Neuwied Castle

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Residential palace of the princes of Wied
Neuwied Castle

Neuwied Castle is the former residential palace of the Counts and Princes of Wied in Neuwied , a district town in northern Rhineland-Palatinate . Until 1806 the castle was the seat of government of the Principality of Wied. The castle is located in the northern part of the inner city of Neuwied in the immediate vicinity of the banks of the Rhine and south of the confluence of the river Wied into the Rhine .

Neuwied Castle is a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention .

history

City map 1751, on the left the castle with park
Neuwied Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Before the castle in Neuwied was built, the Counts of Wied had their ancestral seat at Altwied Castle in the Wiedtal for over 500 years . Because meanwhile the structure of Castle Wied, as it was called back then, began to become dilapidated and the castle and its location no longer met the requirements of the early modern era in military and economic terms, Count Friedrich III decided in the middle of the 17th century . zu Wied to found a new city directly on the banks of the Rhine and to move his seat of power there.

First he began in 1648 with the construction of the Friedrichstein Castle in what is now the Neuwied district of Fahr and a small fortress in Langendorf, which he called "Neuenwied" and was already called the Castle. The village of Langendorf was largely destroyed in the Thirty Years War . At the same time he let Emperor Ferdinand III. the town charter granted to Nordhofen im Westerwald in 1357 , but not realized there, was transferred to the new Neuwied settlement (1653).

Despite its fortification, this first building was set on fire and destroyed by French troops in the Palatinate War of Succession in 1694.

According to plans by the builder Julius Ludwig Rothweil from Nassau-Weilburg, Count Friedrich Wilhelm began to rebuild the residence around 1706 . It was only completed in the years from 1748 to 1756 under Karl Behaghel von Adlerskron from Frankfurt, who from 1757 also built the nearby Wiedische summer residence Schloss Monrepos .

Rothweiler's construction plans provided for a horseshoe system, popular in the German Baroque, based on the model of Versailles . However, the connecting structures envisaged in the initial planning were not carried out, so that three independent buildings were built around the castle courtyard.

The exterior of the main building ( Corps de Logis ) was completed in 1711, the interior in 1713. At the same time, the construction of the two wings began, but they were not completed until around 40 years later. The staircase, the upper vestibule and the ballroom were stuccoed by Giovanni Battista Genone and Eugenio Castelli from 1714 to 1715 . The gate passage and the two guard houses were built in 1719 and 1720. The lions with the coat of arms above the gateway are from the middle of the 18th century.

Right wing, partially destroyed in 1948

In the years 1869 to 1873 the main building was renewed, on the exterior in the form of Rothweiler, on the inside partly in neo-baroque forms. The iron grille closing the courtyard dates from 1887.

The side wings housed utility and storage rooms, a kitchen, wash house, wine press and stables .

On September 10, 1948, a fire destroyed the middle section of the right side building, in which the rent chamber, the kitchen, the library and the Fürstlich-Wiedische archive were housed. Furnishings and several gala carriages of the princely family were burned. In the summer of 1949, work could be resumed in the newly built central wing. At the beginning of the 1980s, Friedrich Wilhelm zu Wied turned to the Neuwied artist Klaus Rudolf Werhand with an order for the production of wrought iron lamps at Neuwied Castle .

Castle Park

In 1715, a symmetrical baroque garden was laid out according to plans by Behagel von Adlerskron as an extension of the axis of the castle and parallel to the Rhine .

During the reign of Prince Friedrich Karl zu Wied (1791–1802), the park was redesigned in the style of English landscape gardens . Many exotic plants were also planted, which Prince Maximilian is likely to have come from on Wied's trip to America . The park could also be called an arboretum . Now the park extended over an area of ​​24 hectares to the mouth of the river Wied. In 1870 it was redesigned with the advice of the Muskau garden director Eduard Petzold .

investment

lock

Entrance to the castle
Lamps at Neuwied Castle by the blacksmith Klaus Rudolf Werhand

The castle is oriented towards the city as an open three-wing complex. The main building is a two-storey, broadly overlapping building with mansard roof and was originally from a roof turret crowned. The courtyard front consists of a gable-crowned central projection with three axes and simple five-axis side parts, square corner pilasters and a coffin cornice cranked around the entire building . The main balcony is built over four Doric columns.

The sleek side wings, isolated perpendicular to the main building, each consist of a single-story, seven-axis central section, which is flanked by two-story, three-axis corner pavilions. All parts have mansard roofs.

The main courtyard is closed to the south by an iron grille. The gateway in the middle is flanked by two square, covered guardhouses. There are two cannons in front of the entrance.

The staircase with open arcades leads to the upper vestibule; on the volute ceilings stucco figures of the seasons and reliefs of four virtues. The two-storey, rectangular ballroom merges into an octagon in the upper part through balconies that run around it.

Castle Park

Between the castle and the confluence of the Wied into the Rhine, when the castle was built, the former vineyards were transformed into a French garden with pheasantry . This was about 6 hectares in size and protected against flooding by a dam and embankments. The garden was surrounded by a wall and divided by rows of trees into rectangular ornamental beds, bosquets and stars. Further inland there was a kitchen garden. The park was expanded under Count Johann Friedrich Alexander. Aviaries, fountains, grottos and a pheasantry completed the complex.

Todays use

The castle is the residence of the zu Wied family and the administration building for their possessions. The castle and the castle grounds are not open to the public. An outside inspection is possible insofar as the castle can be clearly seen from the thoroughfare and from the dike that runs along the Rhine. Most of the castle park is open to the public.

See also

literature

Web links

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

Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 44 ″  N , 7 ° 27 ′ 18.5 ″  E