Helfenberg Castle (Dresden)

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Manor house Helfenberg

The Helfenberg Castle is a castle in the east of the Saxon capital Dresden in the district of Helfenberg . The building ensemble consisting of the manor house and castle park, farm buildings of the manor, manor building with courtyard entrance, wall remains and retaining masonry is a registered cultural monument .

In earlier times, the neighboring Helfenberg Castle , of which only ruins remain, was also called this. After the construction of a manor house in a Vorwerk belonging to the castle, the name was transferred to the current castle.

Helfenberg Castle

Helfenberg Castle was located to the west of today's Helfenberg location . It was first mentioned in 1350 as Castrum Helfenberg in districtu Dresden situm , but is probably more than 100 years older. This hill fort comes from the time of the German East Settlement . In 1397 a document names the castle czum Helffenberge ; In 1410 it was referred to as sloss Helffinberg . The name zum Helffenberge has been handed down from 1505. At times the castle was also called Helfenstein and Hilfenburg .

The fortifications lay on a mountain spur on the edge of the Helfenberger Grund . It was secured against the hinterland, in the direction of Gönnsdorf , by ditches and ramparts. The early residents used them mainly as a waiting room and refuge. The castle was only a few hundred square meters and developed into the center of a small manor and a knight's seat . According to legend, the cruel robber barbarian Barbaricy had his shelter here at times .

In the 14th century , the Helfenberg rule belonged to the Burgraves of Dohna . From 1397 it was owned by the von Ziegler gentlemen ; as early as 1400 it passed to the then Meissnian margrave Friedrich IV and became a crown property . The influential Dresden bourgeois family Kundig received the manor in 1445, from 1510 the aristocratic Karras ruled. In 1535, the lords of Carlowitz became the new owners, before Elector Moritz transferred the rule of Helfenberg to Hans von Dehn-Rothfelser in the early 1550s . His heirs held interest rights here until 1760.

The end of Helfenberg Castle began around 1535 when a mansion was built to the east of it in what is now Helfenberg . Although the castle was initially still habitable, the main seat of the manor was moved to the new, more representative building in the middle of the 16th century. The castle only served as a place of refuge. In 1631, during the Thirty Years War , the landlords withdrew here from the attacks of the Croatians .

Helfenberg Castle was mentioned as an old castle around 1700 , but was only rarely used. It fell into disrepair in the 18th century. The castle ruins were used in 1775 to obtain building material for the construction of a new manor house and were largely removed in the process. In 1878 only a Gothic archway reminded of the former castle. Remnants of ruins, including parts of the wall and sections of the ramparts, have been preserved to this day. Archaeologists hid medieval ceramics here .

Manor house Helfenberg

To simplify the management of belonging to the castle Helfenberg lands one was east of their Vorwerk built. It was first mentioned in 1420 as forwergk Helffenberg . It probably represents the nucleus of today's district of Helfenberg .

A new mansion in the Renaissance style was built around 1535 on the grounds of this larger estate . When Helfenberg was expanded into a large manor house under Hans von Dehn-Rothfelser , his family moved their main residence from the castle to the manor house in 1547, which was then enlarged. It was then inhabited by one of Dehn-Rothfelser's seven sons, the electoral stable master Ernst Abraham von Dehn-Rothfelser. His only son, the Reichsjägermeister Hans Dippold von Dehn-Rothfelser, died in 1665 in the Helfenberg manor.

In 1775 this mansion was rebuilt, which has since been increasingly referred to as Helfenberg Castle , according to plans by Johann Gottfried Kuntsch . For this two-storey building, which was designed with a half-hip roof , Kuntsch used broken stones from the now Helfenberg castle ruins as building material.

As early as 1800, Gottlob Friedrich Thormeyer redesigned it in the style of classicism . The building was extended to the east; Since then, the facade is no longer divided into seven, but nine axes and was equipped with three reliefs created by Thaddäus Ignatius Wiskotschill before 1789 . They are called "Painting", "Sculpture" and "Apollo and the Muses" and were originally located at Camillo Marcolini's house in Wilsdruffer Gasse in Dresden's old town .

During the renovation, the entrance to the manor was placed on the east side and a wide flight of steps was placed in front of it. The castle was given a gable roof and the three gable windows were given a common circular screen. The gate pillars at the courtyard entrance were decorated with sandstone urns.

A park connects to the south of the manor house . It was probably created at the beginning of the 17th century and changed several times. Its current shape goes back to the early 19th century. Between 1806 and 1811 the landlord James Ogilvy, 7th Earl of Findlater , had it redesigned in the English style . During this time, valuable trees were planted, such as several false cypresses , a tulip tree and two beeches . The latter have been under protection since 1958; because of their special size and characteristics, they are designated as natural monument ND78 . The park is characterized by the contrasting variety of large deciduous and coniferous trees and is crossed by the Elbhangwanderweg .

Land reform 1945 in Helfenberg

After Findlater's death in 1811, the estate was passed on to his partner and private secretary Johann Georg Christian Fischer, who lived in Helfenberg until his death in 1860. The Albertiner , the Saxon royal family, took over the Helfenberger and the neighboring Gönnsdorf manor in 1878. The management was carried out by changing tenants. After the abolition of the monarchy , the house association Albertine Line e. V. the estate and thus also the manor house, whereby the Wettins were still the landlords. After the Second World War they were expropriated as part of the land reform .

In 1948, the planned demolition of the castle in favor of new farms was prevented. The former manor house later served as a school, as the administrative headquarters of an LPG that joined the Bühlauer LPG Neues Leben in 1970 , and as a repair shop. A large part of the estate was used for agriculture until 1990 . The preserved buildings, including the manor house, are listed as historical monuments . Most of them are empty; After the castle was sold in 2006, the gradual renovation of the building began.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helfenberg in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
  2. ^ Rainer [G.] Richter: The art in Saxony under the influence of the Minister Camillo Craf Marcolini, in: Keramos, magazine of the Society of Ceramic Friends e. V. Düsseldorf, issue 126, October 1989, pp. 7-26 (with ill.).
  3. ^ A group in stone above the Gräfl's portal. Marcoline house in Wilsdrufer Gasse. Apollo and the Muses, carved in skin relief according to the length of the stone; together with two other allegorical side groups, one of which relates to the sculptor and the other to the art of painting. From: Article Wiskotschill (Thaddäus). In: General Artist Lexicon, or: Brief message about the life and works of painters, sculptors, builders, engravers, art founders, steel cutters & c. & c. In addition to the attached lists of teachers and students, also the portraits, of the artists contained in this lexicon: second part, which contains the continuation and addition of the first. Eleventh section. W. Zurich, bey Orell, Füßli and Compagnie, MDCCCXX, p. 6024 .
  4. ↑ A group in stone above the portal of the count. Marcoline house in Wilsdrufer Gasse. Apollo and the Muses, carved in skin relief according to the length of the stone; together with 2 other allegorical side groups, one of which relates to the sculptor and the other to the Mahler art. From: Article WISKOTSCHILL (Thaddäus) . In: Johann Georg Meusel : Teutsches Künstlerlexikon or directory of German artists living now, together with a directory of libraries worth seeing, art, coin and natural history cabinets in Germany and Switzerland. Second part, which contains additions and corrections to the first. LEMGO, published by Meyerschen Buchhandlung, 1789, p. 260 .
  5. ↑ Hanging bookings at Helfenberger Park. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013 ; accessed on June 22, 2012 (photo of the natural monument signage by Matthias Erfurth).
  6. ↑ Protected areas according to the Nature Conservation Act. (PDF; 155 kB) In: Environmental Atlas 04/2008. Environmental Office of the City of Dresden, accessed on June 22, 2012 .
  7. ^ Christian Kunath: From the history of the Schönfeld highlands. Retrieved June 22, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Helfenberg. In: Dresdner-Stadtteile.de. Retrieved June 22, 2012 .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 13.2 "  N , 13 ° 51 ′ 49.7"  E