Neuenhof Castle (Eisenach)

Neuenhof Palace (partial view)

View of Neuenhof Palace

The Neuenhof castle is a listed building in the village of Neuenhof the independent city of Eisenach in Thuringia .

location

The castle is located in the center of Neuenhof in the middle of the castle park laid out by Eduard Petzold on a high bank of the Werra . The Neuenhof church is located directly next to the castle .

history

At the site of the castle there is said to have been a small castle in a spur on the high bank of the Werra since the Middle Ages. Neuenhof came under the jurisdiction of the Frankish noble family von Rotenhan in 1863 . The latter had the remains of the bower of the medieval castle removed as the last structural remains and the castle was built in 1863 in place of the previous castle in neo-Gothic style.

After 1945 Neuenhof was in the Soviet occupation zone ; the family property of the von Rotenhan family was expropriated and the castle was transferred to the community. In 1947 a nursing home was set up there, which had to give way to a base of the GDR border troops in 1953 . With the completion of the barracks building on the north-western edge of the town, the border troops moved out of the castle and returned it to the community. This created apartments in it, a youth club, a doctor's practice, the local kindergarten and the office of the newly founded agricultural production cooperative were housed in it. After the turn , the property stood empty for a short time. It was acquired and renovated by descendants of the previous owners.

Castle Park

The historic castle park, which is around 3.5 hectares in size, was laid out from 1838 to 1843 by Eduard Petzold on behalf of Baron Georg Riedesel . As the only riverside park on the Werra, the park is considered an early work by the well-known park designer Petzold and an outstanding monument of 19th century garden art.

During the GDR era, the park was largely neglected. At the end of the 1960s, a section of the Grundbach was piped in the park, stairs to the church and a festival meadow with a festival stage and a concrete dance floor were built. In 1982, steps were taken to reconstruct and maintain the park, and the area was cleared of wild growth. From April 1991, the palace gardens were completely renovated. The paths and the historic Kemenatenteich were restored and a memorial plaque was inaugurated on the 100th anniversary of Eduard Petzold's death. In 1998 a garden monument preservation objective was formulated for the park. At the beginning of 2007, a copper beech that was over 150 years old had to be felled in the park due to the risk of collapse. In 2011 the stairs were renewed and the ruinous remains of the festival stage and dance floor were removed.

Lion fountain

The lion fountain is located on the edge of the palace complex. Already verifiable for the year 1844, it is one of the last structural evidence of the original equipment of the palace park. In 2011 it was in a ruinous state in dire need of renovation.