Mausoleum of the Counts of Wied-Runkel

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Dierdorf, mausoleum

The mausoleum of the Counts of Wied-Runkel in Dierdorf is a burial place of the former Princely House of Wied-Runkel, was built after 1816 by Prince Karl Ludwig Friedrich Alexander zu Wied-Runkel in the neo-Gothic style and was also used to store the tombs of his ancestors. The mausoleum is in the former castle park in the town of Dierdorf in the Neuwied district . The building is a historical monument.

backgrounds

The noble family of the Counts of Wied existed since the 11th century . Due to different inheritance, the county in Niederwied and Oberwied was divided and also reunited. At the end of the 18th century, the Counts of Wied-Neuwied (1784) and von Wied-Runkel (1791) were raised to the rank of prince .

Due to the Rhine Confederation Act of 1806, the two principalities went to the Duchy of Nassau . Due to the German Federal Act passed during the Congress of Vienna , the princes Johann August Karl zu Wied (1779-1836) and his cousin Karl Ludwig Friedrich Alexander zu Wied-Runkel (1763-1824) became landlords , who were granted various rights as sovereign princes.

The burial places of some of the princes' ancestors were in the Rommersdorf Abbey and in the St. Florin Abbey in Koblenz , which were nationalized as part of the secularization and used for profane purposes.

Building history

The text on the marble slab of the Prince's sarcophagus reads:

“Here rest the earthly remains of Prince Karl Ludwig Friedrich Alexander von Wied-Runkel, born September 29, 1763, died March 9, 1824. He built this chapel to honor the memory of his ancestors by displaying the statues found there, and is now resting here, surrounded by the same, in the gardens he created himself, where he liked to stay alive. "

The literature has different information about the period of construction. Construction began between 1816 and 1818. It is also unclear whether Prince zu Wied-Runkel was the only initiator, as the grave slab suggests.

In the “Fürstlich Wiedisches Archiv” in Neuwied there are documents according to which Prince zu Wied-Neuwied wrote a letter to the senior representative of the then new Prussian government in Koblenz to secure old family tombs and monuments from destruction. The church of the Rommersdorf Abbey was meanwhile a horse stable, the St. Florin Abbey a slaughterhouse. The correspondence also shows that a tomb was destroyed during the merging and was not transferred to the mausoleum. In the Florinskirche in Koblenz there was a "memorial made of gray stone for an elector of Trier from the Isenburg house". It was probably the tomb of Elector Johann V von Isenburg (1547–1556).

Building description

The mausoleum in Dierdorf is after the Handbook of German art monuments Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland by Georg Dehio "one of the first monuments of, old German style 'in the Rhineland."

The mausoleum, a three- bay arched rectangular building made of plastered brick in the forms of the early neo-Gothic , is erected on a floor area of ​​5.35 by 8 m. The diagonally placed buttresses at the corners end in crab-studded pinnacles , in which the finials are missing. Under the cornice , a pointed arch frieze runs around the whole building, the slate hipped roof of which is retracted behind the cornice. The six three-lane windows run out in four-passages . The tracery above the entrance and the window ribs and bars are made of cast iron .

In the back part of the room is the crypt in which eleven members of the Wied-Runkel house are buried.

In autumn 2000 the mausoleum was completely renovated.

The tombs

The mausoleum houses grave monuments from the former Premonstratensian monastery in Rommersdorf , the former pilgrimage chapel Hausenborn near Isenburg and the former collegiate church of St. Florin in Koblenz.

  • In the middle of the room is a large tumba with a marble grave slab attached to the front, which names the builder of the mausoleum, Prince Karl Ludwig Friedrich Alexander von Wied-Runkel . The marble slab broke at some point, as the cracks show.
  • On the tumba lie two life-size figures made of fine-grain sandstone , presumably depicting Count Wilhelm II von Wied und Herr in Isenburg, who died on October 23, 1462, and his wife Philippe von Heinsberg, who died on January 25, 1472. Both were originally buried in the Rommersdorf Abbey. The figures are 1.77 and 1.60 m tall without the footrests. At the feet of the figures, a marble slab is embedded in the tumba lid with the names and dates of their deaths. Originally a bronze plate was attached at this point, which was brought to Neuwied Castle after an attempted break-in in the 19th century and replaced with the marble plate.
  • A grave monument from Rommersdorf is attached to the back wall, it is the epitaph for Count Salentin VII von Isenburg-Grenzau , who was Archbishop and Elector of the Archdiocese of Cologne from 1567 to 1577 and died on March 19, 1610. Each two ionic columns frame the midfield, the alabaster relief with a Last Supper . The picture is 56 cm high, 127 cm wide and 6 cm deep. There are three more reliefs above the architrave , on the left the Adoration of the Magi can be seen, on the right the birth of Christ. The middle panel shows the resurrection of Christ. On the side there are two coats of arms in the colors of the Lords of Isenburg-Grenzau. Under the representation of the Lord's Supper there is a text plate with an inscription in Latin, which also shows that Salentin renounced the office of bishop in order to marry and reproduce his sex.
  • To the right of the epitaph is a figure showing Salentin kneeling in a splendid knight armor. Salentin's tomb was fetched from Rommersdorf in 1824, and the remains of the bones were transferred to the Evangelical Church in Niederbieber.
  • On the inner wall on both sides of the entrance are the tombstones of the brothers of Count Friedrich I von Wied , Mr. zu Isenburg and Runkel († 1487), the founder of this sideline, who were buried in Rommersdorf . To the right of the entrance Count Wilhelm I of Runkel and Isenburg , died December 25, 1489; to the left of the entrance Count Johann von Wied, Runkel and Isenburg , died May 28, 1524.
  • Outside, to the right of the entrance, is the tomb of Count Gerlach III. von Isenburg-Grenzau , died 1530, walled in. Gerlach was the grandfather of Salentin VII. The tomb was originally in Hausenborn.
  • Outside, to the left of the entrance, is the tombstone of Count Philipp von Wied-Runkel , who died July 1, 1535, showing the figure of a praying knight .

literature

  • Wilhelm Groß: From old times I - Chronicle of Dierdorf New edition of the original edition from 1900. Verlag Reinhard Zado, Niederhofen, ISBN 3-936256-02-0 .
  • Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-422-00382-7 .
  • District Neuwied (Ed.): Heimat-Jahrbuch 1989 Landkreis Neuwied and Heimat-Jahrbuch 1990 Landkreis Neuwied .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hellmuth Gensicke : Landesgeschichte des Westerwaldes . 3. Edition. Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-922244-80-7 , p. 335,338 .
  2. ^ Christian Daniel Vogel : Description of the Duchy of Nassau , W. Beyerle, 1843, page 389

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 ′ 58.6 ″  N , 7 ° 39 ′ 27 ″  E