La Motte Castle

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La Motte Castle, avenue to the gatehouse of the former castle
La Motte Castle, gatehouse of the former castle
La Motte Castle on a map from 1810, The Corps de Logis (residential wing, No. 20) is shown in light red, the utility wing (No. 18) is shown with dark red hatching.

The La Motte castle was a baroque castle, which remains in the city Lebach in the Saarland can be found. La Motte Castle served as the ancestral seat of the Lebach-based barons of Hagen zur Motten , who moved their seat here from the nearby Old Castle around 1300 . Today only the gatehouse is left of the building complex . After various disputes about the succession, the actual castle was finally auctioned off and later demolished on behalf of the banker Abraham Mayer by 1882.

Barons von Hagen zum Motten

In the 18th century Lebach was subject to a four-man rule . It belonged to the rule of the Electorate of Trier , feudal bearers were the barons of Hagen. The barons had a two-seventh share of the place during the four-man rule. The coat of arms of the Barons von Hagen zur Motten can still be found in the Lebach coat of arms. After the French Revolution, the Barons von Hagen zur Motten died out.

Medieval motten castle

The name of the aristocratic residence "zur Motten" can be traced back to the early medieval fortification type Motte . An initially timbered, later masonry defensive tower was built on an artificially piled up truncated cone-shaped hill, which was surrounded by a ditch. This served the noble family as a shelter and living space. The Lebacher Mottenburg was first mentioned in writing in 1323. The noble free von Hagen left their former headquarters, the 11th century ring wall castle on the "Alten Hahn" near Lebach, and moved into the new facility in Theeltal.

In 1332 the Archbishop of Trier, Baldwin of Luxembourg , forced the noble free von Hagen to transfer their property, the castle house to the Motten, to a ligical and open fiefdom , i.e. H. they had to commit to opening their fortified castle complex to the Trier church prince, who now had privileges in the use of the complex. Archbishop Balduin imposed a construction inspection on the new building of the "Burgstad (castle site) zu der Motten", which had previously been destroyed and made a fief. He gave the gentlemen von Hagen permission to build a stone house on the castle complex with outer bailey and an outer moat on a rectangular floor plan with three- foot- thick walls, which could be bricked without mortar and only given a thin lime plaster. The aristocratic family was not allowed to build another stone building on the now archbishop's fief.

The measure of Baldwin served to humiliate the militant noblemen of Hagen, who were lowered not only in their power but also in terms of their social prestige, as the old and influential Rhenish noble family was relegated from baron to knighthood by the Archbishop of Trier.

Baroque palace construction

The baroque family castle La Motte of Baron Johann Wilhelm Ludwig von Hagen zur Motten (1673–1750) was built between 1707 and 1711 on the site of the old Motten Castle, which had been the family seat from 1300. The builder's brother, Johann Hugo (I.) von Hagen (1678–1735), Canon of Eichstätt, was in charge of the actual construction management. From his letters it emerges that he drew plans and designs for the new palace building, incorporating knowledge from contemporary and historical architecture as well as architectural theoretical works. The entire complex was designed as a moated castle.

The building was almost completely demolished between 1862 and 1882. Two privately owned historical representations of the aristocratic residence, an oil painting from 1779 and a watercolor from 1839, only partially reflect its real appearance.

After the extensive demolition work in the 19th century, only the structurally modified gate construction of the castle and the eastern part of the former three-wing service wing remained. An avenue lined with hornbeams that leads to the gate has also been preserved. Overall, the facility is used today as an agricultural property, although the historical remains are in a built-up and neglected condition.

The two-part structure of the moth complex from the 14th century has been preserved over the centuries and already in the 17th century led to an early baroque palace complex with a spacious farm yard, which probably already included the still-preserved gate building. The new palace from 1709–1712 was partly built on the foundations of an early Baroque predecessor building from the 17th century, with the gate construction still preserved today being integrated into the palace design. The water castle character of the entire complex with the moats was also retained. Canon Johann Hugo von Hagen found modern and practical solutions for the establishment of the feudal residence. The room arrangement follows that of the apartment double, which means that the rooms are arranged in two rows. The castle had a large, vaulted ballroom , a representative enfilade , practical internal stairs and toilets with large windows.

Johann Hugo's drafts were converted into executable construction plans by the Electorate court architect Philipp J. Honorius Ravenstein. He was probably also the technical site manager for the castle construction in Motten. There is archival evidence of electoral Trier craftsmen building the palace.

With the death of the President of the Imperial Court Council Johann Hugo (II.) Von Hagen (1707-1791) at the age of 84 in Vienna in 1791, the male Lebach family died out. A conflict arose over the inheritance between the surviving sisters Johann Hugos and the Lorraine branch of the dynasty, which asserted its claims to property. The Lorraine line of those von Hagen, de la Haye, finally took over large parts of the property in 1806 after long legal disputes, including Castle Motten. After this Lorraine line had also died out in the male line, the estate was for sale in 1822. In 1846 it was finally put up for public auction. The banker Abraham Mayer had most of the castle demolished by the owners in the second half of the 19th century by 1882.

Natural monument "Old Yew"

La Motte Castle, historic yew tree

A yew tree on the former castle grounds is one of the oldest trees in the Saarland. The age data for this tree vary between 700 and 1000 years. The yew, which is one of the oldest conifer species in Europe, is, besides the pine, the only conifer originally native to the Saar region. The constant deforestation for the manufacture of weapons and the fear of toxicity led to the fact that the yew deposits were so decimated that the tree species is only found sporadically in Saarland today. It cannot be determined whether the Lebach yew tree on the former castle grounds is the rest of a medieval yew forest, or whether it was planted when the moth enclosure was built in the 12th century. On the initiative of the historical association Lebach eV the way to the yew tree with two wooden bridges over the old mill ditch was planned and laid out in cooperation with the Catholic adult education , the city Lebach , the owner family Brodback and the state office for environment and occupational safety of the Saarland. The yew is usually 10 to 15 meters high and stops growing at the age of 90. Then it only grows in width. The Lebach yew tree is 14 meters high.

swell

  • Saarbrücken state archive: holdings of the Münchweiler estate files no. 409: private letters from the von Hagen family to the Motten from the 18th century; Stock 22 No. 2855: Reconstruction plans for the Saarbrücken Castle by JC Motte dit la Bonté from 1696; Photo documentation by Hagen zur Motten: B 668/7: "Entrance portal of the Schloss zur Motten drawn from nature and lithographed by Marie von Hagen 1886"; B 668/10: The old castle mill, inherited in 1371, demolished. 1898, lithograph by Marie von Hagen from 1884; B 668/14: Oil painting from the park of Motten Castle
  • Saarlouis City Archives: Nicolas Bernard Motte: Manuscrit tiré des archives mêmes de Sarrelouis et de ses environs par Nicolas Bernard Motte Seigneur d'Altvillers (1777–1860). Sarrelouis 1922/23
  • Diocese archive Trier: Dept. 50, 47 No. 31, 1710–1721, 1724: Letters from Johann Wilhelm Ludwig von Hagen
  • Trier City Archives: Dept. 54 K (DK 54) No. 850: "Specifications" by the builder Ravenstein for the construction work on Bekond Castle
  • Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz: Inventory 24 No. 964, page 285: Colored drawing in connection with a file relating to the rule of Eppelborn and Calmesweiler 1480–1792

literature

  • OR Beyer: La Motte Castle near Lebach, a local history contribution, in: Saarländische Volkszeitung from December 10, 1954.
  • OR Beyer: What did La Motte Castle look like? Matthias Schäfer from Lebach is the last eyewitness, in: Saarbrücker Zeitung of February 23, 1955 (Kreisanzeiger für Saarlouis).
  • Kurt Hoppstädter: The Lords of Hagen to Motten, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 12th year 1962, pp. 27–94.
  • Josef Jochum: Das Schloss zur Motten, A piece of Lebach local history, in: History and Landscape No. 89, 1968.
  • Josef Jochum: The seat of the gentlemen of Hagen, in: Geschichte und Landschaft, No. 95, 1968.
  • Johannes Naumann: The Barons of Hagen to Motten - their life and work in the Saar-Mosel region, Blieskastel 2000.
  • Margarete Wagner: Schloss Motte bei Lebach, an art historical contemplation, in: Florilegium Artis, contributions to art history and monument preservation, commemorative publication for Wolfgang Götz on the occasion of his 60th birthday on February 12, 1983, published by Michael Berens, Claudia Maas and Franz Ronig, Saarbrücken 1984, pp. 161-164.
  • Margarete Wagner-Grill: "Zur Motten" castle near Lebach, attempt to reconstruct it based on written sources, unpublished master's thesis in the field of art history at Saarland University, 1989.
  • Walter Zimmermann: The art monuments of the Ottweiler and Saarlouis districts, Düsseldorf 1934, pp. 226–229.

Web links

Commons : La Motte Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margarete Wagner-Grill: Castle "Zur Motten" near Lebach, attempt of a reconstruction based on written sources, unpublished master's thesis in the field of art history at Saarland University, 1989.
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120211142900/http://www.saarland-biografien.de/Hagen-zur-Motten-Johann-Heinrich-II-von , accessed on November 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120211142900/http://www.saarland-biografien.de/Hagen-zur-Motten-Johann-Heinrich-II-von , accessed on November 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ Margarete Wagner-Grill: Castle "Zur Motten" near Lebach, attempt of a reconstruction based on written sources, unpublished master's thesis in the field of art history at Saarland University, 1989.
  5. ↑ Johannes Naumann: The barons of Hagen zur Motten, Blieskastel 2000, pp. 305–309.
  6. ↑ http://www.saarlandbilder.net/orte/lebach/motte.html , accessed on November 26, 2016.
  7. ↑ http://www.lebach-aktuell.de/?page_id=202 , accessed on June 15, 2017.

Coordinates: 49 ° 24 ′ 29.1 ″  N , 6 ° 52 ′ 48 ″  E