Diersfordt Castle

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Panorama of the castle island seen from the south

The Diersfordt Castle is a moated castle in the Wesel district of Diersfordt , which goes back to a medieval castle of the Lords of Wylich and can look back on almost 700 years of history.

As a fief of the Counts von der Mark and the Dukes of Kleve , the complex was owned by the Counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode after the von Wylich family died out in 1831 . Both families continuously expanded it and finally converted it into a palace in the late Baroque style . Completely destroyed by a fire in 1928, it was rebuilt in a greatly simplified manner from 1929. Only one building in the outer bailey has remained almost unchanged to this day.

The various buildings in the palace complex now serve as a local museum and hotel, among other things .

description

The palace complex stands on the site of an old, dried up loop of the Rhine not far from the Diersfordter Waldsee, about 5.5 kilometers northwest of the city center of Wesel. In the middle of a landscaped garden , most of the palace buildings stand on a 150 × 60 meter, rectangular island, which is surrounded on three sides by a 20 meter wide moat . A second, narrower moat shows that the complex used to be surrounded by a double system of ditches . From the south an avenue about 350 meters long leads to the castle bridge from 1868/69. The original avenues from the 18th century all had to be cut down over the years and have just been preserved, as have the former baroque gardens to the east and north of the palace. Only the ruins of an old garden pavilion and an orangery building from the last quarter of the 18th century are reminiscent of the former gardens, which disappeared between 1823 and 1836. The oldest documented structure of the complex dates back to the 14th century.

main building

Like all buildings on the castle island, the main house is built on a pile grid made of oak piles. The two-story brick building has an approximately L-shaped floor plan, which results from a rectangular structure with an almost square, flanking corner tower at the northeast corner. While the tower is closed off by a flat, pan-roofed pyramid roof, the rest of the building has a high gable roof , which is based on the roof shape of the medieval farm buildings. The outwardly simple main house dates from the end of the 1920s and partly incorporates components of a previous building from the 18th century, for example the entrance door with a baroque house surround and skylight. In front of the western facade is a terrace , under which the foundations and vaults of the medieval castle are still located today . Inside, some of the rooms still have baroque features.

Castle Church

The castle church

The small Diersfordter Schlosskirche is a free-standing brick building with a semicircular apse in the late Baroque style, which rises on a high base. Its southern facade made of stone has a risalit in which the portal is located. It is flanked by two half - columns that support an architrave structured by metopes and triglyphs . Above it is a volute gable that ends in a small copper-covered bell tower. Its spire shows a sun made of chased and gilded copper; a symbolism that is otherwise only found in Sonsbeck in the Rhineland . The clock face on the tower no longer fulfills any function, because the original tower clock was lost in the Second World War .

Above the portal there is a coat of arms stone with the coat of arms of the von Wylich family and the inscription

ALEXANDER HERMANN REICHS BARON OF WYLICH LORD VON DIERSFORDT SEHLEM WYLACK BISENHORST HOST MASTER OF THE HERTZUGTVMS CLEVE DROST ZV ISERLOHN VND ALTENA COADIVTOR OF THE DEVTSCHEN ORDER ZVTSCHEN ORDER ZVTRECHT DES IOHANNTEREV.

The appearance of the interior with its flat stucco ceiling is largely determined by a reconstruction in 1951/52. The furnishings clearly show the contrast between the noble church builder's love of splendor and the simplicity of church rooms sought by the Protestant church . The elaborate pulpit , which - like the gallery - is decorated with carvings by the Wesel sculptor Eva Brinkmann , stands out from the rather simple furnishings in late rococo forms . Opposite it is at the other end the new organ from the organ building company Rainer Müller from Merxheim, which was inaugurated on December 2, 2012 in a solemn service. It is a one-manual, fully mechanical slider organ with 13  registers and 764  pipes .

The church offers space for around 120 believers and has been owned by the Protestant parish of Bislich- Diersfordt- Flüren since the patronage was dissolved in August 1959 .

Other buildings

The so-called port house on the east side of the castle island is a three-storey brick building with a gable roof, which originally served as a grain and seed store. The course of the former wooden battlement can still be made out today by means of holes for girder beams on the outer front of the trench . Since it was built in 1432, it is the oldest secular building in the Wesel city area. Investigations have shown that the building stands on even older remains of an old curtain wall from the early 14th century. The arched gates on the west side bear witness to its later use as a coach house . In the north there is a building that was built as a horse stable after a fire around 1908. Together with the ruin of the brewery to the north and the vaulted cellar underneath, the port house represents the rest of the medieval outer bailey , the other buildings of which were demolished between 1800 and 1831; including the former gatehouse , whose name Porthaus was then transferred to the granary.

The ice cellar

To the west of the main building is the so-called castle courtyard , which was built around 1800 on a U-shaped floor plan. This farm was the living and working place of an employed manager who cultivated the fields and pastures belonging to Diersfordt.

The path to the castle bridge is flanked on both sides by a farm building. On the eastern side is the former grain mill, a horse mill , the building of which was used as a rent office from 1903 and is now a private residence. Its mirror-image counterpart on the western edge of the driveway is the former oil mill, which has been known as the ice cellar since the 19th century . Their building made of field firestones dates from the second half of the 18th century and, in addition to the mill, also served to store ice that was sawn from the frozen castle moats and used to preserve food.

Today only the orangery, which was built around 1777/78, provides references to the formal palace gardens that once existed. It has large arched windows in its south wall as well as a central projection, in which the double-winged entrance door used to be. A triangular gable above, which additionally emphasized the center of the building, has not existed since the roof was changed after the last world war. The so-called bath house , an octagonal garden pavilion, is also reminiscent of the castle park, which no longer exists . Built in the second half of the 18th century, the eight-sided slate roof of the brick building burned down in 2002, leaving behind a ruin.

history

The beginnings

The founding date of the medieval predecessor of today's castle is not known. Their purpose on the edge of an arm of the Rhine was probably to secure a ford there . In 1334 the "House Dyrsvort" was first mentioned in a document. In that year it was in the possession of the knight Theodoricus de Heyssen (von Hessen and von Heessen). In 1348 a Dirk von Hessen (also de Hassia) appears, whose daughter Hillegont (also Hille or Hilla) brought the Diersfordt house in the second half of the 14th century through marriage to Adolf von Wylich (Alef van Wylakken), who from the Wesel city ​​patriciate came from. This was enfeoffed on May 28, 1401 by Count Adolf von Kleve-Mark with "Dat Hues en dat Guet to der Dyersvoert". In the deed of lending, Diersfordt is mentioned as a permanent house , so it must have been at least partially built of stone at that time. Whether a castle chapel already existed at the same time has not been proven, but it can be assumed. Dietrich von Wylich the son Hillegonts and Adolf, was in 1446 with the Cleves Erbhofmeisteramt acquire the most important of Cleves hereditary offices for his family, which thereby included the following 350 years the most important and prestigious families of the duchy. In 1498 Duke Johann II von Kleve raised Diersfordt and his surrounding estates to an independent glory .

Destruction and reconstruction

Illustration of Diersfordt Castle in a book of heirs from 1612

During the Eighty Years War , what was then Diersfordt Castle - such as Bellinghoven Castle in Rees - was badly damaged. Spanish troops led by Admiral Francisco de Mendoza sacked it in 1598 and then left it destroyed. What the castle looked like at that time is not known. The earliest illustration of the complex can be found in a book of heirs from 1612. It shows a cuboid residential castle with three pointed towers, a free-standing castle chapel and farm buildings in front of it. They were on a castle island surrounded by a double moat system, which was protected in the south by a high wall. Access was granted by a drawbridge that led to a gatehouse. At that time there was already a horse mill on the eastern side of the access road.

The facility was affected in the Thirty Years War , because on the morning of October 23, 1621, Spanish soldiers stormed and demolished it. In this dilapidated state, it was taken over by the Prussian Rittmeister Johann Hermann von Wylich zu Pröbsting in March 1648 , who married Johanna von Palant, Diersfordt's heir , in 1649 . He began to clear the devastation of the land, the forest and the moats, but the repair and renewal of the damaged buildings could only be tackled by one of his successors, Alexander Hermann von Wylich (1685–1776). The largest of the three castle towers was demolished before 1704. From 1774 onwards, Alexander Hermann had today's palace church built in the late Rococo style. The master builder Francke (also Frank) provided the designs . When the lord of the castle died in May 1776, the shell including the roof structure and the main cornice with the coat of arms stone was completed. His nephew and universal heir, Alexander von Wylich, continued his uncle's work. He had the castle church completed by around 1780 and then began to repair the other buildings according to Francke's plans. The medieval castle was converted into a rural residential palace in the late Baroque style. For this purpose, a southern section was added to the almost square house and the destroyed roof was re-covered with slate . The appearance of the southern tower was adapted to that of the northern one by being demolished to three storeys and both towers were given a low tail hood as a roof. The central building, on the other hand, was equipped with two floors, which accommodated a total of 59 rooms. In some of them, stucco ceilings in the style of the beginning classicism were still present towards the end of the 19th century . During the renovation work, the moat was probably also changed and straightened in order to be able to build an additional farmyard on the space gained to the west of the main building.

Fire and new building

The castle before the great fire around 1900

When Alexander von Wylich died childless in 1831, Diersfordt came to the youngest brother of his second wife Anna, Count Anton zu Stolberg-Wernigerode. The castle remained unchanged under his family until the residential building burned to the ground in a fire on December 21, 1928. Although the notified fire brigade was quickly on site, they could no longer save the building. However, it was at least possible to save parts of the valuable inventory and furniture, the valuable castle archive as well as art objects and around 4,000 books from the castle library. Two firefighters died in the operation, and another died from serious injuries a few months later. The former owner, Bolko Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, had the castle ruins demolished in order to build a new building on the same site between 1929 and 1931. Initially, the new building was supposed to be the same size as its predecessor, but this project was abandoned because of the high costs. The client did without the south tower and opted for a smaller main building, the new roof shape of which was based on that of the port house . The area freed up by this should take up a terrace. The Duisburg architect Wilhelm Weimann provided the plans . After the foundation stone was laid on August 9, 1929, the topping-out ceremony was held in October of the same year . Just a month later, the entire shell was completed. The inauguration of the new building, which cost 250,000  Reichsmarks , was celebrated on August 19, 1931.

At the beginning of the 20th century, various repairs also had to be carried out on the castle church, which is valuable in terms of art history. The organ from the 18th century by the Duisburg organ builder Abraham Itter had to be completely overhauled and in 1928 was also given a new blower . The same was true of the small bell tower of the church. It was in such a bad structural condition that it had to be almost completely renewed by June 1903 for around 6,000  gold marks . The rest of the building had also suffered badly since construction and was in need of overhaul. However, it was not until the Second Act to Reduce Unemployment (as part of the Reinhardt program to “promote national work”) passed on September 21, 1933 that appropriate measures could be implemented. This included another repair of the organ and a complete renovation in 1933/34. During this time the services took place in the castle.

From the Second World War

During the fighting over the Rhine crossing of the British 2nd Army in 1945, the main building of the castle was on 23/24. Badly damaged by shell fire in March . Its roof and tower dome were destroyed. The castle church was particularly hard hit. It was hit so badly that its eastern side was torn away completely. The small bell from 1747, which, due to its age, did not have to be given as a “bell offering” for the armaments industry, was riddled with gunfire. The organ was also destroyed, with the exception of the bellows and the electric wind machine.

Bolko Graf von Stolberg-Wernigerode had to leave his castle after the end of the war and make it available to the British military government as the seat of the commander of the Rees district, Adam Duncan Chetwynd, 9th  Viscount Chetwynd . The main building received a flat emergency roof and was makeshiftly prepared for its new purpose. Among other things, the floor panels were removed from the castle church in order to use them for the reconstruction of the main building. British troops also dismantled the church stalls and the altar from the once badly damaged church , before Italian soldiers chopped up the pulpit and the remaining, permanently installed stalls.

Bolko bequeathed Diersfordt to his son Siegfried in 1956, but he no longer used it as a residence. The castle was therefore empty in the following period. In the 1970s and 1980s, after a renovation, the facility was used as a sanatorium before it was vacant again.

The castle church was rebuilt and repaired from August 1950 to September 1952. As early as December 4, 1951, the first service could take place in it. In 1957 a new organ was purchased and a new, larger bell was installed in the tower. In the period from 1967 to 1974 the church building was completely renovated , which resulted in total costs of 225,000  DM . This was followed by another renovation in 2000, during which, among other things, the copper roof of the tower was repaired, the coat of arms and inscription above the portal were overhauled and the interior of the church was given a new coat of paint.

Todays use

Siegfried Graf von Stolberg-Wernigerode sold the palace area in 1996/97 to the Beichert family, who had extensive renovation work carried out on the complex. Today she uses the main building as her residence and also runs a small hotel there.

In 1995, the Diersfordt Heimatverein initiated a thorough restoration of the ice cellar so that the building could then be used as a museum and home. Its opening took place in September 2004 on the day of the open monument . Since then, temporary and permanent exhibitions have provided information about the history of the glory and the castle as well as the development of the surrounding landscape.

Since 2012, an early medieval handicraft market has been held on the castle grounds every year on the second weekend in September.

literature

  • Bernd von Blomberg: The castle church in Diersfordt (= messages from the Diersfordt castle archive and from the Lower Rhine. Special issue no. 1). Historical working group, Wesel 2003.
  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Rees district (= The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 2, section 1). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1892, pp. 18-19 ( digitized version ).
  • Robert Janke, Harald Herzog: Castles and palaces in the Rhineland. Greven, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0368-1 , pp. 190-191.
  • Heimatverein der Herrlichkeit Diersfordt (ed.): Forays through the natural and cultural history of the old glory Diersfordt (Wesel). Self-published, Wesel 2006, pp. 2–10.
  • Historischer Arbeitskreis Wesel (ed.): Das Schloss zu Diersfordt (= messages from the Diersfordt castle archives and from the Lower Rhine. Special issue No. 2). Historical working group, Wesel 2003.

Web links

Commons : Diersfordt Castle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the Rees district. 1892, p. 19.
  2. ↑ In 1892 a lime tree avenue with trees at least 150 years old and the so-called rose avenue with 1802 beeches were preserved. The 153 year old beeches on Veenallee had already been cut down in 1883. Cf. Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the Rees district. 1892, p. 19.
  3. ↑ a b c archaeologie-duisburg.de ( Memento from October 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Diersfordt's story on the home association's website , accessed January 18, 2020.
  5. ↑ Bernd von Blomberg: The castle church at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 12.
  6. ↑ Bernd von Blomberg: The castle church at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 2.
  7. ↑ a b Historischer Arbeitskreis Wesel: Das Schloss zu Diersfordt. 2003, p. 1.
  8. ↑ Diersfordt on the website of the city of Wesel , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b Bernd von Blomberg: The castle church at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 1.
  10. ↑ Historical working group Wesel: The castle at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 37.
  11. ↑ According to Bernd von Blomberg: The Castle Church in Diersfordt. 2003, p. 3. Georg Dehio's publication on the Rhineland from the series Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, however, assumes an unknown architect who is to be found in the vicinity of Potsdam's early classicism.
  12. ↑ Historical working group Wesel: The castle at Diersfordt. 2003, pp. 2-3.
  13. ↑ Historical working group Wesel: The castle at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 28.
  14. ↑ Petra Herzog: The castle burned 80 years ago. In: Neue Rhein Zeitung . Edition of December 19, 2008 ( online ).
  15. ↑ Historical working group Wesel: The castle at Diersfordt. 2003, p. 33.
  16. ↑ Corresponds to around 996,000 euros today. This figure was based on the template: Inflation determined, rounded to 1000 euros and applies to the previous January.
  17. ^ Reichsgesetzblatt . Born in 1933, part 1, p. 651.

Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 22.8 "  N , 6 ° 32 ′ 38"  E