Hedwigsburg Castle
The Hedwig Castle was built in 1578 summer palace in Kissenbrück in today Wolfenbüttel . It was built for Hedwig von Brandenburg , wife of Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , and was later the summer residence and temporarily residence of the Brunswick dukes. It was sold in the 18th century and became part of the existing Hedwigsburg manor . The original structures are no longer preserved.
location
The grounds of the manor are located southwest of the center of the town of Pilsenbrück. It stretches between the northwest slope of the Waustenberg and the right bank of the Alte Ilse to the south. From the east the Good flows into the marshy valley between Waustenberg and Saaremaa the Great digging to and forms its northern border. The actual estate with courtyard and park is about 10 hectares (42.88 acres ).
The district of Hedwigsburg was named after the castle and includes its earlier properties such as the ferry mill and lands.
history
Königshof and Mecklenburg
The town of Pilchbrück was first mentioned in a document in the 9th century, which is due to the strategically special location east of the Oker crossing to Ohrum at the crossing of the Pilsena stream . A royal court Curtis Cissenbrugea has survived , where Emperor Otto I stayed in 944 and later several documents were issued by other kings. Chroniclers believe that this courtyard is in the triangle between the Kisse and Scharrenbeeke streams (today Großer Graben) in the Eulenburg corridor south of the town center. They lead the name back to "oil" like "swamp".
The Mecklenburg region is mentioned in a document dated May 3, 1196, when Bishop Gardolfus von Halberstadt "consecrates a chapel to the glory of the Mother of God" and incorporates a number of goods into her, including four hooves of fields, parts of the forest in the Oder forest , two fish ponds, a burial place and swamp and the rights of use belonged to the Oker. Nothing is known about the former owner of the Mecklenburg, but the farm was tithed and was located between the Pilsenbrück and the Oker. In 1420 it is mentioned as the property of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and in 1425 as the property of the Braunschweig Monastery of St. Blasius, which revocably sold the "free court of Stecklenburg" for 500 guilders. In 1553 the estate was destroyed in a feud, including a wooden and a stone manor house, a brewery, a dairy and various farm buildings.
Julius shipping and pleasure palace
Duke Julius developed the use of his country's natural resources, which also included improving stone transport from the Ösel and making the Oker navigable between his residence in Wolfenbüttel and the Harz Mountains. He himself coined the term "Julius Shipping". His wife Hedwig visited the Mecklenburg in 1577 and bought it on February 22, 1578 for 2500 Thaler. Immediately afterwards, a summer residence was built as a summer residence with gardens, ponds, grottos and statues. The Mecklenburg Castle was renamed Hedwigsburg Castle in her honor.
Duke Julius had various canals and a lock “behind the brewery” built so that the property, which was still on the Ilse at that time , could be reached by ship. The Duke's request to the Saxon Elector August about the construction plan for the Elbe ships that are probably common there has been handed down. He was given not only the plans, but also a sample.
The return of Duchess Hedwig together with Duchess Clara von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel on August 13, 1580 to Wolfenbüttel is well documented. Accordingly, the sailors wore yellow skirts adorned with red Burgundian crosses, as well as trousers with one yellow and one red pant leg - the colors of the princely house. There is also a list of the gentlemen present who probably belonged to the court. A jubilant poem by the students of the Helmstedt Juleum celebrates the Oker goddess and Neptune , who “ paves the way for the ship” with a raised scepter. In later years, other guests were invited, such as the cathedral dean of Halberstadt and the entire cathedral chapter , but they could not accept the invitation.
In 1600 Hedwig left the castle and the lands to her daughter-in-law Elisabeth of Denmark , which her eldest son revocably sold in 1630 to the abbot of the Riddagshausen monastery, Peter Tuckermann .
After the death of his first wife, Rudolf August , born in Hitzacker in 1627 , chose Hedwigsburg as his residence, where he had already enjoyed staying in the past, especially because of the hunting fun and the rural surroundings. He lived there with his second wife Rosine Elisabeth Menthe , called "Rudolfine", and died in Hedwigsburg in 1704. His brother and successor Anton Ulrich determined that Hedwigsburg should be part of the furnishings of the respective Hereditary Prince. If there is no succession, it should be transferred to the Braunschweig orphanage .
Manor and English garden
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/SonnenuhrHAB2015.jpg/170px-SonnenuhrHAB2015.jpg)
The last princely owner of the castle was the Hereditary Prince Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand , who sold it to the von Münchhausen family on December 20, 1769 due to financial difficulties and converted the estate into a manor . The Braunschweig orphanage was only compensated for the lost property in 1885 with 185,000 marks. The new owner, Oberhofmarschall at the Braunschweigischer Hof, also acquired the former royal court of Eulenburg, which, as a Schriftsassenhof, had 175 acres of land. The manor included a brickworks (located near the later sugar factory), the ferry mill, the Bungenstedter tower and the jurisdiction of the place. The castle was extended by two side wings and an English landscape garden was created. Of the statues erected there, the "Woman with the Lion" and the "Flora" are still there.
Bourgeois possession and destruction
When the Braunschweig region came under Napoleonic rule in 1806, the privileges of the nobility were revoked. Münchhausen sold the estate to August Christian Graberg, who bought it with numerous art treasures a. a. also furnished from Salzdahlum Castle . This also included the sundial that today stands in front of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. The Graberg family were related and related by marriage to the Löbbecke family , who later owned the estate. On December 23, 1932 Arnold Löbbecke sold the manor. It was almost completely destroyed in an air raid on January 14, 1944.
Current condition
The manor was divided in 1948 and is privately owned. In the official maps and in the street directory, the Hedwigsburg manor is given for the western part and the Pilsenbrück manor for the eastern part. The farms are used for agricultural purposes and as a residence. Some ponds are still there, the park is largely natural and has a forest character in the eastern part. Sculptures, memorial stones and the remains of a dog cemetery can still be seen in it.
The golf course in Pillowbrück on the southern foothills of the Ösel is named after the Hedwigsburg manor.
literature
- Werner Bennecke, Municipality of Pillowbrück (Ed.): Pillowbrück - Contributions to the history of an old village. Pillow Bridge 1997.
- Theodor Müller: Shipping and rafting in the river area of the Oker. In: Braunschweiger workpieces. Volume 39, Braunschweig 1968.
- Hans Adolf Schultz : Burgen und Schlösser des Braunschweiger Land , Braunschweig 1980, Die Stecklenburg und das Schloß Hedwigsburg , pp. 78-81, ISBN 3-87884-012-8
- Gesine Schwarz: The knight seats of the old country of Braunschweig. Göttingen 2008, pp. 130-136.
Web links
- Description of the estate park at the Lower Saxony Society for the Preservation of Historic Gardens
- Schlosspark Rittergut Hedwigsburg Description of the parks on the Braunschweigische Landschaft website.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Werner Bennecke u. a., Municipality of Pillowbrück (Ed.): Pillowbrück - Contributions to the history of an old village. Issenbrück 1997, pp. 77/78.
- ↑ a b c Werner Bennecke u. a., Municipality of Pillowbrück (Ed.): Pillowbrück - Contributions to the history of an old village. Pillowbrück 1997, p. 67 ff.
- ↑ a b Theodor Müller: Shipping and rafting in the river area of the Oker . In: Braunschweiger workpieces. Volume 39, Braunschweig 1968.
- ↑ Jürgen Hodemacher: The Oker - from the source to the mouth. Cremlingen 1992, p. 47.
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 28.1 ″ N , 10 ° 34 ′ 54.6 ″ E