Püchau Castle
Püchau Castle is a mansion in the style of neo-Gothic historicism ( Tudor Revival style ) in Püchau, a district of Machern in the Leipzig district in Saxony . It is privately owned.
Location and shape
The Püchau Castle rises on the eastern edge of the village on a mountain spur that towers a few meters above the Muldenaue . The actual castle stands at the eastern end of the approximately 100 by 60 meter area. The square in front of it is lined with outbuildings, has a few trees and a historical fountain in the middle.
The castle is an irregular three-wing complex, which is grouped around an inner courtyard of around 200 m². The north side is closed off by a one-storey battlement crowned battlement. In the south-east corner of the courtyard there is a stair tower that surpasses the three-story building and is also crenellated. The access to the complex, designed as a bridge and flanked by two columns with eagles, leads into an archway in the west wing. The front side is decorated with balconies and attached towers. The outer southeast corner is also tower-like and designed with a two-story cast-iron balcony.
Of the numerous rooms in the castle, the small dining room with the ceiling richly decorated with carvings, the marble hall with a magnificent star ceiling and the arms hall are particularly splendid.
Below the castle hill, the 12.4 hectare English-style castle park with two ponds extends to the north and east.
Buildings on the forecourt
The fountain
Eagle column at the entrance
The renovated south front
The south-east balcony
Park view
history
Püchau (Bichni) was already mentioned in the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg in connection with an escape of King Heinrich I to the castle there and is therefore the oldest mentioned place in Saxony. In general, this refers to the year 924. The connection between Püchau and Heinrich is underlined by his depiction on the stair tower.
First mention of Püchau in the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg
Heroic representation of Heinrich I's entry into Püchau
The first known landlord of Püchau was Count Esiko in 995 . His successor was Burkhard Count Palatine of Saxony in 1004. Püchau was like the neighboring Wurzen Burgward , but lost more and more importance compared to the latter, after the bishops of Meissen became feudal lords for Püchau in 1040 and they founded a collegiate monastery in Wurzen in 1114 and built the cathedral .
After a few individual owners from different noble families, the noble families Heinitz (1397–1441), Spiegel (1441–1508), Saalhausen (1508–1524), Canitz (1524–1533), von Ende (1524–1533) came one after the other from one family –1637) and von Taube (1637–1667).
Since the last von Taube remained childless, the underage grandson Heinrich von Bünau (Chamberlain, 1656) inherited Püchau. Son and grandson, who were also both named Heinrich, followed. The latter, who was raised to the rank of count in 1762, died without heirs in 1768 at the age of 36, and so his widow Christiane Elisabeth from the von Hohenthal family , who did not remarry , became mistress of Püchau for 39 years. Then in 1807 Püchau fell to the von Hohenthal family, with whom it remained until 1945. The first owner was the younger brother of Christiane Elisabeth, Peter Friedrich Graf von Hohenthal (1735-1819). In his inaugural year he founded the Fideikommiss of the von Hohenthal family based in Püchau, to which other goods belonged and which was expanded in the following years.
After the childless Peter Friedrich, his nephew Karl Ludwig August von Hohenthal became the owner of Püchau in 1819, but lived in the palace in Dölkau, built by Carl Friedrich Dauthe in 1806 . The next lord of the Püchau castle was his son Carl Friedrich Anton in 1826. From 1829 onwards, after his marriage to Walburga Hedwig Countess von Schaffgotsch , he regularly lived in the Püchau Castle, which had previously been vacant. After the death of his wife in 1838 he married Emilie Albertine Loida von Gneisenau, a daughter of the Prussian general Neidhardt von Gneisenau . He added the residence to his name, from then on called himself Count von Hohenthal-Püchau and founded the line of Count Hohenthal-Püchau. Carl Julius Leopold (1852–1892), Carl Xaver Maximilian (1892–1899) and Carl Christian Gottlieb Moritz (1899–1945) followed as lords of the palace.
Little is known of the construction activity on the castle or palace in early modern times. The Taubes and the Bünaus should at least have repaired the damage caused by the Thirty Years' War . The buildings have to be imagined as baroque . Modest traces of the baroque decoration have been preserved only inside. It was not until the Count of Hohenthal that construction began, which led to the result that we find today.
Initially, from 1833 to 1835, Carl Friedrich Anton von Hohenthal, under the direction of the palace gardener Hetzger, had the small pleasure garden located on the hillside of the palace expanded and a landscape park laid out in the English style . For the buildings, he wanted the castle to be renewed in the "old German Gothic style". The east and south wings received gothic stucco decorations on the outside, so-called donkey backs or Tudor arches, and the outer southeast corner tower was given a crenellated wreath. The stair tower was built in the courtyard. After the death of Carl Friedrich Anton in 1852, his son Carl Julius Leopold continued the construction work. He commissioned the Leipzig architect Oskar Mothes to design some of the interiors. The count was also in contact with the Berlin architect Richard Lucae . In 1874/1875 the west wing was rebuilt in the Windsor style according to plans by Constantin Lipsius . The tower ensemble was also created on the south-western outer corner.
In 1912, a hurricane devastated Püchau and caused severe damage to the castle. The construction work combined with a simplification of the previous small-scale roof landscape was carried out by the Dresden architects' office of William Lossow and Max Kühne .
In 1945, after the end of the Second World War, the Hohenthal-Püchaus were expropriated as part of the land reform and a Soviet headquarters moved into the castle. From 1948 the castle served as a retirement and nursing home. After the political change in East Germany, it stood empty for a long time. In 1998 a couple from Leipzig bought it. The new lords of the castle began a thorough restoration, which they did by hand themselves. Among other things, roofs were repaired, facades restored, the fountain system repaired, the eagles on the entrance pillars, which had already melted down in 1913, replaced with new casts and work was carried out on the palace gardens. The Heinrichsburg, a manor house on the forecourt from the 16th century, threatened by decay, was also secured.
The lady of the castle organizes public festivals in the castle and park and leads historical tours. The castle restaurant in the west wing opens on weekends.
Püchau Castle is also often used as a film set. 21 films and series were shot here, including SOKO Leipzig , Tatort : The Curse of the Amber Room (with Peter Sodann ), homesickness for over there (with Wolfgang Stumph and Katrin Sass ) and men of dangerous age (with Friedrich von Thun and Fritz Wepper ).
literature
- Alberto Schwarz, Benita Goldhahn (eds.): Schloss und Herrschaft Püchau im Wurzener Land , Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-934544-95-6 .
- GA Poenicke: Album of the manors and castles of the Kingdom of Saxony - Leipziger Kreis , Leipzig 1860, p. 16–21 ( digitized )
- Alberto Schwarz: Schloss Püchau , in Leipziger Blätter No. 13 (1988), VEB EA Seemann Leipzig, pp. 72-77
- Otto Moser: The Environment of Leipzig , Leipzig 1886, pp. 47–49 ( digitized )
Web links
- Website Schloss Püchau
- Püchau manor in the Saxon State Archives
- Püchau Castle at burgen-schloesser-impressionen.de
- Püchau Castle on Sylvia Wentzlaus castle side
Individual evidence
- ↑ The ceiling shows the starry sky on June 21, 1830, the night of the birth of Count Carl Julius von Hohenthal, the client. ( Castle and rule of Püchau in the Wurzener Land , p. 58)
- ↑ "in burgwardis Bichni et Vurcin" in Thietmar's chronicle
- ^ Schloss Püchau events
- ↑ MDR Kultur ( Memento from August 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 0.5 ″ N , 12 ° 39 ′ 8.9 ″ E