Dhaun Castle
Castle Dhaun is a castle ruin in the Hunsrück in the area of the local community Hochstetten-Dhaun . The castle and the district are high above the Kellenbachtal . It is considered to be the largest of its kind in the Nahe valley .
history
The castle was first mentioned in 1215 as "castrum de Dune" (the castle on the heights) and was a fief of the Trier Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin to the Wildgraves .
In 1340 the castle was besieged by troops of Archbishop Baldwin of Trier during the so-called "Dhauner Feud" . This was in dispute with the lord of the castle Johann I von Dhaun over the Schmidtburg . The archbishop of Trier won the feud . In the end, Johann had to grant him the right to open the Dhauner Burg. In connection with the "Dhauner Feud" a real castle wreath was created, to which the Vorburg Brunkenstein , the castles Rotenberg and Martinstein , the siege position Geiersley and the castle on the Johannisberg belonged.
Johann I died in 1350 without leaving any male heirs, and so the property came to his nephew, Rheingraf Johann II vom Stein, a son of Johann's sister Hedwig. With him the long era of the Dhauner Wild- and Rheingrafen began.
In the 15th and 16th centuries the castle was expanded and strengthened. The barbican of the upper castle, which was built in 1526, dates from that time . The still preserved three-storey underground system of corridors and chambers dates back to these centuries. The corridors lead to an exit at the foot of the castle, in its neck ditch .
In 1729 the transformation of the former castle into a baroque palace was completed under Wild and Rhine Count Karl von Dhaun and his wife Luise, née Countess von Nassau-Saarbrücken . The Palas in the West was converted into a residential castle, where a multi-storey wing was added on the south side. Together with a somewhat older building in the north, the complex was given a horseshoe-shaped floor plan. The wide circle of the upper castle became the castle park with a coach house . However, Count Karl could not enjoy his converted property for long, because he died only four years after the construction work was completed in 1733.
A year later, the palace complex was threatened with destruction during the War of the Polish Succession, and with it a similar fate as the neighboring Kyrburg , but Karl's widow Luise managed to prevent this.
In 1794 French revolutionary troops conquered the area and with it Dhaun Castle. It was transferred to the French state and its remains were auctioned for demolition in 1804. So it came to Andreas van Recum , the Sous Prefect of the Simmern arrondissement in French administrative services , who had all the usable components brought to the Kauzenburg in Bad Kreuznach .
The further deterioration of the ruins was not ended until the 19th century, when a doctor from Trier acquired part of the complex in 1850 and began repairs. His building measures were shaped by romanticizing notions of castles and had little to do with medieval reality. The current building elements at the entrance gate of the castle date from this time.
Further changes of ownership followed until around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the Kirner manufacturer Simon bought Schloss Dhaun and carried out various redesigns and renovations on the upper castle.
For example, instead of the ruins of the north wing, he had what is now the knight's hall built using components that have been preserved . Its old entrance and the family coat of arms of the builder from the 16th century are still recognizable. The Simons also acquired the figure of Prometheus , which the Kreuznach sculptor Robert Cauer the Elder had created in Rome in 1888.
In 1954 the Simons transferred the castle to the “Zweckverband Schloss Dhaun”, which was formed by the city of Kirn, the then Kirn-Land office and the Bad Kreuznach district. He is still the owner of the castle today.
The castle today
In the area of the upper castle, ruins of the St. George's Chapel and the kitchen house, as well as two bastions and the Bering with defensive towers and gates have been preserved from the medieval castle complex.
The entrance portal has been preserved in the west wing, the former hall. The building was rebuilt by the Zweckverband and has been home to the Heim Volkshochschule Schloss Dhaun, a youth and adult education center, of which Werner Vogt was the educational director for many years, since 1957 . The Rhineland-Palatinate Municipal Academy has also been located in the palace since 1991.
In the outer bailey / lower castle, the Bad Kreuznach district maintains a youth education center in place of the guard house;
literature
- Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Achim Wendt: "... where a mighty tower still looks down defiantly". Castles in the Hunsrück and on the Nahe . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7954-2493-0 , pp. 46–51.
- Hugo Fröhlich, Walther Zimmermann : Dhaun Castle. A leader . [Dhaun] 1957.
- JF Röhrig: Dhaun Castle. A guide for visiting its ruins . Mendel, Kirn 1906.
Web links
- Website of the Heimvolkshochschule Schloss Dhaun
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 57.9 " N , 7 ° 29 ′ 59.8" E