Krobnitz Castle

The Krobnitz Castle (formerly also Crobnitz ) in the Görlitz district was the retirement home of the Prussian War and Navy Minister Albrecht Graf von Roon . After restoration, it will serve as a museum and event location.

location

Krobnitz Castle is located in the village of the same name five kilometers northwest of Reichenbach / OL , whose district it has been since 1994. Krobnitz is located on the Schwarzen Schöps , a tributary of the Spree. The Königshain Mountains begin about two kilometers east of Krobnitz . The Krobnitz area belongs to the part of Upper Lusatia that fell to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 ( province of Silesia ) and came back to Saxony in 1945 .

history

Lord of the castle Count Albrecht von Roon , photo of an oil painting by Gustav Graef

A manor already existed in 1551 when Hans v. Döbschütz sat on Krobnitz was mentioned. In 1589, the creditors of Hans v. Döbschütz jun. the estate to Christoph Balthasar v. Brettin, who two years later became Christoph v. Nostitz and Rengersdorf resold. It remained in the possession of the von Nostitz family until 1688 (in the order Christoph, Christoph the Younger, Hans, Carl Christoph, Johann Caspar). From 1688 to 1721 the estate was owned by the von Warnsdorf family and from 1721 to 1732 it was owned by the von Loeben.

In 1732 Carl Heinrich Wilhelm von Uechtritz bought Krobnitz for 18,000 thalers. He had a baroque mansion built around 1750. The entrance hall and staircase from the time of construction are still there, as is the room layout. His son Friedrich Wilhelm v. Uechtritz put on an early romantic park ("Friedrichtal"), the remains of which are still preserved. After the Uechtritz heirs sold the estate in 1804, it became an object of speculation for 20 years. With the purchase by Friedrich Georg Henning v. Oertzen in 1824 the economic situation stabilized. On September 6, 1873 the heirs of the family v. Oertzen Castle and Estate for 134,600 Taler.

The buyer was Count Albrecht von Roon who, as the Prussian War and Navy Minister, had a large share in the victories in the German Wars of Unification . From 1873 to 1875 he had Krobnitz converted into his retirement home, presumably according to plans by the Berlin building inspector Wilhelm Neumann . He replaced the attic storey of the baroque building with a full storey, crowned by a flat balustrade modeled on the Prussian Ministry of War on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin. The building was given a late classical facade and a two-storey side wing with an octagonal lookout tower. Since this representative renovation one can speak of a castle. Count Roon also had the landscape park laid out and a family crypt built in the rear part in 1876 . A valley strewn with rocks is included in the English landscape garden . Since 1893, a neo-Gothic chapel built by his son Waldemar to the design of the Berlin architect Wilhelm Walter (1850–1914) rose above the crypt . The construction was carried out by the Görlitz master builder Friedrich Bruno Neumann, the donor of the bell was a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The property of the Roon family was expropriated without compensation in the course of the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone in 1945. The castle briefly served the Red Army as a command post. Afterwards, refugees and displaced persons from the German eastern regions moved into it . In the early 1950s, eleven apartments were built, with the spatial structure and other architectural details being lost. The decay of the facility continued despite its use by a daycare center, among other things.

In 2000 the city of Reichenbach acquired the property from the Treuhandanstalt and professionally restored the castle and the adjoining buildings in a brisk construction activity between 2002 and 2005. The renovation of the castle park took place from 2006 to 2010

buildings

The castle has a restored again the look that gave him Albrecht Graf von Roon at his conversion. The lost tower was also rebuilt. A hall building attached in 1914, which did not fit into the overall ensemble, was demolished. Today the castle serves as a museum and is also the seat of the Silesian-Upper Lusatian Museum Association. The museum houses permanent exhibitions on the history of the estate and the Count of Roon. Special exhibitions, summer concerts but also the wedding room complete the use.

The former inspector's house to the east of the castle is used by the Association for Labor Market and Regional Development (AUR) eV for occupational therapy support for hard-to-place long-term unemployed and disadvantaged young people through employment measures in the wood and metal trades.

In the old smithy opposite the castle , a large and a small hall and a lecture hall on the upper floor have been created. Lectures and chamber concerts, but also private parties, take place here on a regular basis.

The park, overgrown over many years, has also been redesigned. The Roon family crypt still exists. The crypt chapel above was demolished in GDR times in 1980 for ideological reasons, despite its good state of preservation, but its foundation walls have been restored and its bell is on display in the museum.

The entire system
Foyer and stairwell
The wedding room
The old smithy
The Roon family crypt

Castle Park

The castle park

The castle park is a member of the garden culture trail on both sides of the Neisse . This improves the possibilities of care ( park seminars ) and the prospects for funding and tourist development.

literature

Lars-Arne Dannenberg , Matthias Donath : Castles in eastern Upper Lusatia. Edition Sächsische Zeitung, Meißen 2009
Steffen Menzel: Krobnitz Castle - History of the manor and its owners. (= Krobnitzer Hefte 1), Verlag Gunter Oettel, Görlitz / Zittau 2008
Steffen Menzel: Krobnitz Castle - A piece of Prussia in Saxony. in: Calendar Sächsische Heimat 2015, weekly 5th week 26 January – 1st February 2015