Coswig Castle

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Coswig Castle in 2015

The Coswig Castle is a Grade II listed building in the town Coswig in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt . In the local register of monuments , the castle is listed as a monument under registration number 094 41317 . It has the address Schloßstraße 44, 45, 46 .

history

A castle in Coswig was first mentioned in 1187. The castle itself was first mentioned in 1342, as a personal asset of Princess Agnes von Anhalt . The princes of Anhalt had their seat in Coswig from 1212. During the Spanish conquest in 1547, the castle was destroyed by fire and rebuilt from 1555 to 1560. The previous castle was used repeatedly as a widow's residence from 1562 onwards. The castle was expanded from 1622 to 1623, as well as from 1667 to 1677. The south wing was renewed under Cornelis Ryckwaert from 1676 to 1679 and in 1698 it was removed down to the terrace. Under Johann Christoph Schütze further renovations were carried out from 1725 to 1740, during which the interior of the building was completely changed. After the death of Friedrich August Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1793, his wife Friederike Auguste Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst , a princess from the Anhalt-Bernburg family, took over her husband's affairs of state. Since the building was in its former position, it did not correspond to a widow's seat and had it expanded to become today's castle building. Together with her sister Christine von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , after her abdication in 1806, she spent the rest of her life at the castle until her death in 1827. With her the glamorous times of the castle and Coswig ended.

During the German War of 1866 a hospital was housed in the castle and from 1870 to 1871 it served as a prisoner of war camp. From 1873 it served as a prison for 300 inmates, for which the south wing was extended by two floors. During the time of the Third Reich , up to 900 political prisoners were in cells and during the GDR period until 1957 the Coswig prison was housed there. Restoration work began in 1958, after which the building was used from 1961 as a branch of the state and state archives until German reunification in 1989. The Federal Archives then continued to use the building until 1998. From 1998 to 2006 the building stood empty and then came into the possession of the Italian Dr. Magnolia Albertazzi from Milan . It is planned to use the palace as a center for transnational cooperation and exchange in the field of culture . The prison floors were demolished in 2008 and the south wing returned to its historical state. Concerts have been held in the building since 2014.

description

The castle shows influences from the late Renaissance and French baroque periods . The north wing is a three-story, thirteen-axis building. The two side wings are two-story with three-story corner towers. There is a stair tower on the courtyard side.

The two-story chapel with arched windows and the four-bay cross vault is located in the east wing.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Coswig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture March 19, 2015 Printed matter 6/3905 (KA 6/8670) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt . (PDF) State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, accessed on October 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Hans and Doris Maresch: Saxony-Anhalt's palaces, castles and mansions . Husum, 2015, ISBN 978-3-89876-776-7 , pp. 53-54 .
  3. ^ Castle Coswig: District sets deadline for roof repairs. burgerbe.de, accessed on October 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Coswig Castle (Anhalt). alleburgen.de, accessed on October 8, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 10.6 ″  E