Rhoden Castle

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Rhoden Castle

Rhoden Castle is an early baroque castle with a former pleasure garden in the Diemelstadt district of Rhoden in the northern Hessian district of Waldeck-Frankenberg .

history

Castle

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Counts of Schwalenberg were able to extend their influence to the Diemel . Rhoden probably came into their possession as a Paderborn fief . To protect the place, a castle was built on the Hagenberg from 1228 to 1230. This is first mentioned in a document in 1237 by Count Adolf I. von Waldeck and Schwalenberg as Rothem in Castro . Rhoden became the center of the northern area of ​​the county of Waldeck. Count Otto I von Waldeck had Rhoden fortified further. It is not known whether he also built a new castle or fortified the existing one. The castle was occupied by castle men , including a family from Rhoden. In 1294 the dioceses of Cologne and Paderborn objected to the fortification without success. Count Heinrich IV. Von Waldeck pledged the town and castle of Rhoden to the knight Johann Raven in 1377. In the following period Rhoden remained pledged. Other known pledge holders were Kurt Spiegel zum Desenberg (1390), Landgrave Hermann II of Hesse (1398) and the Archdiocese of Mainz (1426), which appointed its own bailiffs . Only Count Wolrad I von Waldeck succeeded in 1452 in bringing Rhoden and the castle back into the unrestricted possession of the County of Waldeck . In 1495, after the death of Count Otto IV. Von Waldeck zu Landau , there were inheritance disputes and in 1508 the county was divided: half of the Rhoden office , the city and the castle each went to the Eisenberger and Wildunger lines of the Waldecker counts.

lock

Shortly before the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1645, the Count and later Prince Georg Friedrich made the decision to renovate and expand the castle. The Dutch builder Peter Jeanson was commissioned to build today's palace on the foundation walls of the former castle based on the plans of the French architect Belle-Roche. The work lasted from 1647 to 1654. In 1650, during the construction period, a zoo for hunting, an avenue in the direction of “Stuck's Forest”, a water art and a hunting lodge , the so-called pleasure house, were created . In 1651 a 160 cubits (approx. 98 meters) deep castle well with a diameter of about three meters was dug. In 1655 a prison was built in the vault under the castle. Count Georg Friedrich used the castle as a residence after its completion . In 1664 he moved it to Arolsen after the death of his nephew Heinrich Wolrad .

In 1786 Friedrich Karl August zu Waldeck-Pyrmont ceded the castle to his brother Georg I zu Waldeck-Pyrmont and his family. In the years 1787 to 1795, major renovations were again carried out for Prince Georg according to plans by C. Escher and Building Director Major Johann Matthias Kitz . The family lived in Rhoden Castle until they moved to Pyrmont in 1806 . After that, the castle was only occasionally used for residential purposes by the princely families.

Around 1800 the interiors of the castle were renewed again under the direction of building director Kitz. From 1817 to 1818 the premises of the castle were converted into apartments for officials. The attic was used as a fruit chamber for tax payments. In 1900 the building was converted by the Hannover-Linden Hospital Association into a teachers' rest home with 30 guest rooms. From 1933 to 1936 the castle was used as the seat of the Reich Labor Service and as a Reich labor camp. Towards the end of the Second World War, there were a few craft businesses and refugee apartments in the castle.

The structural interior design can be described as rather poor due to the many changes in use. Remains of the medieval building fabric are clearly visible.

Hereditary funeral

In 1794, Hereditary Prince Georg zu Waldeck had the “Princely Hereditary Burial ” with a mausoleum for the Princes of Waldeck built in the classical style for his children who died young . It still serves as a burial place for the descendants of the former princely house. (Before 1794 the Counts and Princes of Waldeck were buried in the St. Nikolaus burial chapel in Waldeck - Netze ).

Use as a retirement home

On August 26, 1920, the castle became the property of the Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont. After the Second World War, from 1948, parts of the palace were used as a district old people's home for the first time . From 1978 to 1985 a complete renovation took place in order to enable further use as a retirement and nursing home . On October 1st, 2008, the Waldeckische Diakonissenhaus Sophienheim Bad Arolsen took over the old people's and nursing homes in Flechtdorf (see: State Hospital and the Old People's Home ) and Rhoden. Today the Waldeckische Domanialverwaltung is the owner of the building.

In 2010, a fundamental and comprehensive modernization of the castle was discussed in order to be able to operate the existing retirement home profitably. The cost of this was estimated at around 8.1 million euros. The district council of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district, which is the trustee of the Waldeck domanial property, wanted to decide in December 2010 whether the renovation would be carried out. Possible alternatives were also considering vacancy or the sale of the castle.

Due to persistent deficits and an expected deterioration in the economic situation, a surprise closure was announced on July 31, 2011. At this time, however, this was not yet finally communicated by the operator, a renewed operation after a renovation by the Waldeckische Domanialverwaltung was considered possible. On November 30, 2011, the operator announced that the old people's home would not be reopened and that it would be returned to the domanial administration as the owner at the end of the year.

Further use

A comprehensive renovation began in 2013. It should enable further use for commercial and public purposes. The main tenant was to be the Verbands-Energie-Werk Gesellschaft für Erneuerbare Energien mbH (VEW) , a sister company of Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg GmbH (EWF) . As part of the renovation, the city of Diemelstadt also redesigned the Schlossplatz. The EWF originally wanted to move in by the end of 2014, but Rhoden Castle has only been fully let since November 2016.

literature

Web links

Commons : Rhoden Castle  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rhoden Castle, Waldeck-Frankenberg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of July 23, 2012). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  2. ↑ Rehabilitation of Rhoden Castle would cost eight million euros . In: HNA . September 10, 2010 ( hna.de [accessed October 4, 2015]).
  3. ^ Herculean task at Rhoden Castle. In: Waldeckische Landeszeitung . September 10, 2010, archived from the original on February 12, 2013 ; Retrieved October 4, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Schloss Rhoden retirement home closes. In: Waldeckische Landeszeitung. June 1, 2011, archived from the original on February 12, 2013 ; Retrieved October 4, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Rhoden Castle: Final end for old people's home . In: HNA . November 30, 2011 ( hna.de [accessed October 4, 2015]).
  6. ^ Elmar Schulten: City with history and future. (No longer available online.) In: Blickpunkte Rhoden. October 30, 2013, p. 10 , archived from the original on November 6, 2013 ; accessed on November 1, 2013 (supplement of the Waldeckische Landeszeitung).
  7. ↑ Julia Renner: EWF wants to move to the Rhoder Castle this year. In: HNA. January 25, 2014, accessed October 16, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Armin Haß: Rhoden Castle completely rented out . In: https://www.wlz-online.de . November 20, 2016 ( wlz-online.de [accessed October 16, 2017]).

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 29.4 "  N , 9 ° 0 ′ 27.5"  E