Niederleis Castle

Niederleis Castle
Niederleis Castle, southwest view
Creation time :	16th Century
Conservation status:	Receive
Place:	Niederleis
Geographical location	48 ° 33 '29.2 "  N , 16 ° 23' 45.8"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 33 '29.2 "  N , 16 ° 23' 45.8"  E

Niederleis Castle is a former moated castle in the north of the Niederleis municipality in the Mistelbach district in Lower Austria . The castle is a listed building ( list entry ).

Location description

The castle stands in the north of the village of Niederleis in the middle of a park. The building used to be surrounded by a moat.

history

It was first mentioned in a document in 1308. The current building dates from the 16th century. The lords of Leis ( Lizze or Leys ) are already mentioned several times at the time of the first Babenbergs , but there was a place of the same name near Scheibbs. In the first half of the 15th century the Polheimer and Fritzendorfer landlords could have been, at the end of the century Wolfgang von Ludmannsdorf, after which the property split up. In the Thirty Years' War the rule came to the Breunner and Lobkowitz families. In 1645 the castle was devastated. In the 17th century the castle was owned by the Heiligenkreuz Abbey , during which time there were significant structural changes. Abbot Michael Schnabel acquired the estate in 1651. The Kaisersteinbruch master stonemasons worked here and made Kaiserstein workpieces in the castle. In the monastery archive there are some invoices from the years 1655–1657 relating to the brothers Ambrosius and Giorgio Regondi . In 1867, Count Maximilian von Wallis acquired the rule. Under his son, Count Josef Wallis, who took over the property in 1882, the castle experienced a late heyday. He was a friend of Count Wilczek , who is known as the builder of Kreuzenstein and like him a great art patron and collector. In 1928 his niece Anna Countess Schaffgotsch inherited the castle and Gut Niederleis, in whose family it has been since then. Many art treasures, such as valuable German and Italian furniture, precious Spanish leather wallpapers or Flemish tapestries are waiting for the visitors. The showpiece of the collection is a large cross above the Spanish baroque altar in the palace chapel. It dates from the 14th century and is attributed to the Giotto school . The interior is from the 19th century. In 1968 the palace and park were the main locations for Moos auf den Steinen , the film that film scholars now consider to be the first work of the New Austrian Film .

architecture

Exterior description

The castle is an irregular, four-wing complex around a courtyard. It has two storeys on the courtyard side and three storeys on the outside. At each corner there is a round tower that extends to the eaves. Above it are stepped conical roofs . A stone bridge with a balustrade and stone figures leads from the southwest wing over the former moat. It was built in 1735. The figures represent St. John Nepomuk , St. Anthony of Padua , St. Aloysius and St. Charles Borromeo . The figures may come from Giovanni Giuliani . The stone bridge leads to a forward gate tower. The portal is crowned with volutes . and dates from 1651. Above there are double windows with stone coats of arms. On the courtyard side, the south-west wing is more richly structured than the other wings. The central part is accentuated by a gable and a raised gate tower. To the east there is an arcade with a flat ceiling on consoles . From the arcade you can reach the chapel on the upper floor. On the west wing there are arcades in the shape of a basket arch.

Inside description

Most of the interior design dates from the 19th century. The ballroom in the northeast wing is a four-axle room with a coffered ceiling and arched doors. The Italian fireplace dates from the 15th century.

The chapel in the southwest wing is a three-axis room with a straight end. The nave is vaulted with groin vaults , and the choir has a stitch cap barrel vault. In the west is a gallery arched down by a barrel . There are stone inlays on the walls of the chapel. The furnishings consist of originals from the Italian Trecento and Quattrocento . The high altar is a replica of a Croce dipinta . Throughout the palace there are originals and copies of Roman, medieval and Renaissance sculptures as well as handicrafts, mostly of Italian provenance .

Park

The former palace park has been partially preserved as a romantic park from around 1800. The routing and the plants have been partially preserved. The garden gates with partly different spoilage are partly preserved and probably come from Italy. There is also a baroque grotto niche with a gable and baroque standing figures in second use from the first third of the 18th century.

literature

• DEHIO manual. The art monuments of Austria: Lower Austria. North of the Danube. Niederleis. Lock. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7031-0585-2 , pp. 791f.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lower Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. (PDF), ( CSV ). Federal Monuments Office , status: 23 January 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} DEHIO manual. The art monuments of Austria: Lower Austria. North of the Danube. Niederleis. Lock. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7031-0585-2 , pp. 791f.
3. ^ Niederleis Castle. In: Helmuth Furch : Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch. Volume 2, Kaisersteinbruch 2004, p. 296-. ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 .
4. ↑ ed .: “Moos auf den Steinen” was filmed here: Invitation to Niederleis Castle . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 22, 1970, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).