Hegne Castle

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View of Hegne Castle from the lake side at the end of the 19th century

The Schloss Hegne is located near the village of Hegne , in the municipality of Allensbach on Lake Constance in Baden-Wuerttemberg Konstanz district . Today it is part of a building complex which, in addition to the Hegne Monastery of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross, houses various educational and charitable institutions. The monastery is also the seat of the religious province of Baden-Wuerttemberg this Congregation .

Hegne Castle

Beginnings

Seen from the federal road 33 , the Hegne Castle stands in front of the village of Hegne. The exact construction date of the castle is unknown, it probably dates from the 16th century. The discovery of "older masonry" during the restoration of the property in 1965/1966 and some documentary evidence, however, gave rise to the assumption that there was a castle or a noble residence as the previous building.

The property was actually mentioned in writing for the first time in 1570, when it was sold by Hans Christoph von Knöringen to Sebastian von Roth. His widow Corona (née von Habsberg) and her three daughters then sold the property to Stefan Wohlgmuet zu Mutburg, the Obervogt of the Constance diocese in 1580 .

Episcopal summer residence

After it came into the possession of the Constance Bishopric in 1591 under the reign of the Konstanz Cardinal and Bishop Andreas of Austria (1589–1600) , the medieval castle building was converted in the Renaissance style into a magnificent summer residence for the Constance bishops. The installation of a chapel in the manor house was particularly complex. In addition, the property belonging to the castle was expanded, a castle park laid out and even a menagerie built. However, the latter was dissolved by the Konstanz Cathedral Chapter again at the beginning of 1601, shortly after the death of Andreas of Austria, for cost reasons .

In 1642, during the Thirty Years' War , the castle was plundered by Protestant troops from the Duchy of Württemberg . Stationed at the nearby fortress Hohentwiel , they had previously tried in vain several times to take the Constance ruled by the Catholic Habsburgs in a coup. After the end of the war, repairs and modifications were made. Until the secularization of 1803, as a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , Hegne Castle remained the property of the Konstanz Bishopric.

Worldly owners

Initially, the castle and its lands were used as the state domain of the Grand Duchy of Baden , but then changed hands several times at increasingly higher prices. In 1863, the Basel company Isaac Dreyfus Sons & Cie. the castle property as an object of speculation . The property was "dismantled" and the individual parts resold at a profit, an investment strategy used by numerous business people at the time . Accordingly, Dreyfus Sons & Cie. Already in 1866 the castle and farm buildings were transferred to the Konstanz district association . From 1866 to 1878 he set up a district orphanage in the castle and an agricultural school in the farm building.

In 1879, the economist Werner de Weerth (1855–1943), a great-grandson of Elberfeld's mayor and businessman Werner de Weerth (1741–1799), came from Neuwied as a buyer and until 1882 changed the building considerably in the spirit of the neo-renaissance . He had the entire interior torn out to make two very high floors out of the three existing floors. Even if the exterior was redesigned in the neo-renaissance style, the outer wall of the castle, the two striking corner towers on the lake side and the octagonal stair tower on the courtyard side have largely been preserved. The two previously round corner towers were given an octagonal exterior. On the lake side, a loggia used as a winter garden was placed centrally in front of the palace facade and the roof was decorated with a volute gable .

The castle chapel, consecrated in 1595 and which had served as the parish church in the village of Hegne, also fell victim to this renovation. As a replacement, as contractually agreed with the Konstanz district association, the Hegner village chapel was built and consecrated on September 8, 1879 ( Mary's Birth ) in honor of Mary , the Mother of God . The construction plans were drawn up by August Fuchs, master carpenter from Hegner.

Hegne Monastery

View of Hegne Monastery and Lake Constance
Sel. Sister Ulrika von Hegne

In 1892 the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross then acquired Hegne Castle and established a monastery in it. As early as 1895 it became the seat of the Baden-Hohenzollern Order Province (today Baden-Wuerttemberg Order Province) of this Swiss congregation.

The monastery of Hegne is a place of pilgrimage for numerous people who visit the grave of Blessed Ulrika von Hegne in the crypt of the monastery church of St. Konrad . The sisters run the St. Elisabeth conference and guest house , the Maria Hilf nursing home and the Marianum school .

Use of the Hegne Castle

As part of the gradually growing monastery complex around Hegne Castle, the castle had different functions. At first it had to accommodate the whole monastery, which was then still a small monastery, but later it was used for specific tasks. Between 1925 and 1927 it served as makeshift accommodation for the newly founded household school with an attached boarding school.

During the whole of the Second World War , mothers and children who had been evacuated from the industrial regions in northwest Germany and sent by the Caritas Association were taken in at Hegne Castle.

Between 1949 and 1976 the castle was then a training center for the candidates, postulants and, most recently, the novices of the monastery of Hegne and the assaulted religious province. After the formation of the order had meanwhile been relocated to the motherhouse in Ingenbohl ( Canton Schwyz , Switzerland ), Hegne Castle has served as a novitiate for the Hegne Monastery and the Order of Baden-Württemberg since 1985 .

Reconstruction of Hegne Castle

In 1965 and 1966 the exterior of Hegne Castle was restored. "Older masonry" was discovered, but it was not subjected to any detailed structural history investigation. Nevertheless, this discovery, together with some documentary evidence, fueled various speculations by castle and local researchers that Hegne Castle could have had a stately predecessor building. The scientifically unproven assumptions range from the early medieval Alemannic seat to the medieval castle to the late medieval manor house.

Around a hundred years after the last major redesign of the interior of the palace, the interior of Hegne Palace was completely redesigned between 1976 and 1978. Several smaller, modern rooms were created from the large interiors.

In addition to an exterior renovation of the castle and the total renovation of its foundation walls, a new chapel was set up in the park-side basement of the castle from 1996 to 1997. Like the monastery church of St. Konrad (1963) and the crypt below (1991), this was artistically designed by Elmar Hillebrand .

A renovated historical hall of Hegne Castle has been available for events since 2003.

literature

  • Wolfgang Kramer (Red.): Hegne. Village, castle, monastery (= Hegau Library 117). Hegner Kulturverein, Allensbach-Hegne 2003, ISBN 3-921413-88-5 .
  • Michael Losse: Palaces and castles on western Lake Constance. (With the islands of Mainau and Reichenau, the Höri and the Thurgauer Seerücken (Switzerland)) (= Hegau Library 122). In collaboration with Ilga Koch. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1448-9 , p. 9.
  • Günter Schmitt: Palaces and castles on Lake Constance. Volume I West, Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach 1998, pp. 240-253, ISBN 3-924489-94-7 .
  • Michael Weithmann: Castles and palaces around Lake Constance. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-7022-2922-1 .

Web links

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

Coordinates: 47 ° 42 ′ 30.5 ″  N , 9 ° 6 ′ 7.3 ″  E