Dillich Castle

Dillich Castle, view from the south

The Dillich castle stands on the northwestern outskirts of Dillich , a district of Borken in Schwalm-Eder district in Hesse . Adjacent to the south-east is the farmyard that was formerly part of the castle.

Building history

The castle was probably built in 1361 on the site of a former moated castle, the origins of which are said to go back to 1335 and of which only parts of the cellar rooms are left. It was in the possession of the Lords of Dalwigk until 1858 , who demonstrably held the judicial office in Dillich as early as 1318 as landgrave-Hessian liegemen .

From 1575 to 1591, the castle was completely renovated as a simple, three-storey quarry stone building with corner blocks, a simple saddle roof , a wide central projectile on the west side and a polygonal staircase that was added to the east side and reached the upper floor. The building was given its present-day rectangular floor plan (apart from the garden hall which was added in front of the central projections in the west in 1905/06). In 1648 it was badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War ; only parts of the outer walls and the stair tower on the east side remained. It was not until the years 1680 to 1730 that the building was rebuilt in a slightly different form. The castle received a fireplace in the hall in the style of the south of France .

The male line of Dalwigk zu Dillich, which became extinct in the early 1850s, was followed by Benjamin Rieß von Scheurnschloß, the Electorate of Hesse , who acquired the castle and the associated manor in 1855. He was the son or grandson of the former Hessian interior minister and parliament sent Franz Hugo Riess of Scheuernschloss , 1832 under names increase due "from Scheuernschloss", the name of a previously Hessian Hachborn , based extinct noble family in the Hessian nobility had been raised.

In the years 1905–1906, inside partly until 1910, the building was completely redesigned and expanded inside and outside in the style of the historicizing Weser Renaissance by Karl Rieß von Scheurnschloß (* 1863 in Flottbek; † 1949 in Dillich) and the Marburg architect August Dauber . All elements that did not conform to Renaissance shapes have been removed and new decorative elements have been added. Particularly new were the three-storey porch with a balcony attached to the north side of the central projectile in the west, the single-storey garden hall with a curved hipped roof , dormitories on the three outer sides and roof turrets to the west in front of the central projectile, which now features a high-rise clock tower with an imposing helmet attachment its left-hand spiral staircase in front of the east facade, the covered entrance portal to the right of the stair tower, the bay window on the south side, the four small dwelling houses (one on the left and three on the right of the stair tower) and the large gable on the north end of the east facade, the three towering large gables the west side and of course the two main gables in the south and north. The windows were partially renewed in 1906, but based on the existing Renaissance windows.

The castle is surrounded by a 2.5 hectare park, enclosed by a sandstone wall with a historic courtyard gate in the south.

The palace and park as a whole are under monument protection as a cultural monument .

Use since 1945

The facility was occupied by the US Army after the end of World War II and was used as an officer's quarters for about a year. After that, from 1946 to 1948 the castle served as emergency accommodation for displaced persons , former foreign forced laborers from the munitions factories in Allendorf near Marburg . They were followed from 1948 to 1956 by refugees and displaced persons as residents, at times up to 40 families at the same time. Then the now very dilapidated castle was cleared and declared uninhabitable.

In 1959/60 the descendants of the Rieß von Scheuertschloß sold the castle with the approximately 3 hectare park to the engineer and entrepreneur Franz Rudolph (1920–1999) and his wife Gertrud nee. Grawert, who renovated the building. The estate remained in the possession of the Rieß von Scheurnschloß, who ran it from their Seehof estate on the northeastern edge of the Seeholz about 1.5 km northwest of Neuenhain .

The castle with its 35 rooms and a total living space of around 1,650 m ² was for sale from 2015. In early 2017, Buddhist monks from Thailand bought the castle for one million euros, most of which were raised from donations. They moved in in spring 2017 and have been using it as a living, working and seminar facility for their students ever since.

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  Dillich Castle, with the courtyard gate, view from the south

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  Dillich Castle, view from the south

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  Dillich Castle, park side, view from the northwest

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  Dillich Castle, park side, view from the southwest

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  Dillich Castle, east side with stair tower and portal

literature

• Werner Ide: From Adorf to Zwesten: Local history paperback for the Fritzlar-Homberg district . Bernecker, Melsungen 1972.
• Christofer Herrmann: Dillich Castle near Borken / Hessen. The early palace construction . In: Research on castles and palaces 3 . Munich / Berlin 1997, pp. 51-62.
• Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 89.

Web links

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

• Dillich Castle in the Wiki of the project “Renaissance Castles in Hesse” at the Germanic National Museum

Footnotes

1. ↑ * 1824 in Flottbek, † 1891 in Kassel
2. ↑ 1898 to 1908 district administrator of the Hofgeismar district , 1908 to 1911 senior government councilor and deputy district president in Kassel , 1911 to 1919 police chief of Frankfurt am Main .
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ https://www.hna7.de/schloss-dillich-wird-buddhistischer-tempel-8216009.html

Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 58 ″  N , 9 ° 17 ′ 4 ″  E