photography: Albrecht Meydenbauer )

In 1926 Albrecht Graf von Kanitz bought the Hilchenhaus. His maternal great-grandmother, Therese Countess von Kielmannsegg, († 1863) was the younger daughter of Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein († 1831). Since the marriage of her older sister Henriette Countess von Giech zu Thurnau († 1865) remained childless, she became the sole heir to Stein's property. Her husband Ludwig Ferdinand Graf von Kielmannsegg , with whom she had three children, acquired the Nassau Zehnthof next to the Hilchenhaus from the Nassau domain in the 1840s, after the tithe was replaced in the Duchy of Nassau , around the inherited Stein'sche winery in Lorch to enlarge. He moved the estate here from Wisperstrasse. Count Albrecht zu Kanitz had become the new lord of the barons vom und zum Stein's estates through female succession . So it made sense for him to acquire the adjoining property with the Hilchenhaus in order to enlarge the winery again. A wine bar was set up in the basement and the house was rented out for residential and commercial purposes. In 1930, the show facade of the Hilchenhaus was restored with the help of the state curator.

Burnt out Hilchenhaus in January 1946 due to artillery fire in March 1945.

After being severely damaged in World War II , it was poorly repaired in the early 1950s, but it continued to deteriorate. Vines were refined in the so-called knight's hall. As before in the 1920s, the cellar was leased as a wine bar. In the 1960s, Italian guest workers found simple accommodation for a short time. After the vines had moved out, the Eintracht Choral Society renovated the knight's hall on their own to use it as a rehearsal and event room. In the 1970s, the facade was renovated again with public funds. In the 1980s, the heavily weathered, coat of arms-decorated balcony parapet made of yellow sandstone was removed and secured.

The Hilchenhaus before the renovation with the hotel shell ruins. Recording from 2009.

At the end of the 1990s, there were efforts to have the Middle Rhine Valley included on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The Hilchenhaus, which had been vacant for several years, became an object of speculation for potential investors. An East Westphalian entrepreneur wanted to convert the Hilchenhaus and expand it with two additional buildings. The aim was to create a four-star hotel with a wellness department. After a four-storey shell had been erected behind the Hilchenhaus, for which a valuable tithe barn from the 18th century had to give way with the approval of the monument protection, the investor went bankrupt. All that remained of the plans was the shell, which seriously disturbed the view of Lorch's Gothic parish church St. Martin , as well as the completely gutted Hilchenhaus itself. It was now considered to be in danger of collapse and was therefore provisionally secured by the Rheingau-Taunus district .

Todays situation

Hilchenhaus after the renovation is complete. Recording April 2014.
Hilchenhaus with a new development extension after the renovation has been completed.

The desolate situation alarmed us. a. A fundamental renovation of the Hilchenhaus was carried out through efforts by a citizens' initiative .

In 2009, the Hilchenhaus was accepted by the Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) in Bonn in the National UNESCO World Heritage investment program. 5.2 million euros were provided there for the renovation of the Hilchenhaus, the state of Hesse supported the renovation with a further 500,000 euros. The city of Lorch provided a contribution of EUR 656,000.

In November 2009 the city of Lorch signed a heritable building right contract with the previous owner of the property and building, Sebastian Graf von Kanitz , according to which the Hilchenhaus was left to the city for 99 years.

At the beginning of 2010, a first sub-project began with the demolition of the hotel ruins and the securing of the historic wine cellar of the Graf von Kanitz winery located under the shell. The estimated costs for this were just under EUR 500,000.

A second sub-project envisaged the renovation of the historic building. In June 2010, in a Europe-wide tender, the architectural services for the modernization, repair and conversion of the historic Hilchenhaus were awarded to the smp architectural office from Oestrich-Winkel .

A third sub-project dealt with the exterior design, a fourth with the environment. Because of the cost overruns in the overall project, an attempt was made in August 2012 to transfer the costs of the outdoor facilities into an urban redevelopment program .

The renovation work was successfully completed at the beginning of 2014, the use currently looks as follows:

  • Ground floor: Hilchenkeller restaurant with kitchen area.
  • First floor: Knight's Hall for cultural events, public meetings or as a registry office for “Weddings in the World Heritage”, can also be rented for private purposes. High terrace for gastronomic use in connection with the Hilchenkeller.
  • Second floor: vinotheque, tourist information (entrance new building).
  • Top floor: warehouse

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hesse wants federal money for world heritage sites Frankfurter Rundschau from March 31, 2009
  2. ↑ Defended reason for the Sponheim recursion which came to the general assembly of the Reich. 1779, p. 190. Limited preview in Google Book search
  3. ↑ Christian von Stramburg , Anton Joseph Weidenbach : Memorable and useful Rhenish Antiquarius. Dept. 1, Volume 2, RF Hergt, Coblenz 1853, p. 238 limited preview in the Google book search
  4. ↑ Nina Ruge in conversation with Gilbert von Sohlern ( Memento from April 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: New general German Adels Lexicon. Volume 8, Georg Olms Verlag, 1973, ISBN 3-487-40325-0 , p. 519. Limited preview in the Google book search
  6. ↑ Georg Etscheit: Hilchenhaus - First Tear Down ( Memento from June 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from: Die Zeit from August 4, 2005
  7. ↑ Lorch: Hilchenhaus ( Memento from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Investment program National UNESCO World Heritage Sites at BBSR
  8. ↑ Redevelopment Hilchenhaus Lorch The Hilchenhaus on the homepage of the city of Lorch
  9. ^ "Rescue for Renaissance Monument" Wiesbadener Kurier from June 8, 2009
  10. ↑ Higher costs due to monument protection. In: FAZ of August 16, 2012, p. 46.

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 35.5 ″  N , 7 ° 48 ′ 16.2 ″  E