Schönberg Palace (Bensheim)

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The Schönberg Castle
Map of Bensheim with the Schönberg district
The castle in 1851 ( pen drawing by Johann Meinrad Bayrer )
Main building from the courtyard

Schönberg Palace , also known as Schönberg Palace , is located near Schönberg, a district of Bensheim an der Bergstrasse in the Bergstrasse district above the Schönberger Valley in southern Hesse .

history

Schönberg belonged to the county of Erbach and later, after the division of the county, to the branch of those of Erbach-Schönberg .

In the 13th century (first documented mention in 1303), the castle was built as a castle on a mountain nose above Schönberg to control the Lautertalstrasse. The first buildings must have been in place of today's buildings, they had a more defensive character and were protected on the northern main attack side by a shield wall with towers (one still exists). As a Palatine fiefdom, the castle was owned by the von Erbach taverns . In the immediate vicinity, foreign territorial lords bordered the Erbach area with the Kurmainz in Bensheim and the County of Katzenelnbogen in Auerbach .

When the Counts of Katzenelnbogen died out, their heirs, the Landgraves of Hesse , became new neighbors of the Erbachers in 1479.

In 1504 in the War of the Bavarian-Palatinate Succession, the castle was badly damaged by Landgrave Wilhelm II of Hesse , caught fire and was badly damaged. After the Erbachers were raised to the status of count in 1532, however, there was lively new building activity in the following decades. In the middle of the 16th century it was rebuilt as an open castle .

In 1717 the Erbacher Grafenhaus was divided and Schönberg Palace became the seat of the Erbach-Schönberg line named after him . Extensive construction work began around 1728/29 under Count Georg August von Erbach-Schönberg .

Around 1840/50, further major redesigns were carried out on the manor house and north wing as well as in the castle courtyard, where the east terrace was prepared. The baroque garden , which was expanded in the 18th century, was transformed into a landscape park. In 1902, the last major structural addition was the pavilion on the terrace, the creator of which was the Bensheim architect Heinrich Metzendorf .

In 1956, the venerable castle of the Schönberger Line, which was raised to the prince status in 1903, was sold to the Ruhrknappschaft in Bochum and expanded into a rest home . On October 17, 1957, after being redesigned in the presence of Federal President Theodor Heuss, it was handed over for use as a preventive healthcare home.

Until December 2011, the castle served as a conference and training facility for the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See . In 2014 the castle was sold to a regional entrepreneur.

Picture gallery

  • backyard

  • Distant view

  • Inner courtyard with main gate

  • Main building with stair tower

literature

  • Thomas Biller: Castles and palaces in the Odenwald. A guide to history and architecture. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1711-2 , p. 76f.
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Euler, Felix Zimmer: Schönberg Castle , published by the Federal Knappschaft , Bochum.
  • History workshop Geschwister Scholl: Georg-Ludwig Prince of Erbach-Schönberg and his role in the Third Reich. Hidden memories. In: Archive for Hessian History and Antiquity 63, 2005, pp. 255–292
  • History workshop Geschwister Scholl: Contributions to the history of the Erbach-Schönberg princely house in the 20th century. Bensheim 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-050422-8
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 571-572.
  • Thomas Steinmetz: Castles in the Odenwald. Verlag Ellen Schmid, Brensbach 1998, ISBN 3-931529-02-9 , pp. 77f.
  • Thomas Steinmetz: The castle of the taverns of Erbach on the "beautiful mountains" - On the building history and architectural form of Schönberg Castle on Bergstrasse. In: The Odenwald. Journal of the Breuberg Association . Issue 2, 2007, pp. 51-79.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 47f.

Web links

Commons : Schönberg Palace (Bensheim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schönberg Castle in new ownership. In: Echo Online. August 14, 2014, accessed May 8, 2015 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 41 ′ 34.1 "  N , 8 ° 38 ′ 47.3"  E