Bergfeld Castle

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Bergfeld Hunting Lodge, seen from the southeast (1977)

The Bergfeld Castle is a former hunting lodge in the area of local church Eisenschmitt in the Eifel , Rhineland-Palatinate . The most prominent guest of the palace at the time was the German Emperor Wilhelm II.

history

The Düsseldorf entrepreneur Hugo von Gahlen , as the owner of the so-called French Forest, had a hunting lodge built on a plateau for himself and his guests based on a design by the Düsseldorf architect Max Wöhler .

This first building now forms the western part of the castle and was expanded in 1911 to use the complex as the family residence. In 1914 a separate building was built in which a bowling alley (scissors alley ) was built.

Von Gahlen first used the property together with his wife, later alone, until his death in 1933. It remained in the possession of his descendants, the von Berghes family, until 1998, and during the Second World War it was temporarily used as the headquarters of the General Staff of the VII. Army used. After the French and Americans had occupied the castle, it was rented to the Caritas Association as a tuberculosis sanatorium at the end of the war. From 1962 to 1998 it was used by the Josefs-Gesellschaft , which maintained a boarding school for severely physically handicapped children there through the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary.

In 1998 Bergfeld Castle was sold, partially renovated and has been used exclusively for private purposes since then, which is why it cannot be visited.

description

North side of the castle

Bergfeld Castle is surrounded by a small park with old and rare trees that border the French Forest.

According to the ideas of medieval castles at the time, the castle was built in a style that is based on the Romanesque and equipped with numerous gables, bay windows and crenellated towers as well as a keep . A wide terrace enclosed by a wall is in front of the palace building to the southeast.

In the middle of the castle courtyard, which is enclosed by a curtain wall with a wrought-iron gate, there is a fountain whose column carries a figure of a knight.

literature

  • Ludger Pape: 50 years of charitable use (1947 to 1998) . In: Erich Gerten, local community Eisenschmitt in connection with the Förderkreis Kultur und Geschichte e. V. (Ed.): Eisenschmitt . From the medieval ironworks to the Eifel residential and recreational area. 2006, p. 272-284 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bergfeld Castle in Eisenschmitt. (PDF) In: At home in Rhein-Main. Peters & Peters, p. 17 , accessed on February 23, 2016 (Sotheby's brochure).
  2. ↑ The history of the bowling alley. Wittlich-Lüxem, accessed on February 23, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Entry on the Bergfeld hunting lodge in the database of cultural assets in the Trier region ; accessed on February 23, 2016.

Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 10 ″  N , 6 ° 42 ′ 49 ″  E