Kleinniedesheim Castle
The Schloss Kleinniedesheim is a baroque palace building in the village of Kleinniedesheim , Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis , Rhineland-Palatinate .
history
Local history
In 1230, the bailiwick of Groß- and Kleinniedesheim was given by Emperor Friedrich II to Count Philip I of Falkenstein , who remained in his family until 1458. In that year, Emperor Friedrich III. the upper fief rights of the County of Falkenstein to Duke Johann von Lothringen . Before Lorraine , in which the County of Falkenstein was incorporated in 1667, was annexed to France, Duke Franz Stephan passed Groß- und Kleinniedesheim to the Palatinate Elector Karl III in 1733 . Philipp from. Both places received the electoral privy councilor and resident in the Electoral Palatinate, Jakob Joseph von Stefne (also Steffne, Stepfne or Stephne) as a fief in 1734. He was an advisor to the Cologne Elector Clemens August von Bayern and a close confidante of the Austrian Minister Johann Karl Philipp Graf Cobenzl . With the latter he fell out of favor with his sovereign as early as 1745, the fiefdom was withdrawn from him and the villages were subordinated to the Electoral Palatinate sub-district Freinsheim .
History of the castle
When Jakob Joseph von Stefne came to power in Kleinniedesheim in 1734, he built today's Kleinniedesheim Castle. He died on June 19, 1753 Gernsheim and in the local pilgrimage church of Maria Einsiedel buried. When the fief was withdrawn, he was allowed to keep his castle, which fell to his son Clemens August von Stefne , the last provost of the Worms Andreasstift . Since he was still a minor when he inherited , his great-uncle Jakob Leonhard Maudray († 1759), also provost of St. Andreas in Worms, took over his guardianship. Like Jakob Joseph von Stefne, he came from Liège . The name Propst Maudraysche's Castle , which is sometimes still used today for the property, also comes from the Worms clergyman .
On February 1, 1765, Clemens August von Stefne sold his noble manor in Kleinniedesheim for 22,000 guilders to Karl Christoph Gottlieb von Gagern and his wife Susanna Esther nee. from La Roche-Starkenfels. The on Ruegen born Karl Christoph Gottlieb von Gagern (1743-1825) was the last palatine-zweibrückische Obersthofmeister . As a young officer in the French regiment of foreigners "Royal Deuxponts" , he lost a leg in the battle near Korbach on July 8, 1760, and was therefore taken on as a war disabled in the courtly service of his country. In 1766 his son Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern (1766-1852) was born to him at Schloss Kleinniedesheim , Prime Minister of the Prince of Nassau-Weilburg , and Dutch envoy to the Congress of Vienna . The family stayed in Kleinniedesheim for only about nine years. In 1774, the poor health forced Susanna Esther von Gagern to move to nearby Worms, where she died in 1783. Structural changes to Kleinniedesheim Palace are not documented during the von Gagern era. However, Laurent Louis Midart (1733–1800) from Lorraine , who later made a name for himself as a painter and engraver, worked here as the son's court master and French teacher . According to Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern's memories, he often brought him field flowers from the district, which Midart then painted.
Karl Christoph Gottlieb von Gagern sold the castle and the associated estate on June 20, 1784, for 36,000 guilders, to the wealthy Bremen merchant Johann Friedrich Schultze († 1814) and his wife Eva Maria, born in Frankfurt am Main . Friederich. Schultze's nephew, the adventurer Johann Konrad Friederich (1789–1858), writes in his memoirs that the uncle “bought Schloss Niedesheim near Worms after seeing many estates on the Rhine with his wife” . It goes on to say there, “He had the same furnished and decorated in the most splendid and comfortable way, the estate became a truly paradisiacal summer stay and was constantly teeming with relatives and well-known guests. It was merry and happy there. Celebrations and banquets, with the dignitaries from Worms , Mannheim , Frankenthal , Speyer etc. diligently showing up, followed one after the other, but the winter was lived in Frankfurt. ” Johann Friedrich Schultze had Kleinniedesheim Palace rebuilt and expanded in its current form in 1785. He also built the classical pavilion in the palace garden, now the symbol of the community. Johann Konrad Friederich states: “So you lived in a frenzy of pleasure until the French Revolution broke out, as a result of which you left Niedesheim Castle several times and finally forever. When the wild French came, they smashed all the furniture, tore down the most precious wallpaper, cooked their soup with the wood of a broken English piano and caused damage of more than 30,000 guilders. ” The Schultze family moved to Bad Homburg vor der Höhe in 1792 .
Via Schultze's childhood friend Peter Wreede, the next owner, Schloss Kleinniedesheim passed through several hands until it was bought in 1838 by the Amsterdam merchant Johann Rudolph Westkirch, whose descendants still own the southern part of the castle and the courtyard. The north wing and part of the west wing, with the tower and entrance portal, have been the property of the municipality since 1905; For a long time this property served as a school and community center. Most of the garden area with the pavilion is also owned by the municipality. Extensive renovation and restoration took place in 1985–1988.
Building stock
The castle with its outbuildings is four wings and has a courtyard to which a raised terrace to the west followed, which has towards the courtyard a Balusterbrüstung. To the west, the terrace merges into the palace garden, in which the classicistic round pavilion, which is now used as a registry office, is located; a work by the architect Johann Georg Christian Hess . On the western border of the area, the palace garden is delimited by a pillar gate and a wall. The east and north wings form the two-storey residential wing with 13 window axes and hip roofs each. The three-story tower with a mansard roof is located in the northeast corner. The east side and the corners of the tower have rusticated pilaster strips. On the east side, the main portal sits above a two-armed flight of stairs, and to the south of it is the access gate to the castle courtyard with rusticated walls and crowning stone. In the staircase to the garden there is a keystone with the year 1735, which is offset there and is considered to be the original year of construction by Jakob Joseph von Stefne. The current appearance in the late baroque or classicist style goes back to the merchant Johann Friedrich Schultze who owned the castle from 1784.
gallery
Castle back from the terrace
Entrance to the castle square to the north
Main portal
Garden side portal with pavilion
Garden pavilion
Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern , born in 1766 at Kleinniedesheim Castle
literature
- State Office for Monument Preservation: The Art Monuments of Bavaria. Administrative region Pfalz, VIII. City and administrative district Frankenthal, Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1939, pp. 343–347
Web links
- Website on the history of Schloss Kleinniedesheim
- Website on the history of the village of Kleinniedesheim
Individual evidence
- ↑ Complete diary of the strangest incidents during the election and coronation of Emperor Charles VII , Frankfurt, 1742, p. 23; (Digital scan to function as resident)
- ^ Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine, especially the old Archdiocese of Cologne , annual volume 1927, p. 40; (Detail scan)
- ^ Michael Frey : Attempt at a geographical-historical-statistical description of the royal Bavarian Rhine district , part 2, p. 252, Speyer, 1836; (Digital scan)
- ^ Kurmainzischer Hof- und Staats-Kalender , Mainz 1792, p. 310; (Digital scan)
- ^ The register of the University of Heidelberg , Volume 4, p. 18 u. 420, Heidelberg, 1903, (detail scan)
- ^ Christian Gottlieb von Stramberg, Anton Joseph Weidenbach: Memorable and useful Rhenish antiquarian , part 2, volume 3, p. 692, Koblenz, 1853; (Digital scan)
- ^ Biographical website on Laurent Louis Midart
- ^ Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern : Mein Antheil an der Politik , Volume 1, S. 8, Verlag Cotta, Stuttgart, 1823; (Digital scan)
Coordinates: 49 ° 35 ′ 14.5 " N , 8 ° 19 ′ 19.8" E