Destedt Castle

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Destedt Castle

The Castle Destedt is in the middle ages as Wasserburg resulting palace complex in Destedt in the eastern Lower Saxony . It is said to be the headquarters of the noble Brunswick ministerial family von Veltheim .

Building description

The castle consists of two upper floors, which stand on a basement-like substructure. The building facade is divided into three equal parts by a risalit-like projecting central building with a large gable. The central building has four Ionic colossal pilasters that go through both upper floors. The coats of arms of von Veltheim and von Bibow can be found in the gable . The inscription in Latin reads:

The beautiful old castle Destedt, which had long been in the possession of the lords of the noble family von Veltheim, was in such distress during the siege by their enemies, the citizens of Braunschweig, in 1430 that the owners, who had to think about fleeing, would rather hand them over to the fire than the enemy, and is now under the direction, care and favorable assistance of the high-born Mr. Joachim Ludolf von Veltheim and his noble wife Helene von Bibow in honor of the Most High God and in memory of his old generation in 1693 from Built from scratch. So it looks wonderful of the old generation, which once destroyed it, now rebuilt again.

The entrance, through a double flight of stairs , is at the front of the castle. At the rear there is a wide terrace with a double flight of stairs to the park that was built in 1875.

Castle Park

Entrance to the park via the white bridge

The castle park has been a landscape protection area since 1970 , which is listed as a protected area in the Wolfenbüttel district and is open to the public.

The protected area on the north side of the castle was created from 1750. It is a floristically important garden and later park. For this, the Braunschweig Legation Councilor , chamberlain and court hunter Georg Philipp von Veltheim acquired the neighboring rectory by swapping land. The garden initially consisted of a baroque , kitchen and tree garden. It was later transformed into an English landscape garden. According to a tree list from 1992 there are 150 trees. About half are foreign or exotic species. The special features of the park include the predominantly American trees that General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel is said to have sent from America.

history

The older history of the fortification and the time it was built are not known. It was built at the foot of the Elm and secured the western apron of the ridge as well as the passing trade route from Braunschweig to Magdeburg . In the 12th and 13th centuries the castle was owned by the Counts of Wernigerode . From 1356 onwards, the lords of Veltheim and Harbke are verifiable as owners when they put themselves in the service of Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick . It is recorded for 1388 that the Lords of Veltheim owned Destedt, which was first mentioned in a document shortly after 1300 .

In 1430, Brunswick mercenaries besieged the castle. The defenders set the facility on fire before taking it and fled through an underground passage towards Elm. During sewer works from 1980 to 1983, part of the corridor was exposed.

In 1466 the castle was mentioned in a document as an uninhabited knight seat of the von Veltheim family. At that time it was used as a Vorwerk . According to Matthias Merian's notes from the second half of the 17th century, the castle complex is said to have been in ruins for centuries. It was acquired by the royal Brunswick hunter Joachim von Veltheim around 1600. Before 1650 von Veltheim's property was divided into an upper and a lower castle, which are about 200 meters apart. At that time, and up to the present day, the lower castle looked like a farmyard. In 1693, Joachim Ludolf von Veltheim built what is today the baroque style palace in the area of ​​the upper castle . The Brunswick state master builder Johann Balthasar Lauterbach probably played an important role in the design.

George Philip III von Veltheim completed the palace construction around 1740. He had outbuildings, gatehouses and side wings erected. From this time the lower and upper castle were again in the hands of one owner. To the west of the castle he had a French garden laid out.

literature

  • Hans Adolf Schultz : Castles and palaces of the Braunschweiger Land. Braunschweig 1980, Destedt Castle , pp. 32–33, ISBN 3-87884-012-8
  • Gesine Schwarz: The knight seats of the old country of Braunschweig. Göttingen 2008, pp. 100-107.

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 23 "  N , 10 ° 42 ′ 37"  E