Neuhaus Castle (Ehrstädt)

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Neuhaus Castle in the northwest of the Ehrstädt district
Neuhaus Castle from the northeast
Neuhaus Castle, east wing
Neuhaus Castle, stair tower
Farm buildings

Schloss Neuhaus near Ehrstädt , a district of the large district town of Sinsheim in the Rhein-Neckar district in northern Baden-Württemberg , is a historic mansion in the hilly landscape of the Kraichgau , which is now owned by the Barons of Gemmingen and is primarily used as a wedding location is being used.

location

The castle stands at a height of about 230  m above sea level. NHN on the spur of a hill ridge moving southwest between the mouths of the Dombach in the east and the Mühlbach in the west. The two streams are tributaries of the Insenbach , which is only about a quarter of a kilometer south of the main building at a little less than 200  m above sea level. NHN passes westward. A wedge of fields stretches across the ridge from the open hilly landscape around Ehrstädt in the northeast to the Insenbach valley, which is also partially open, the rest of the area is wooded.

history

A previous building of today's castle was first mentioned in a document in 1333, when Berthold von Massenbach was enfeoffed by Count Eberhard von Württemberg with half of Newhus Castle and the nearby town of Ehrstädt. Half of the castle was then longer in the possession of a branch of the Lords of Massenbach , who called themselves von Massenbach-Neuhaus and in the 15th century only von Neuhaus or vom Neuenhaus . The other half of the castle was owned by the lords of Gemmingen, who were related to the Massenbach . In the late 15th century part of the property seems to have been with the Lords of Sachsenheim or to have been pledged to Count Palatine Otto II . Through an exchange of goods, Philipp von Neuhaus came into possession of the entire castle in 1541. With Hans Philipp von Neuhaus, the Neuhaus line died out in 1580. The fiefdom fell back to Württemberg. The new owner of the castle was Christoph von Degenfeld , who in 1580 was enfeoffed by Württemberg with the castle and half of the town of Ehrstädt and in 1582 was given the fiefdom of the remaining half of Ehrstädt from Worms. The Lords of Degenfeld had the old castle torn down and the present-day castle built in its place around 1596/97, which replaced their old ancestral seat, Degenfeld Castle in Gmünd. The descendants of Christoph's son Johann Christoph I von Degenfeld († 1613) divided the property into the branches Eulenhof, Neuhaus and Ehrstädt, of which only the Eulenhof line blossomed in 1889, so that the property also fell to Neuhaus. The family's headquarters were in the 19th century at Schomberg Castle near Stebbach .

The last owner from the von Degenfeld family was August von Degenfeld. After his death in 1921, his daughters Hertha and Ruth inherited his property consisting of Neuhaus Castle, Ehrstädt Castle and Estate, Wagenbacher Hof, Eulenhof and a forest near Unterbiegelhof. When the estate was divided up, Schloss Neuhaus and the Eulenhof came to Hertha von Gemmingen, nee. Degenfeld (1894–1963). The property at that time comprised 150 hectares of arable land and 138 hectares of forest. Hertha's husband Eberhard von Gemmingen (1883–1952) bought the neighboring Rauhof in 1928, which included another 54 hectares of land. The couple had lived in Babstadt Castle since their wedding and moved into Neuhaus Castle after it was occupied by the Americans after the Second World War. The entire property came in 1963 to his son Pleikard von Gemmingen, who moved to the Rauhof in 1975. From this the property came in 1993 to his son Michael von Gemmingen (* 1971), who now manages the property from the Rauhof. The castle was rented to the Stuttgart company GEZE around 1990 . It was later converted into an accommodation facility, which is rented out for weddings in particular. Weddings can take place in the historic castle chapel, around 160 people can be accommodated in the castle itself.

Friedrich Hub (1895–1980) in particular did a great job researching the history of Schloss Neuhaus and Ehrstädt , for which he was made an honorary citizen of the large district town of Sinsheim in 1975.

description

Building decorations on the bay window of the east wing
Loopholes at the gatehouse of the outer bailey

Neuhaus Castle is a two- wing, three-storey building made of plastered quarry stone masonry with corner blocks , with a round stair tower being built into the inner corner of the wings that abut at right angles. The east wing of the palace is dated 1596 on the ground floor, the stair tower bears the date 1597 on its door. The north outer side of the west wing is flanked by two rectangular corner towers. The east wing has an ornate historical standing bay on its outside , the bay on the inside of the west wing is more recent.

Fortification walls at right angles emanated from the wing structures, which led to a round tower on the opposite side in today's courtyard, which once presented the image of a right-angled enclosed castle courtyard. To the south-east, the courtyard was followed by an equally rectangular and enclosed farm yard as a bailey. The fortification walls, the round tower and part of the farm buildings were demolished later, so that the castle building is free-standing today and a loose group of farm buildings adjoins it to the east. The once defensive character of the complex can only be guessed from a few details such as the loopholes on the gatehouse of the outer bailey.

To the west below the castle plateau is the castle chapel from 1602, in which the ornate tomb of Johann Christoph I von Degenfeld († 1613) and a splendid epitaph showing him and his wife Barbara von Reischach have been preserved.

literature

  • Hermann von Massenbach: History of the imperial direct lords and the Electoral Palatinate fief of Massenbach 1140-1806 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1891, pp. 15/16.
  • Adolf von Oechelhäuser and Franz Xaver Kraus (eds.): The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden (Volume 8.1): The art monuments of the districts of Sinsheim, Eppingen and Wiesloch (Heidelberg district) , Tübingen 1909, pp. 13-15.
  • Friedrich Hub : Ehrstädt and Neuhaus Castle - History of a Kraichgau village and its local rule according to old documents and files , Ehrstädt 1967
  • Maria Heitland: Family chronicle of the barons of Gemmingen. Continuation of the chronicles from 1895 and 1925/26 , Elztal 1991, pp. 156–163.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heitland 1991, p. 156.
  2. ↑ http://www.burgen-und-schloesser.net/baden-wuerttemberg/schloss-neuhaus/geschichte.html
  3. ↑ Heitland 1991, p. 158.
  4. ↑ http://www.burgen-und-schloesser.net/baden-wuerttemberg/schloss-neuhaus/geschichte.html

Web links

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

Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '48.4 "  N , 8 ° 57' 35.9"  E