Eugensberg Castle

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Eugensberg Castle around 1850
Eugensberg Castle 2014

Eugensberg Castle is located in the district of Salenstein in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland on the south bank of the Untersee opposite the island of Reichenau . The white building dates from the Empire period and is surrounded by an English landscape garden that merges into meadows and forests. The classicist castle is named after its builder Eugène de Beauharnais . In the 20th century there were several architectural interventions in the historical ensemble.

history

Under the Beauharnais family

Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, built Eugensberg Castle
Eugénie de Beauharnais, Princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
The poet Viktor von Scheffel was a guest at Eugensberg Castle several times ...
... with Countess Amélie von Reichenbach-Lessonitz

Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoléon Bonaparte's stepson and former Viceroy of Italy, visited his sister Hortense , the former Queen of Holland, on the Untersee several times . Around 1817 she bought the neighboring Arenenberg Castle . In 1819 he bought the Sandegg estate from the farmer Johann Eigenmann for 15,000 guilders - but without Sandegg Castle , which at the time belonged to Louise Cochelet. With this, Eugène de Beauharnais received the attractively located building plot for Eugensberg Castle. Its location allows a view of Lake Constance, Reichenau, Konstanz, Mannenbach, Berlingen, Steckborn and Hegau. At the same time, he acquired a suitable retreat in neutral Switzerland. The castle was built from 1819 to 1821, neither architect nor building plans are known. Eugène visited Eugensberg only a few times, he died on February 21, 1824 and bequeathed the castle to his daughter Eugénie de Beauharnais .

She married the future Prince Konstantin von Hohenzollern-Hechingen on May 22, 1826 and continued to live at Eugensberg Castle during the summer, maintaining contact with her aunt Hortense and her cousin Louis Napoléon, who later became Emperor Napoléon III. In 1834 she sold Eugensberg Castle to finance the renovation of the Villa Eugenia in Hechingen . At least some of their furniture also took part in the move to the residence of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.

Owner in the 19th century

The buyer in 1834 was Heinrich von Kiesow from Augsburg for 32,000 guilders, his father was a successful manufacturer of "balms and life essences". After he became seriously ill, he sold Eugensberg in 1857. It became a wedding present worth 189,000 francs for Amélie von Reichenbach-Lessonitz . The husband Wilhelm von Reichenbach-Lessonitz died in 1865.

The Countess subsequently lived in seclusion with her only daughter Pauline, who had been married to Prince Alfred zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg since 1880 . On Eugensberg she had extensive changes made to the palace and park. Amélie von Reichenbach-Lessonitz used the castle as a summer residence for a few months every year and had the writer Joseph Victor von Scheffel as a guest several times . In October 1874 he wrote in the Eugensberg guest book:

“The
Untersee Fluth shimmers in a blaze of sky-blue colors ,
and
October laughs at Hegau and Thurgau with an autumn glow.
Every Sunday the bells ring
from the sunny shore -
I
piously recognized God's peace up here today .
One more look at Reichenau
and its blue billowing lake,
Another thanks to the tall woman,
And then - downhill - goodbye! "

- Joseph Victor von Scheffel

After the countess's death, her daughter Pauline sold the castle to Hippolyt Saurer from Arbon.

Modifications in the 20th century

The industrialist Hippolyt Saurer made major structural changes with the Zurich architects Johann Rudolf Streiff and Georg Schindler between 1916 and 1918. The strict Empire facade was refined in the style of the end of historicism . Streiff and Schindler designed a new entrance hall inside. The whole castle was furnished with newly brought furniture and art objects from the Beauharnais period.

Eugensberg Castle around 1920

Saurer had wings added to connect the main building with the outbuildings for the gardener and kitchen; the Rosenhüsli estate manager's house , a round temple and other outdoor facilities were built. Both the exterior and the interior of the castle have been restored and supplemented in the style of the Empire. The farm was rounded off, access roads and roads were built and a barn with a farm was built.

Hippolyt Saurer died in 1936. In 1938 the widow wanted to sell the entire property to the Canton of Thurgau for 600,000 Swiss francs. After a report by the architect Oskar Mörikofer critically assessed the structural changes from the point of view of monument protection, the canton of Thurgau decided not to purchase the castle. In 1939 the widow Sina Saurer-Hegner left the building to the Hippolyt-Saurer-Stiftung Schloss Eugensberg . The castle was open to the public as a museum for several years. After fewer and fewer museum visitors came during the Second World War and the President of the Board of Trustees Waldemar Ullmann was murdered in 1944, Sina Saurer-Hegner dissolved the foundation.

In 1948 the castle was sold for 850,000 francs to the Diakonie-Verband Ländli , which set up a holiday and convalescent home. In 1987 its operation was stopped.

In 1990 Hugo Erb , an entrepreneur from Winterthur, bought the property. Numerous other structural changes were made with the architect Hermann Schmidt: A 3300 m³ water pool with annex buildings, the roofing of the entrance area in the style of a classical portico , the second lake terrace with stairs and an underground car park including a security tunnel to the castle were built; the network of paths and roads has been expanded considerably.

Today, the castle is neither accessible nor visible, it is hidden behind meter-high hedges and fences. It was inhabited by Rolf Erb until his death in April 2017 , who had given it to his ten-month-old twins after the financial decline of the Erb Group and after the death of his father Hugo Erb. In autumn 2015, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld Erbs 'conviction for damage to creditors, which means that Eugensberg also falls into Erbs' bankruptcy estate. On March 1, 2019, it was bought by the German IT entrepreneur Christian Schmid, founder of Rapidshare .

park

The castle is surrounded by an English landscape garden. Above the modern swimming pool there is still a round temple from the Saurer construction phase, which is based on Doric styles. Of the 82 hectares of the entire property, around 12 hectares are designed as a park in the narrower sense. There is a tennis court at the edge of the forest. The park's old trees include seven sequoias . There is a forest pond and below the castle a pond with water lilies.

The property includes three Celtic burial mounds from the Hallstatt period in the so-called Eichholz , a forest that stands behind the castle on the gently sloping slope. Robbery excavations took place here in the 19th century. In 1933 Hippolyt Saurer had the burial mounds examined by the first Thurgau canton archaeologist Karl Keller-Tarnuzzer and the scientists P. Styger, Herbert Isler and Leutenegger. The Eidgenössische Materialprüfungsanstalt and the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich prepared reports and the Prehistory Institute of the University of Tübingen restored finds such as weapons and the urn. The finds are now in the Museum of Archeology in Frauenfeld.

In the night of September 2nd to 3rd, 1833, the neighboring Sandegg Castle burned down. Heinrich von Kiesow acquired the ruin in 1843 and it has been an integral part of the Eugensberg estate ever since.

literature

  • Rudolf Marti, Rolf Erb (ed.): Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. Huber, Frauenfeld 1997, ISBN 3-7193-1147-3 .
  • Golo Mann : Prince Eugène de Beauharnais and the Eugensberg Castle. 1 audio cassette, [MC], Society for Music and Literature, Ermatingen 1992, OCLC 313005397
  • Jakob Hugentobler: Scheffel's relationship to the Eugensberg. In: Thurgauer Zeitung from April 19, 1962.
  • Jakob Hugentobler: Eugensberg Castle and its builder Eugène Beauharnis. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch, 13, 1937, pp. 13–22 ( e-periodica )  
  • Alfred Friese: Between Mettnau and Eugensberg. Unpublished letters from Joseph Viktor von Scheffel to Amélie Countess von Reichenbach-Lessonitz. In: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins , Vol. 106 (1958), pp. 437–471.
  • Anonymous: gem on the Untersee. Eugensberg Castle. In: The beautiful Constance on Lake Constance and the Rhine, the old city in the south of Germany , Bodensee-Rundschau, Vol. 26 (1939), 6, pp. 116–119.
  • Karl Keller-Tarnuzzer: The Hallstatt grave mound in Eichholz near Eugensberg Castle, Salenstein community. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 71 (1934), pp. 51–61.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Eugensberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 23 f.
  2. ↑ Thurgauer Zeitung , January 14, 2004, Untersee and Rhein section.
  3. ↑ Joseph Viktor von Scheffel: Complete Works . Vol. 8-10, Hesse & Becker, Leipzig 1916, p. 187.
  4. ^ A b Alfons Raimann, Peter Erni: The art monuments of the canton of Thurgau. The Steckborn district. Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 2001, p. 292.
  5. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 76.
  6. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 81.
  7. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 93.
  8. ↑ «He donated considerable sums and the Eugensberg Castle above the Untersee to his partner and their twin sons. According to the indictment, this property is valued at CHF 27 million. The boys were only ten months old when they became lords of the castle. " Millions of salaries despite the threat of bankruptcy. NZZ Online, May 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ Pia Wertheimer: The lord of the castle has to move out. . In: Tages-Anzeiger , October 13, 2015.
  10. ↑ Silvan Meile: IT entrepreneur, lord of the castle and an oral promise: Eugensberg Castle has a new owner. St. Galler Tagblatt online, March 6, 2019.
  11. ^ Fritz Hauswirth: Burgen und Schlösser der Schweiz , Volume 1. 1976, p. 29.
  12. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 113 f.
  13. ↑ Karl Keller-Tarnuzzer (* December 12, 1891, † April 3, 1973) was from 1923 curator and canton archaeologist on behalf of the Thurgau Museum Society, from 1958 to 1964 curator of the canton of Thurgau and from 1928 to 1956 secretary of the Swiss Society for Prehistory and early history.
  14. ↑ The research results were published by Karl Keller-Tarnuzzer: The Hallstatt grave hill in Eichholz near Eugensberg Castle, Salenstein community. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 71 (1934), pp. 51–61.
  15. ^ Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. 1997, p. 13.

Coordinates: 47 ° 40 ′ 0 "  N , 9 ° 2 ′ 36"  E ; CH1903:  720,524  /  two hundred and eighty thousand seven hundred ninety-one