Meerholz Castle

Meerholz Castle 1850, drawn by C. Köhler , steel engraving by F. Foltz

Meerholz Castle, view of the castle from the entrance side with the gate on the left and the castle church on the right

View of the inner courtyard

Meerholz Castle is a castle in Meerholz , a district of Gelnhausen in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse . The plant was built in the 16th century in place of an older monastery residence of the branch line Isenburg-sea timber of the County of Isenburg .

history

There is evidence of a Premonstratensian monastery in Meerholz since the 1970s. After the Reformation , the monastery came into the possession of the Counts of Ysenburg-Büdingen . They had the palace complex built between 1555/64, with the former monastery building largely dictating the floor plan. The building met with resistance from the city of Gelnhausen, which, as a pledged imperial city, appealed to the imperial privilege "that no bourgeois building, nor a castle with walls, battlements and moats" could be built within an hour. The protest was ineffective, however.

The castle later served as the residence of the (after the third main division (1684) of the house Ysenburg-Büdingen) newly created (1687) special line Ysenburg-Büdingen-Meerholz . In 1904/05 another conversion to a hospital and old people's home followed. Another inner courtyard was created and parts of the complex were remodeled in the neo-Gothic style . The Meerholz branch line died out in 1929, and the city of Frankfurt am Main acquired the property in 1942 . The Evangelical Association for Inner Mission Frankfurt am Main maintains a nursing home on the property with 210 care places with an annual turnover of approx. 8.7 million €.

investment

Meerholz Castle is essentially a four-wing complex. The eastern part is occupied by the castle church with a tower from 1560, and a farmyard is attached to the southwest. There is an extensive park on the north slope below the castle.

The older inner courtyard consists of two- and three-story buildings, parts of which were changed with the renovation in 1904/05. In the east of the courtyard, there are two stair towers on an octagonal floor plan with portals and French domes , the latter probably an addition of the Baroque . The volute gable of the south wing is also historic . In the northeast of this older inner courtyard, there is the addition from the early 20th century. This includes another inner courtyard and a tower in neo-Gothic shapes.

literature

Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments - Hessen. (Ed .: Magnus Backes ), 2nd edition, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-422-00380-0 , p. 614.
Waltraud Friedrich: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Main-Kinzig district II.2. Gelnhausen, Gründau, Hasselroth, Jossgrund, Linsengericht, Wächtersbach. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Theiss, Wiesbaden / Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8062-2469-6 , pp. 659–663 (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ).
Georg Ulrich Großmann : South Hesse. Art guide. Imhof, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-935590-66-0 , p. 140.
Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 137f.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Meerholz - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Website of the care facilities Schloss Meerholz. Retrieved January 14, 2017 .

50.185445 9.145625Coordinates: 50 ° 11 '7.6 " N , 9 ° 8" 44.3 " E

[1] Website of the care facilities Schloss Meerholz. Retrieved January 14, 2017 .