Lich Castle

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Lich Castle
Castle of the princes of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

Castle of the princes of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

Creation time : from 1300
Castle type : residence
Conservation status: inhabited
Standing position : Imperial Prince
Construction: polished quarry stone
Place: Lich
Geographical location 50 ° 31'7 "  N , 8 ° 49'9"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 31'7 "  N , 8 ° 49'9"  E
Height: 168  m
Lich Castle (Hesse)
Lich Castle

The castle of the princes of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich is a castle in the old town (lower town) of the city of Lich in the district of Gießen in Hesse .

The building in its present form with three full storeys and a mansard storey as well as the two striking towers dates from the late Renaissance and Baroque periods ; the extension with the tapestry hall was built in 1911/12. It is surrounded by several outbuildings and the publicly accessible castle park. The castle itself is still the family seat of the princes of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich and is not open to the public.

History of the castle

Inner courtyard of the castle

Early predecessor buildings

Three early predecessor buildings by the lords of Hagen-Arnsberg (who later became the lords of Munzenberg) have survived , who had a Warnsberg castle on the Breuerberg north of the city and which were likely to have been farms. After the Munzenbergs died out in the middle of the 12th century, Lich came to the Lords of Falkenstein , under whom a first more favorably located valley castle was built to secure the passage of the Wetter river . The protection consisted of a wall , ditch and barricade.

Lich and the castle, drawn by Hans Döring in 1545
Lich - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655

The moated castle

Craftsmen , farmers and courtiers settled around the castle . In the year 1300 Lich received city ​​rights , the large moated castle became a protruding bastion in the southern part of the wall ring facing the weather, which now enclosed the small town. Towards the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century under Philip III. and Kuno von Falkenstein the large rectangular moated castle with four corner towers and a moat was built, which was also used to operate a water mill . In 1409 Lich went to the Solms family (noble family) .

Later lower were the four corner towers towers in front, invoices to date back to 1525. A city view from 1546 Solmser court painter Hans Döring shows the four corner towers with pointed conical roofs , the two Südtürme have loopholes , and the two north towers dormers .

According to old rent accounts, a chapel originally located at the castle was demolished at the beginning of the 16th century. It can be seen in a picture created after 1489, which was donated by Philipp zu Solms-Lich (1468–1544) and his wife Adriana (1470–1524) to the church in Hattenrod . In 1606 under Ernst II (1565–1619) an attempt to break in windows led to the collapse of the southwest tower, in 1617 its remains were demolished. The Thirty Years War prevented a planned rebuilding, which should also include a dungeon vault .

A plan dating from 1765 still shows the original structure with the square core castle and its four towers with the round towers in front, surrounded by a wall and rampart with a moat as a fortification.

From the castle to the chateau

Under Hermann Adolf Moritz zu Solms-Lich (1646–1650), in the late Renaissance period from 1673 to 1682, the old moated castle was fundamentally converted into a representative palace with a new south wing in the Renaissance style, the fortress porches were completely removed.

Carl Christian (1725–1803), ruled as 1st Prince of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich in 1792 , continued the construction work from 1764 to 1766: With the demolition of the north wing, the palace was given its current three-wing shape Baroque windows arranged in even rows, the baroque mansard roofs and the distinctive octagonal onion helmets on the remaining towers, which give the castle its character. The ramparts were razed, the moat filled, only a pond remained as a relic of the latter.

Cross wing and main courtyard

Monument to Ludwig Prince of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

In 1836 Georg Moller built a middle transverse wing with a parade balcony, entrance hall and staircase in the classical style. Since then, there are only two small atriums inside the castle. In the courtyard with the parade balcony, which opens towards the lower town, stands the monument to Ludwig zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1805–1880), probably the most prominent representative of his family. Originally unveiled outside the palace area on July 2, 1905, it was later implemented.

In the entrance hall is a replica of the Ingolstadt equestrian statue of Reinhard I von Solms-Lich , builder of the Ingolstadt fortress . The main staircase itself with its richly carved parapets dates from around 1700.

The tapestry hall

According to plans by Heinrich Metzendorf , a two-story ballroom was built on the east side in 1911/1912 and a round tower was added to the foundations of one of the outer defense towers. The hall is called the Gobelin Hall because of the large tapestries that adorn its walls . These tapestries originally come from Hohensolms Castle , they show hunting motifs and are crowned with the Solms coat of arms; some date to the year 1634. The tapestry hall, which has highly acclaimed acoustics , is z. B. open to the public at chamber concerts . A collection of faience is located in the associated round tower .

The library

The Fürstlich Solms-Hohensolms-Lich'sche manuscripts archive goes back to the 13th century. It is considered to be one of the most valuable archives in Hesse from a cultural and historical point of view and includes around 2000 documents and around 350 other bundles of the houses in Solms-Lich, Solms-Hohensolms and Solms-Hohensolms-Lich as well as the archives of the former Cistercian Abbey of Arnsburg Monastery .

The princely rent office
The Marstall with its turret around 1930 on a postcard

Outbuildings

From 1780, the Marstall in the classicist style and the so-called rent chamber were built on the west side between the castle and the farmyard . The farm yard, which was used for agriculture until the 1970s, was rededicated after the dairy industry was abandoned. The baroque building on the street side now houses medical practices, the former stables facing the park have been converted into a stylish residential complex.

The former castle or lower mill - popularly known as Dippemühl - located south of the castle on the Wetter River has housed a pottery and apartments since the 1940s .

The castle park

The castle park, which is around 7 hectares in size, is now considered one of the most botanically beautiful parks in Hesse. It was first mentioned in 1644 as the Great Garden . Originally, the Licher palace gardens were probably a princely kitchen garden . In an engraving by Merian from 1650, it can be seen in the area near the castle as a purely orchard .

From 1828, on behalf of the young liberal Prince Ludwig zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, it was redesigned as a wedding present for his future wife Marie von Isenburg-Büdingen - they got married in 1829 - into a landscape park in the English style that had emerged since the 18th century . At the same time it was made accessible to the citizens of the city - which was rather unusual for the time. A few years later the position of a park attendant was set up, probably because of emerging vandalism ; it existed until the 1960s.

Then as now, the park, following the former bastions, stretched in a curved shape from the Rödertor, which no longer exists today (today the entrance to Kolnhäuser Strasse / Braugasse), along the remains of the old city wall and the so-called ice tower, past the rear of what is now the apartments converted former stables, the royal stables and the castle - this is where the publicly accessible part ends - to the lower gate, which no longer exists today, between the Untermühle (Dippemühle) and the weather bridge opposite the former post office - but in contrast to today it also extends up to the Hardtberg. With the construction of the Gießen – Lich – Büdingen railway line , which opened in 1869 , the Hardtberg plateau was cut off from the palace gardens by the embankment during the lifetime of its founder and later built on, so that the park is now only about half its original size.

Castle and park from around 1910 on an artist postcard

Ludwig put the planning and implementation of the park in the hands of the Forestry Councilor Karl Heinrich Braun, who, in addition to the then common park plantings such as plane trees , elms , silver poplars , maples and the chestnut avenue that still dominates today, also added to the then still highly exotic and expensive trees and shrubs North American white pine , horse chestnut , bald cypress , tulip tree , Colorado fir handle , rounded off with ornamental trees such as deutzia , weigelia , barberries , laburnum , firthorn and cornel cherry , creating a botanical treasure. Small bridges still span the branches of the Wetter that feed the castle pond, a rudimentary relic of the former fortress moat .

Above this artificially created swan pond , an octagonal wooden tea house was built on an old fortress elevation , the interior of which was decorated with art-historically valuable wallpaper paintings from the Solms estates. Until the beginning of the 1980s, a popular destination for young people who skate on the castle pond, it is only rudimentary today. Around 1970 a fountain was installed in the pond . A bosket originally laid out no longer exists today, an orangery planned as early as 1806 exists as a draft, but was never implemented.

To this day the park is owned by the Princely House of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. An annual closing day breaks the common law of the city and its citizens; it is usually used for tree maintenance work.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 307.
  • August Wagner: The palace garden. In: Licher Heimatbuch. On behalf of the city of Lich, edited by the committee for the Lich homeland book. Lich 1950.
  • Sven Weigel: Castles and palaces in the Gießen district. Verlag Emil Winter, Heuchelheim 2000, ISBN 3-926923-28-8 .
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 232f.
  • Licher homeland book. On behalf of the city of Lich, edited by the committee for the Lich homeland book. Lich 1950.
  • Licher homeland book. The core city and its districts. Edited by Paul Görlich, published by the Lich City Administration in 1989.

Web links

Commons : Lich Castle  - Collection of images