Rochsburg Castle

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Rochsburg Castle

Rochsburg Castle, which was presumably founded in the late 12th century, stands on a rocky spur surrounded by the Zwickauer Mulde on three sides above the village of Rochsburg , a district of Lunzenau in Saxony . It is located in the Mulden-Chemnitztal landscape protection area and is completely enclosed by the FFH area Mittleres Zwickauer Muldental , the bird protection area Täler in central Saxony and the nature reserve Um die Rochsburg .

The entire medieval complex and its subdivision into the main castle, outer bailey and two kennels can still be clearly seen. In its current appearance, however, the castle dates from the late Gothic and Renaissance periods . Its main construction phases date from 1470 and from 1548; it is an important example of Renaissance architecture in Saxony. For centuries the Rochsburg was the eponymous center of the Saxon office of Rochsburg.

history

Rochsburg Castle, courtyard with fountain

The first documentary mention of a "Gunteros de Rochsberg" (died around 1220) can be found in 1195 in a Wettin document about a process five years ago. Although this "Gunteros de Rochsberg" has been mentioned several times since the 1190s, it is not certain whether the castle was built before 1200. Even in the early 13th century, the name of the Rochsburg dominion appeared several times in documents. Presumably Gunteros de Rochsberg was a Wettin official who was in contact with the neighboring Gau Rochlitz . 1283 is the year in which the Burgraves of Altenburg were first mentioned as the Wettin tenants of Rochsburg. The earliest direct documentary mention of a "castrum Burggravii Rochsberg" can be found in a document from Burgrave Dietrich II of Altenburg (1291 to 1303, Rochsburg line) from July 22, 1296. Here, Rochsburg is named as the preferred place of residence of the burgrave.

By marriage, the plant came to Otto von Leisnig in 1329 , whose descendant Albrecht II von Leisnig, due to financial worries, was forced to sell the rulership of Rochsburg on March 10, 1448 to Heinrich, Herr zu Gera . The gentlemen of Gera pledged their newly acquired manor four years later to Zschaslaw von Schönfeld for 1,500 Schock Freiberg groschen over a period of five years. Since he did not get his money back, Rochsburg became the Wettin office and Zschaslaw von Schönfeld became his bailiff . On October 28, 1467, Count von Hohnstein took Rochsburg by hand. It has not yet been possible to determine what had moved him to do so. He remained undisturbed for two years before troops from the Electorate of Saxony took advantage of the Count's absence to recapture in 1469.

In 1470, the complex was given to the politically influential electoral advisor and chief court marshal Hugold IV von Schleinitz (1435–1490) in exchange for payment of 4,000 guilders . From 1470, he initiated extensive, 12-year-long expansion and reconstruction measures for a castle . A closed four-wing complex based on the model of the electoral palace in Dresden, which was modernized from 1468 onwards, was created using the older, single-standing buildings. An ornate stair tower on a rectangular floor plan now opened up the upper floors. This Große Wendelstein is considered to be one of the first stairwells planned from the outset in castle complexes. This work was overseen by the Oberlandesbaumeister Arnold von Westfalen , one of the most important architects of his time in Central Europe. But Hugold IV von Schleinitz couldn't enjoy Rochsburg for too long. After lengthy negotiations before the regional court, the decision was made in 1488 that he had to return the castle to Duke Albrecht of Saxony against repayment of his 4000 guilders pledge and another 4000 guilders as compensation for the construction costs .

Again managed bailiffs the now ducal (Albertine) Office Rochsburg. The Rochsburg burned down completely in 1503, caused by inattention in the kitchen. The brothers Heinrich and Götz von Ende on the neighboring Kriebstein seized the opportunity and exchanged their Kriebstein rule for the Rochsburg manor.

When electoral troops looted and burned the sparsely occupied palace during the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 , Heinrich's son Wolf von Ende sold the Rochsburg palace and rule for 60,000  guilders to the three gentlemen Georg, Hugo and Wolf II von Schönburg , who thus owned their extensive possessions in the upper part The valley of the Zwickauer Mulde expanded. They not only rebuilt the ruined complex a year later, but also gave it the look that still characterizes the complex with the mid-houses and new window walls. An inscription in the chapel commemorates this reconstruction from 1548 to 1553. The damage caused by another fire in 1582 was also repaired by the Schönburger under Wolf III. briskly; at that time, almost all the wooden ceilings in the ship's throat shapes that can still be seen today were renewed. The preserved half-timbered walkway in the North Zwinger also dates from this time. In 1574 a two-storey summer house with a round floor plan was built in front of the gates of the castle, which is the last surviving example of this type of building in Saxony today. In 1637 Christian Ernst von Schönburg became the sole owner of the Rochsburg through purchase. He paid particular attention to the design of the palace gardens.

Rochsburg Castle around 1830
GDR postage stamp from the series " Burgen " from 1985

Increasing financial difficulties prompted the then owner, Count von Schönburg-Waldenburg, in 1911 to make some rooms in the castle accessible to the public as a small museum. In addition, some rooms were rented out to Catholic guests as hostels from the mid-1920s. In March 1932, an initially purely Catholic youth hostel with a total of 50 places was opened in the main castle. The youth hostel was taken over in 1934 by the Hitler Youth , who set up a training camp there the following year, before the hostel was finally used by the Hitler Youth as a military training camp . In August 1948 the youth hostel was reopened from 1951 under the name "Heinrich Heine". In 1960 the capacity was expanded from 150 to 170 seats. The highest occupancy was achieved in 1967 with 36,340 overnight stays. During the Second World War, the castle was also used as a storage location for valuable cultural assets.

The Rochsburg remained from 1548 to 1945 in the possession of the von Schönburg family, who had been raised to the rank of count in 1700. In 1945 the aristocratic family was expropriated as part of the land reform and the complex came to the state of Saxony. Three years after the end of the Second World War , the museum was reopened on an expanded area and has since been showing furnishings from the 16th to 19th centuries. The youth hostel also reopened its doors that year and was finally closed in 1998.

In 1952, the then Rochlitz district took over Rochsburg. After this opened up in the Mittweida district in 1992, Mittweida initially continued to use it, and since 2002 the district of central Saxony . The museum in the castle has been operated by the Central Saxon Culture gGmbH since 2009.

From 1991 to 1997 Joachim Graf von Schönburg-Glauchau lived on the Rochsburg.

The Choco Del Sol chocolate factory has been located in the castle's courtyard since 2015, producing and marketing bean-to-bar chocolates on site and organizing the annual international EuroBean Chocolate Festival.

Brief structural description

The facility consists of a four-bladed main castle (conversion from 1470 to 1482) in the building type a castle complex with the remains of a late Roman Concert halls and residential construction and the built partly of brick in 1200 and in the early 13th century castle keep at its center. This round tower was raised by two additional tower floors to a height of 42 meters under Johann Georg von Schönburg around 1620 and provided with a pointed baroque tower dome. It was not until 1842 that a staircase was created in the keep, which leads from the courtyard entrance, which was then recently collapsed, to the first upper floor. The original access was about 10 meters above the courtyard.

A large farm yard with a triangular floor plan and powder tower (1471–1475, upper parts around 1550) is in front of the core castle. Here there were stables, sheds for wagons and equipment as well as bulk floors and apartments for servants. Surrounded by the Zwickauer Mulde on three sides , the Rochsburg is well secured by natural conditions and can only be reached through the lower castle gate via a drawbridge that spans the neck ditch . This is followed by the north kennel with the preserved medieval half-timbered walkway (around 1582). Only the raw defensive wall has been preserved in the south kennel. The ruins of a horse mill can also be found here .

On the upper castle gate from 1476, the original metal fittings are still preserved, which show traces of fighting, such as points of impact from crossbow bolts and bullet holes from modern times. The gate leads to the square inner courtyard of the main castle. In the middle of it is a draw well dating back to the 12th century , which was drained from 1470–1475 to today's depth of 53 meters. The wooden well house and the gears were built in the 18th century (renewed).

Tower clock

The fully functional tower clock from 1640 can be seen at the keep. It is a one-hand watch with an original clockwork and striking mechanism that can be viewed on special tours. At the strike of the hour, the lower clay bell, cast in Zwickau for this clockwork in 1620, with a circumferential inscription: HANS • HAVBENDACHER • HANS • RAMIG • ZU • ZWICKAV • HAD • MICH • GOSSEN • ANNO • 16 • 20. A higher pitched bell from 1474 is struck once for every quarter of an hour within the hour that has started; The full hour is marked by four beats. This bell bears the inscription on the bell neck: Anno • d (omi) ni • m ° • cccc ° • lxxiiii °. It is a former ringing bell that was subsequently converted into a striking bell. Its origin is unclear, but it may previously have hung in a bell carrier in the late Gothic castle chapel. The three stone weights for driving the movement, pointer and chime can be pulled up separately using a hand crank with rollers. Since the restoration in 1999 with the renewal of the dial, this has been done by an automatically activated electric motor.

Castle chapel

In the course of the complete reconstruction of the castle into a modern palace under Arnold von Westfalen , a chapel was added around 1475 in the south wing of the inner castle between the keep and the old bower . This castle chapel of St. Anna has several architecturally remarkable components: The sacrament house made of red Rochlitz porphyry dates back to the time when it was built, which was dominated by Catholicism. A high, three-lane pointed arch window in the courtyard with Gothic tracery above the likewise pointed west portal illuminates the chapel. The coat of arms of the Counts of Schönburg is placed above the wooden royal box . The ribbed vault was restored in 1997 and was probably installed by Caspar Krafft before 1523.

The two keystones in the ribbed vault show the coats of arms of the von Schönburg families (red-silver-red-silver) and von Ende (jumping wolf). The altar of sandstone made in 1576 in the style of late Renaissance of the castle master and sculptor Andreas Lorenz after now evangelical image program. It shows reliefs with scenes from the Passion of Christ, u. a. a communion in the predella , a multi-figure crucifixion , above the burial and resurrection of Christ and the three women at the grave. A stone inscription from 1548, flanked by two putti, commemorates the rebuilding of the palace under Wolf II von Schönburg.

The chapel room opens up through a wide arch to an equally high side room with cross vaults from an older building phase of the castle. A modern Pietà by Siegfried Hänel (1931–2004) is displayed here. The crypt of the Counts of Schönburg-Rochsburg can be seen through a grid in the door in another adjoining room.

Crypt of the Counts of Schönburg-Rochsburg

The last members of the Schönburg-Rochsburg family branch, which died out with Heinrich Ernst II without male descendants, rest in nine wooden above-ground double coffins in the crypt, which was laid out around 1770 next to the chapel of Rochsburg Castle:

  1. Heinrich Ernst I (1711 to 1777), Count and Lord of Schönburg-Rochsburg
  2. Magdalena Luise (1723 to 1798), countess and mistress of Schönburg-Rochsburg - born imperial freess von Elstern, wife of Heinrich Ernst I.
  3. Friedrich Ernst (1748 to 1770), Count and Lord of Schönburg - first son of Heinrich Ernst I.
  4. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1751 to 1816), Count and Lord of Schönburg-Rochsburg - second son of Heinrich Ernst I.
  5. Wilhelmine Eleonore Sidonie (1756 to 1822), born countess and mistress of Schönburg - widowed baroness von der Steyden, daughter of Heinrich Ernst I.
  6. Heinrich Ernst II (1760 to 1825), Count and Lord of Schönburg-Rochsburg - fourth son of Heinrich Ernst I.
  7. Sophie Wilhelmine (1766 to 1795), Countess and Mistress of Schönburg - born Princess von Schönaich-Carolath, first wife of Heinrich Ernst II.
  8. Ernestine Wilhelmine (1768 to 1838), Countess and Mistress von Schönburg - born von Köhler, second wife of Heinrich Ernst II.
  9. unlabeled coffin, probably Ernst Ferdinand Ludwig Heinrich von Schönburg (1800 to 1868) - 2nd cousin of Heinrich Ernst II.

Count Heinrich Ernst II. Von Schönburg-Rochsburg is one of the most important German economists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries because of his important merino sheep breeding , which became famous across Europe, and because of his economic diary for the years 1799-1819 (published in 1828) .

museum

Since 1911 there has been a museum in Rochsburg Castle, which invites you to experience the 800-year history of the facility. Historical furniture, furnishings and paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries are exhibited in five representative rooms, including the ancestral gallery of the Counts of Schönburg .

In the permanent exhibition “People make clothes” 52 selected examples from 1000 years of fashion history are presented. These costumes were between 1996 and 2003 based on historical models of 113 women from the region in a project funded by the employment office employment measure made by hand after the regional textile industry in the wake of structural change had suffered heavy losses.

Other exhibition rooms are used with changing special exhibitions on art, handicrafts and history. The exhibition "Clay, reed, stone - materials not just for pharaohs" in the large cellar provides information about building materials from nature.

Events

Public events and concerts take place at Rochsburg Castle, including the White Nights every year since 2017; since 2009 annual folk concerts at the Irish Night at the end of June; since 2016 the international chocolate festival EuroBean every year at the beginning of August; since 2015 the Rochsburger Landmarkt every year in mid-September; since 2017 the Campana Festival of Sounds every year in early October; as well as in December on the 1st Advent since 2002 a Christmas concert and since 2009 on the 4th Advent a romantic Advent market. Marriages can be concluded in the small ballroom, which functions as a registry office .

Redevelopment

The facility was repaired from 1928 to 1937 under the direction of the Dresden architect Otto Rometsch with a large-scale donation campaign “Save Rochsburg” by the Saxon Homeland Security Association . In 1948 the upper part of the powder tower was demolished because it was in disrepair and was reconstructed by the Institute for Monument Preservation by 1952 . The immediate vicinity of Rochsburg was declared a nature reserve this year .

Since the 1990s, carried out by the mittelsachsen continuously historically appropriate restoration and Restaurieungsarbeiten: 1992-1999 dungeon (around 1200) and clock (1640); 1991 to 1997 castle chapel (around 1475/1523), 1996 altar (from 1576), reopening of the chapel in 1997; 1998 north weir wall with half-timbered walkway; 1998 to 2007 main castle (1998 and 2007 north wing; 2000/2001 east wing with small Wendelstein and gate system; 2002/2003 west wing with ballroom); 2015 portal in the historic ballroom; 2013 to 2018 farmyard with powder tower ; 2018 sacrament house in the palace chapel; 2019 small turret at the castle entrance ("Rapunzel turret" from 1620).

  • Outer bailey with powder tower

  • Battlement

  • entrance

  • Keep

Former palace garden with the pleasure house

In the eastern apron of the Rochsburg - in front of the moat - there was formerly an important garden in which at that time the older pleasure house was located. At the end of the GDR era, one could apparently still guess the dimensions of the garden as the literature of that time says. Practically nothing of the garden has survived to this day. Today (2019) the area is partially built on with a single-family house and the private garden.

The pleasure house is said to have been built for Wolf II von Schönburg as early as 1574.

From 1632 Andreas Hardten was employed as court gardener by Christian von Schönburg. Christian apparently got the idea for the garden from one of his trips through many countries - u. a. to the Orient - with. In his book "Der Geist- und Weltliche Gartenbaw" (1648) Andreas Hardten describes the Rochsburg garden in detail. Symmetrically arranged flower parterres framed hedge walkways with domes, towers, doors and windows. The parterres were divided into small areas with low box hedges, each with a special ornamental plant. Hardten especially loved roses, some of which he also grew in pots. Ornamental plants preferred by him were also carnations, lilies, candy apples, arum, almonds, peaches and mulberry trees. The GDR literature dated the pleasure house to the time "around 1600". It came into private hands after 1990 and was restored between 2002 and 2004. The pleasure house is a tower-like building and is described in 1986 as follows: “... a wide, curved hood, crowned by a weather vane, depicting a kite. The outside staircase attached to the building and the surrounding wooden gallery at the height of the first floor directly connect the garden and the pleasure house ”.

Since the pleasure house is located north of the Rochsburg or east of the access road at the bridge over the moat (to the gate of the second outer bailey), the garden was formerly connected to the east of this pleasure house. On the outside of the Lusthaus there is also a coat of arms of the Schönburger. The pleasure house is on private property and can therefore only be viewed from one side from a few meters away. The Rochsburg Renaissance Lusthaus is the last remaining object of its kind in Saxony today .

  • North side of the castle with the pleasure house

  • NE view of the Renaissance Lusthaus (1574) in front of the north side of Rochsburg, 2018

  • historical view (1835), right the pleasure house

literature

  • Walter Bachmann : The Rochsburg . In: Communications from the Saxon Homeland Security Association . Volume XVII, Issue 5-6, Dresden 1928, pp. 221-246.
  • The Rochsburg and its surroundings. A historical outline, ed. from the Museum Schloß Rochsburg, Heine-Druck Glauchau, 1974 [Druckhaus Karl Marx Stadt, 1981 and 1984].
  • Wolf-Dieter Röber : Die Rochsburg, In: Schönburgische Burgen und Schlösser im Tal der Zwickauer Mulde, Sax-Verlag Beucha, 1999, pp. 77-90, ISBN 3-930076-77-2 .
  • Matthias Donath (ed.): Castle and Lordship of Rochsburg . Beucha 2006, ISBN 3-934544-92-4 .
  • Yves Hoffmann: On the dating of residential towers and mountain tombs from the 11th to 13th centuries on Saxon castles. In: Historical building research in Saxony. Workbook 4 of the State Office for Monument Preservation 2000. P. 47–58.
  • Karl-Heinz Karsch: Rochsburg. 1st edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 978-3-7954-6006-8 .
  • Karl-Heinz Karsch: On the building history of Rochsburg Castle with special consideration of the development in the 15th and 16th centuries (diploma thesis at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 1984, GDR)
  • Lutz Hennig: Rochsburg Castle, 1st edition. STEKO art guide No. 51, Wettin-Löbejün OT Dößel 2019, ISBN 978-3-89923-404-6 .
  • Alexandra Thümmler: Domination and entrepreneurship. Count Heinrich Ernst II of Schönburg-Rochsburg (1760–1825), in: Imperial Estate, Splendor and Piety, Forms of Representation for Counts and Princes of Schönburg in the 18th Century (Dissertation), Writings on Saxon History and Folklore, Volume 59, Leipzig University Press , Leipzig 2019, pp. 539-560, ISBN 978-3-96023-230-8 .
  • Wolf-Dieter Röber , Steffen Winkler: Rochsburg Castle . In: Series of publications, issue 6, Museum and Art Collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, City of Glauchau, 1986, GDR, pp. 27-30 (history of the owners, building history, former park and pleasure house - around 1600 - of Christian von Schönburg's court gardener, Andreas Hardten, in front of the east side of the Rochsburg, picture of the Lusthaus p. 30)
  • J. Müller: On the history of Rochsburg and his lords , Waldenburg, 1887
  • R. Hofmann: On the building history of Rochsburg . In: Schönburgische Geschichtsblätter, Vol. 3, Waldenburg 1896/1897
  • Andreas Hardten: The Spiritual and Secular Gartenbaw , 1648 (Andreas Hardten, Christian von Schönburg's court gardener since 1632, describes the Rochsburg garden in detail, only the pleasure house remained)
  • A. Beil: Rochsburg owned by the sovereigns . In: New Archive for Saxon History, Vol. 37, Dresden, 1916

Web links

Commons : Rochsburg Castle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Burggrafschaft Altenburg, p. 561
  2. ^ R. Hofmann: On the building history of the Rochsburg. In: Schönburgische Geschichtsblätter. Vol. 3, Waldenburg 1896/1897.
  3. ↑ The invoices for the renovation from 1470 onwards are in the Saxon Main State Archives in Dresden (Loc. 10361), as well as: Donath, Matthias: Rochsburg Castle and the Saxon castle construction of the 15th and 16th centuries. In: Matthias Donath (Ed.): Castle and Lordship of Rochsburg. Beucha 2006, pp. 59–75, here: p. 60.
  4. ↑ The inscription is quoted in Wolf-Dieter Röber: Die Rochsburg. In: Schönburg castles and palaces in the valley of the Zwickauer Mulde. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 1999, p. 88.
  5. ^ Chronicle of the youth hostel "Heinrich Heine" Rochsburg on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its reopening on May 8, 1948. Typoscript, 1988, Archive Museum Schloss Rochsburg, p. 7; The Rochsburg and its surroundings. A historical outline. Edited by the Rochsburg Castle Museum, Heine-Druck, Glauchau 1974, p. 18; and statements from residents.
  6. ↑ Chocolate factory Choco Del Sol , accessed on September 13, 2019.
  7. ^ Matthias Donath (Ed.): Castle and Lordship of Rochsburg . Beucha 2006, pp. 85-88.
  8. ^ Matthias Donath (Ed.): Castle and Lordship of Rochsburg . Beucha 2006, pp. 89-90.
  9. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Röber : The chapel in Hinterglauchau Castle . In: Series of publications, issue 10, Museum and Art Collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, Glauchau, 1994, pp. 8–15 (comments on the Rochsburg Castle Chapel, p. 9)
  10. ↑ Saxon Biography , accessed on September 12, 2019.
  11. ↑ Alexandra Thümmler: Known throughout Europe. The Rochsburger Schäferei, in: Imperial estate, splendor and piety, forms of representation of the counts and princes of Schönburg in the 18th century (dissertation), writings on Saxon history and folklore, volume 59, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2019, pp. 547-551 and p 559; Michael Wetzel: The model farms of the Counts of Schönburg in Rochsburg, in: Knowledge - Wool - Change, Merino sheep breeding and agricultural innovation in Saxony in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2016, pp. 63–73.
  12. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Röber , Steffen Winkler: Rochsburg Castle . In: Series of publications, Issue 6, Museum and Art Collection Schloss Hinterglauchau, City of Glauchau, 1986, GDR, Description of the Rochsburg Gardens p. 29, Fig. 10 p. 30: Lusthaus (dated around 1600)

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 36.7 "  N , 12 ° 45 ′ 52.4"  E