Neudeck Castle
Neudeck Castle ( Polish : Zamek w Świerklańcu ) was the residence of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family in Upper Silesia . The palace complex including the park was one of the largest and most magnificent in the German Empire and was popularly known as the Klein Versailles or Upper Silesian Versailles . It is located about two kilometers southeast of the municipality of Neudeck (Polish: Świerklaniec ) in the Powiat Tarnogórski in Poland .
The Old and New Castle were set on fire by the Red Army in 1945 and demolished in August 1961. Today the complex consists of the castle park , the cavalier palace , the Donnersmarck burial chapel and some farm buildings and monuments.
history
In the Middle Ages, the area around today's Świerklaniec was a strategically important point, as the Brinitz formed a natural border between Silesia and Poland there . There was also an important trade route from Czestochowa to Bytom . As early as the 11th century, a mansion was built to fortify the border, which later became the current Old Castle . To defend it, it was surrounded by a moat and an earth wall. There was also the seat of a starost Boleslaus the Brave . In 1179 the Ratibor duke Mieszko I acquired the estate from the Polish duke Casimir II. Later it was the Teschen princes who in 1337 took over the rule of Świerklaniec from the Ratiborans. The estate was probably expanded into a fortified castle by Duke Konrad II of Oels during this transitional period , although it should be noted that there were 18 principalities and several territorial lords in Silesia at that time, making almost every major city the seat of its own principality.
The 15th century was marked by many changes of rule. The last written mention of the Teschen as owners was in 1451. In 1477 Świerklaniec was first mentioned as part of the Bytom Duchy and in the same year the name of the border castle Swiklenczy was mentioned for the first time. The Opole Duke Johann II , the last Opole Piast , acquired the area around Bytom in 1498 for 19,000 guilders and rebuilt the existing castle. In this brick tile in Gothic Association used. At that time Neudeck was part of the most important Silesian principality. When Johann ran out of money in 1526, the castle had to be mortgaged. Six years later, in the year of his death in 1532, the rule of Neudeck and the entire surrounding area fell to Josef von Brandenburg and thus to the Hohenzollern family , who with the Margraviate Brandenburg also held the electoral dignity . As a result, Świerklaniec achieved a certain political importance for the first time, which lasted a good hundred years. Josef and his successors Josef Friedrich, Joachim Friedrich and Johann Josef von Hohenzollern are to be named as the owners at that time. They made a name for themselves in the Beuthener Land by rebuilding numerous mines, with which they decisively initiated the industrial development of the region. During her reign, mining and town rights were also granted to the later district town of Tarnowitz . In the course of the Thirty Years' War , the Hohenzollern family lost their entire Upper Silesian property to the Habsburgs in 1621 , but they could only call them their own for a very short time.
Owned by the Donnersmarck
Because in 1623 Lazarus I. Henckel von Donnersmarck received the rule from the Silesian High Court and Princely Court initially as a pledge and thus ushered in the long Donnersmarck era. In this context, the name Neudeck appears for the first time . On May 26, 1629, his son Lazarus II officially bought the Neudeck estates from Emperor Ferdinand II and made Neudeck the headquarters of a line of Donnersmarck. Since then, the entire Donnersmarck estate has been an indivisible inheritance. The family was raised to imperial count in 1651. In 1670 the hereditary lands were divided into the Fideikommisse Beuthen and Tarnowitz-Neudeck . The first representative of the Protestant Tarnowitz-Neudecker line was Carl Maximilian Count Henckel von Donnersmarck. Between 1670 and 1680 he had the old castle redesigned by an Italian into a representative Renaissance residence with an adjoining park. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the palace was "modernized" in baroque style in the 18th century .
Flowering in the 19th century
In the 19th century , Count Carl Lazarus enlarged the family's property by purchasing new goods. During this time the system underwent its most decisive modifications. First, the old castle in Tudor style was expanded and rebuilt. In 1848 Carl Lazarus transferred all of his fortune to his son Guido Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck , probably the most important member of the family.
At the large lake in the castle park, the construction of a new, second castle began in 1868 after his order. At the beginning, the construction management was in the hands of the French architect Pierre Manguin , under whose aegis the French Pontchartrain Palace near Paris , acquired by Donnersmarck in 1857 for his second wife, Blanka Marquise de Païva , had been restored. Donnersmarck's new residence was built in a neo-baroque style, closely following the style of Pontchartrain (see images below) . After Manguin's death (1869), construction management was passed on to Hector Lefuel , then chief architect of the new Louvre , who completed the new building in 1876. Since then, the Tudor Castle has also been called the Old Castle . As the third and at the same time smallest palace, the Kavalierspalast was built to the southeast of the New Palace until 1906.
The Irish engineer Fox was commissioned with the construction of the 250 hectare park in 1865 , based on plans by Peter Joseph Lenné , who died shortly afterwards, and his pupil Gustav Meyer . A landscape park in the English style was created, which was interspersed with groves and small wooded areas as well as meadows and was crossed by small streams with stone and cast-iron bridges. Neudeck therefore not only had one of the most magnificent palace complexes, but also one of the largest parks in the German Empire.
This unique ensemble of old and new castle, the cavalier's palace and the Donnersmarck burial chapel, which was built at the same time, was visited several times by Kaiser Wilhelm II , who not only went hunting in the surrounding wooded areas, but also often took credit from the count . Finally, he raised Count Guido for his services in the political and economic field to the prince status (Guido Count Henckel Prince of Donnersmarck). Thus Neudeck was also the seat of a prince. From here extensive properties with a total area of 27,500 hectares were administered in all of East Central Europe , especially in Upper Silesia (possession of numerous mines), but also in Austrian Galicia and in Congress Poland, which was occupied by Russia .
Interwar period
In 1922, Neudeck fell to Poland after the referendum in Upper Silesia and has been called Świerklaniec again since then . The Donnersmarcks were able to save their property under Polish rule, however, as Guido's son Kraft opted for Poland. From 1924 to 1937 the former Swiss Federal President Felix Calonder lived in the castle as President of the Mixed Commission for Upper Silesia. His task was to act as an independent observer to monitor compliance with the German-Polish Agreement on Upper Silesia (Geneva Agreement) and the protection of the rights of the respective minorities in both parts of Upper Silesia.
Destruction and Post War
During the invasion of Poland in 1939, Świerklaniec, like all of Eastern Upper Silesia, was occupied by German troops. The 316-year rule of Henckel von Donnersmarck in Neudeck ended for good in 1945. The family was expropriated by the communists , and the old and new palaces were destroyed by arson by the Red Army after the end of the war . The local population brought the destruction to an end by looting the interior and ravaging the exterior and the park. The two formerly important castles remained as ruins, which were neither conserved nor rebuilt in the post-war period , but were finally demolished in 1961. The Kavalierspalast was also damaged in 1945, but the damage was limited, so that it could be rebuilt later. The entrance portal with the fence that used to stand in front of the castle was later placed in front of the Chorzów Zoo. It was requested that it should return to its place of origin by the centenary of the Kavalierspalast in 2006, but this did not succeed. Of the many monuments in the park, only the sculptures by Emmanuel Frémiet remained undamaged; the park itself has been restored in a simplified form. Even if the Neudeck palace ensemble is only partially preserved today, the park and the preserved buildings and monuments are very popular as excursion destinations.
Owner of new decks
The following describes the individual owners of the palace and the Neudeck estate from 1497 to 1945. The time when Neudeck belonged to Duke Johann II of Opole is marked in blue, the rule of the Hohenzollerns in red, the short Habsburg period is left white. Neudeck was in the hands of the Henckel von Donnersmarcks for the longest time, whose reign is marked in yellow.
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Architecture and building history
Plant and park
The entire palace complex is surrounded by a 154 hectare park; At the time of its creation, it was one of the largest in Germany with around 200 hectares. It borders on the access road ( ul. Parkowa ) to the west and Lake Diablina , the largest lake in the municipality , to the east ; in the south and north, other roads sometimes form a boundary. Several paths lead from Parkowa Street through the castle park, the main path leading to the former location of the New Castle in the eastern part of the park (1). There is the large lake in front of Lake Diablina (5), which feeds the many canals and artificial waterfalls with its water. From here it is only a few steps to the Kavalierspalast (2) to the west. The former location of the old castle (3) is right at the park entrance, and the burial chapel (4) is northeast of it.
Old castle
The appearance of the castle until 1945 was due to the renovation in the 1840s. The irregular, recently rebuilt baroque complex received, among other things, neo-Gothic wings that formed a bailey . Two octagonal Tudor-style towers were added later, and the previously large windows were made smaller to match the style. This gave it a castle-like character again. The castle was only inhabited by the count's family for a few decades, and in 1875 it finally lost its importance in favor of the new residence. Now it was called Old Castle or Castle (Polish: zamek ) to distinguish it and served as a residence for the castle officials. In 1961 the ruins were in good condition and were demolished by order of the political administration. Today there are hardly any remnants left of the castle, which is steeped in history.
New lock
Although the New Palace was not built until the 19th century, it formed the center of the entire complex. The idea for a new palace came from Guido's later wife , Blanka Marquise de Païva , who wanted a new representative palace instead of the old, irregular palace on the edge of the park. In 1868 the renowned French architect Hector Lefuel began building the new Donnersmarck residence. However, difficulties arose during the construction work, as the entire subsoil around the park lake was muddy and wet and, due to its high groundwater level, did not offer sufficient support for a conventional foundation. The ground had to be drained and paved so that the large castle could be built at this striking location. A similar method was used here as in many seaside towns: around 10,000 oak trunks were embedded in the damp ground. But they went even further and poured concrete on this construction and sealed the whole thing with a 10 cm thick layer of lead. Only after this enormous construction work could the actual construction work begin, which was completed in 1875. The result was an elongated, magnificent neo-baroque building that was in no way inferior to the great European palaces. The castle was indeed later because of its size as small Versailles or Oberschlesisches Versailles referred to the model of the building, however, was, as already mentioned above, the lock in Pontchartrain in Paris , which also is from 1857 to 1888 in the possession of Prince von Donnersmarck was . The central part was provided with a high roof and a small lantern on top, thus elevating the north and south wings of the castle. Four higher roofs were added to the sides, which protruded like bay windows . One-story pavilions followed to the south and north . A clock and a wrought-iron fence that formed a semicircular forecourt was attached to the west-facing entrance front for the guests . It was interrupted by a high, lion-crowned entrance gate (today in the Chorzów Zoo). On the park side to the east, terraces with balustrades were built, from which the lake could be reached via stairs. These terraces with the water basins and sculptures are the only remains that have survived after the demolition in 1961. They give an idea of the splendor of the complex. The sculptures, which are worth seeing, depict fighting animals and were created by the French sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet .
Statements about the layout and appearance of the interior can only be made on the basis of descriptions, as no photographs or plans have been preserved and nothing was documented during the demolition. However, it is known that the castle had 99 rooms, and a brief description of the castle tells of five rooms. The most splendid hall is said to have been the ballroom equipped with galleries; its luxurious furnishings consisted of numerous tapestries , mosaics and wall cladding made of malachite . In the Red Hall there were some valuable paintings: the adulteress (based on the Gospel of John ) and the unbeliever Thomas by the Spanish baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo , an Abigail by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. and a Lessing portrait by Anton Graff . Count Guido's study contained an extensive library and a collection of family portraits by Franz von Lenbach . The architectural furnishings of the palace halls and in particular this study came from the French company Christofle and their chief designer Charles Rossigneux . In addition to some hunting paintings, there was also a fireplace decorated with the goddess Diana from the same manufacturer in the hunting room . The painting Happy Mother by the French painter Eugène Carrière adorned the music salon.
Cavalier Palace
The Kavalierspalast (Polish : Pałac Kawalera ) is the only secular building that was preserved after the devastation of 1945. As the last component of the complex, it was built at the beginning of the 20th century as an apartment for the younger family members and as a guest house in the immediate vicinity of the New Palace. The decisive factor for the construction was that there was not enough space in the two castles to accommodate the many guests of the family and a guest house was urgently needed.
The Berlin architect and court builder Ernst von Ihne was commissioned with the plans, but he had to adhere to the specifications of the count's building commission. The choice of him as an architect is probably due to the good contacts the Donnersmarcks had with the Berlin court and with Kaiser Wilhelm II , who then also lived several times in the Kavalierspalast. The building was constructed from 1903 to 1906 in the neo-renaissance style. As with the new castle, only to a lesser extent, the foundation was also stabilized here. The almost square building was built of brick , with which the rich stucco crowning of the window frames and the parts of the facade made of natural stone contrast. The entrance is formed by an elliptical oriel made of natural stone adorned with the Henckel von Donnersmarck family coat of arms , with a balcony with arcades in front of it. The cornice is crowned at the base of the roof by a balustrade decorated with volutes . The exterior of the building, which is only two stories high, is particularly impressive due to its height and the emphasis on the vertical , which is interrupted by the cornices. The round stairwell in the center of the building was given a lot of space for representational purposes. Inside, the old division of the castle into many salons and the old furnishings have largely been preserved.
Since 1992 the building has housed a hotel with a restaurant. Together with the park, the Cavalier's Palace is the main attraction of today's Świerklaniec municipality.
Burial chapel
The preserved neo-Gothic grave chapel of the Donnersmarcks was built from 1895 to 1897 by Julius Carl Raschdorff northeast of the old castle. The Berlin Monbijou Church served as a model . On the one hand, the burial chapel was intended to serve as a place of worship for the Protestant residents of the castle and the local population, and on the other hand, the adjacent mausoleum (built 1903–1905) was the resting place of some representatives of the Neudecker line of the Donnersmarck family. Guido Count Henckel Prince von Donnersmarck († 1916) and his second wife Katharina Fillipowa Christianowitsch, a Russian noblewoman, were buried in the mausoleum . However, his father Carl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck († 1864) was buried in the old mausoleum near the old castle, which no longer exists today. The structure is surrounded by canals and a hundred-year-old tree population. The delicate neo-Gothic chapel has a rectangular shape and is crowned by a roof turret. On the north side there is a cloister with the adjoining, actual mausoleum. A copper angel of death is attached to the top of the roof of the square building, symbolizing the function of the building. Among the many plastic details there is a relief of the Agnus Dei ( Lamb of God ) and a few gargoyles . Inside, the old furnishings could not be preserved, as the church was plundered after the Second World War under the eyes of the administration at the time. The local parish tried to take over the burial chapel in the following years and bought it in 1947. In 1957, after overcoming numerous bureaucratic hurdles, the chapel was rededicated after it had been renovated and refurbished. However, it was not yet saved: In the next few years it fell into disrepair because, for political reasons, the chapel could only be entered for worshipers for an entrance fee and was therefore rarely used. Plans were later discussed that the chapel should be demolished or converted into a changing room with toilets for a new swimming pool. But the parish finally managed to renovate the church in three years until 1983. The chapel now serves as a branch church for the local Catholic community.
literature
- Danuta Emmerling u. a .: Górnośląskie Zamki i Pałace. ADAN, Opole 1999, ISBN 83-908136-8-8 . (Book about Upper Silesian castles)
- Josef von Golitschek: Silesia - land of castles. 286 locks in 408 master photos. Vol. 2. Moschen to Zyrowa. Orbis, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-572-09275-2 . (with some historical photos of the complex)
- Irma Kozina: Pałace i zamki na pruskim Górnym Śląsku w latach 1850-1914. Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice 2001, ISBN 83-87455-36-9 . (Polish with German addition castles and country houses in Upper Silesia 1850-1914 )
- Jarosław Aleksander Krawczyk, Arkadiusz Kuzio-Podrucki: Zamki i pałace Donnersmarcków / Castles of the Donnersmarck . 2nd Edition. Rococo, Radzionków 2003, ISBN 83-86293-37-3 . (German and Polish)
- Anna Ocieczek: Załozenie pałacowe Świerklańca. (The Neudeck residential complex). Thesis. Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Silesia, Katowice around 2000.
- Hermann Reuffurth: Neudecker new buildings. OO 1908.
- Marek Zgórniak: Le Château Świerklaniec, œuvre oubliée d'Hector Lefuel. In: La revue du Louvre et des Musées de France. Paris 1989. (Neudeck Castle as a forgotten work of Lefuel; French, also in Polish edition)
Web links
- Page of the Upper Silesian cultural heritage with article about the castle (German)
- Homepage of the municipality with information about the local castle (Polish)
- Homepage of the hotel in the Kavalierspalast with information about the history (Polish)
- Homepage with the sights of the region, including the castle (Polish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ See “German-Polish Agreement on Upper Silesia” (Upper Silesia Agreement, OSA) of May 15, 1922, in: Reichsgesetzblatt , 1922, Part II, p. 238ff.
Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 54 ″ N , 18 ° 57 ′ 20 ″ E
