Schwebheim Castle

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Schwebheim Castle (2007)
Schwebheim Castle in a sketch from 1832
Nordkemenate, the "Great Castle"
Südkemenate, the "Little Castle"
Remnants of the so-called deer head (servant part)
Gate system (left) and corner tower of the Bering
Farm yard, now a museum

Castle Schwebheim or Schwebheim Castle is a former moated castle in the municipality of Schwebheim in the Lower Franconian district of Schweinfurt in Bavaria . It is a Bavarian cultural monument with the number D-6-78-176-2.

position

The former castle stands on the eastern outskirts of the village, which is at the southern entrance to Schweinfurt . Presumably, the moat of the moated castle used to be fed via ditches from the Unkenbach , which flows around the castle and town from east to north in the direction of the Main .

story

middle age

Schwebheim was first mentioned in writing in 1094 as "Suebheim". In a deed of donation, the place is given to the Benedictine monastery Theres as the property of the daughter of the last Schweinfurt margrave . In the 14th century the place was owned by the Counts of Castell, who gave the place as a fief to the Knights of Wenkheim in 1384 .

Around 1440, Balthasar von Wenkheim zu Schwanberg had the Schwebheim moated castle built. In 1484 the Wenkheimers donated the first chapel in town. When the feudal sovereignty of the place passed to the Counts of Henneberg in 1456 , the Wenkheimers remained the village lords. Already in 1513 had Jobst of Wenkheim deeply in debt all his possessions to the episcopal bailiff of Hassfurt , Wilhelm von Bibra , sell. In 1517 Hans von Bibra , brother of Prince-Bishop Lorenz von Bibra , inherited the Würzburg council and bailiff in Münnerstadt and on Karlsburg , the town and moated castle of Schwebheim.

Early modern age

When the German Peasants' War broke out in 1525 , the united Heidenfelder and Gerolzhöfer peasant heap of around 8,000 men overran the town and the castle, which was well fortified at the time, looted and burned it down to one building. Their owner was not in the place; he had at the same time in the ministry of the Successor of his brother Prince Bishop Konrad II. von Thüngen the parties Marienburg defend against the rebellious peasants. The castle was rebuilt on the remains of Wenkheim as early as 1526.

By lottery, Heinrich von Bibra (1527–1602) came into possession of Schwebheim in 1571. Several successions had made him one of the richest aristocrats in Franconia . Seven places were completely subject to interest; He received tithe shares and interest goods from up to 60 localities. From 1574 onwards, he let the castle be generously designed for the next two years: the stair towers were renewed with a transition between the south and north kemenate, the farmyard expanded, barns built, the magnificent main gate renewed and a new curtain wall with four corner and round towers built. 24 servants are named for the castle. Twice, in 1629 and 1837, the farm buildings later burned down due to lightning and were each rebuilt.

The heyday under Heinrich von Bibra, who as a Catholic landlord built a church for his evangelical subjects since 1540 and paid a pastor, came to an abrupt end in the Thirty Years' War .

Modern times

The castle was still intact in March 1632 when the Swedish king Gustav Adolf , presumably at the invitation of those of Bibra, stayed in the castle for the night from March 10th to 11th, 1632. As early as April 1632, however, the Swedish commandant of Schweinfurt tore down the defensive wall of the castle in order to use it to repair the Schweinfurt city ​​wall . At the end of the war, the place was temporarily depopulated due to the plague and war .

In the second half of the 17th century, Georg Christoph von Bibra owned the castle. With his death in 1687 he left five sons entitled to inherit. Johann Ernst von Bibra, who was born in the castle, came into possession of the castle and estate via a lottery . As an officer in various military services, he rarely stayed at his headquarters. In the course of his military career he rose to the rank of Imperial Lieutenant Field Marshal (1701), Lieutenant General Field Marshal (1704) and Austrian General Feldzeugmeister (1704).

His grandson Johann Philip von Bibra († 1768) distinguished himself as a ruthless landowner. His burdens regarding labor and taxes were so high that there was a riot in 1750 . The lord of the castle had 36 men from the Catholic prince-bishop's Würzburg militia enlist and another 36 grenadiers with officers from the Würzburg garrison followed. The soldiers are said to have harassed the villagers for almost three weeks. It was only under Johann Philips' sons in 1786 that a settlement was made that brought relief to the villagers. Of the five sons, his son Ferdinand seems to have continued the inheritance, but like his ancestors was in military service as far as North America. He only spent the last years of his life at Schwebheim Castle.

In the 18th century, Baroness Lucretia Wilhelmine von Bibra was formative for the place. She equipped a building foundation that granted Schwebheim citizens grants and loans to build houses, interest was used for the village fountain and the maintenance of the Schweinfurt gate. An industrial school foundation served the instruction and education of girls.

19th century

In 1833 Ferdinand's son Ernst von Bibra , a scientist and writer born at the castle in 1806, became the landlord of Schwebheim and set up a chemical laboratory in the castle , which involved extensive renovations inside.

In 1848 the rule over the place expired. Around 1850 a park was laid out west of the castle and connected to the castle by a stone bridge with a rococo railing .

After Ernst von Bibra's death in 1878, the sons Reinhold and Wolfgang von Bibra took over the castle and had it thoroughly renovated in 1882.

20th century

The brothers Ernst von Bibra (1871–1952) and Hans von Bibra (1873–1955) were the last official lords of the von Bibra castle from the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century.

In World War II, parts were destroyed the palace complex. Armin Wagner (1915–2005), illegitimate son of Baron Ernst von Bibras, worked as a clerk in Schweinfurt in the post-war period . He arranged the succession for the last namesake of Bibra in Schwebheim Castle and was recognized by his father Ernst von Bibra. He was appointed the sole heir of his brother Hans's widow, Elisabeth, and paid off the remaining heirs.

Between 1969 and 1971, parts of the south kemenate were renovated, the castle barns and the annexes renovated. A historical annex on the south wing was demolished and rebuilt as a new building in the same length and across its full width. The former hunting lodge on the castle grounds was demolished and rebuilt as a garage . Around 1991, parts of the north tower and the gate system were renovated in-house and with around one million D-Marks from public funds. Between 1999 and 2001, parts of the north kemenate were converted for residential purposes.

present

A grandson of Wagner bought the castle in 2016. The sale of the palace garden to the community of Schwebheim financed the extension of the south wing and the further expansion of the north wing into residential units. In 2019 the “Hirschkopf” building section was sold to Söllner Wohn und Gewerbebau GmbH & Co. KG and is to be expanded to five further residential units in their original state in close cooperation with the monument protection department .

description

The castle in a steel engraving from before 1870. Clearly visible is the no longer existing transition between the stair towers of the two parts of the castle. The viewer looks to the west from the direction of the Hirschkopf .

After several renovations over time, the moated castle consists of two three-storey residential buildings with steep pitched roofs and stepped gables from 1526, so-called kemenaten, and the “deer head” section; the stair towers are from 1574. The north chamber is known as the so-called "Great Castle" and has stepped gables on both narrow sides. The south kemenate, the so-called "small castle", only has a stepped gable on the northeast side. Until 1955 there was a transition in the middle between the southern, octagonal, upcoming stair tower of the north tower and the smaller, likewise octagonal stair tower of the southern tower that was integrated into the building. A large sandstone coat of arms , framed by ancestral coats of arms and banners, is located on the large stair tower of the north tower above a chamfered and decorated sandstone portal on the side . As far as legible, Heinrich von Bibra's coat of arms can be read in the original text: "HEINRICH VON BI | RA ZV / BIBRA VND SCHWBHN / ANNO DM 1574"; under the coat of arms the slogan: "HERGOT BEHVTE DS HAVS / ALL THOSE IN THERE WALK A VND OUT". To the right, above a direct access to the “Great Castle”, there is a coat of arms with a figure and text, also framed by ancestral coats of arms.

L-shaped east and north before Nordkemenate along the former Bering running past was the so-called "deer head", mostly domestics apartments . Except for the ruins on the ground floor, this part has largely fallen apart, only to the north is one of the gable ends almost completely. Reconstruction with apartments is planned. All three buildings formed the inner courtyard roughly in the form of a not entirely symmetrical H. In the courtyard, on the left-hand side after the gate entrance, a roofed fountain system has been preserved.

The palace area was surrounded by a rectangular ring with four round corner towers, a moat and rampart and a reinforced gate in the southeast, which was designed as a double gate system with a drawbridge , labeled "1576". The drawbridge has not existed for a long time. At the inner gate, however, the chain feedthroughs can still be seen. The double gate system is protected at the first entrance by two small round half-shell towers with loopholes, a barbican , which are connected to a sandstone portal. Each access tower has three high battlements . Two envious heads guard the entrance to the castle, which is crowned with three battlements. The stone bridge over the former moat is replaced by a plank bridge at the inner gate. The drawbridge used to be here. At the inner right-angled gate with sandstone corner blocks there is an alliance coat of arms on the left . The inner gate itself is occupied by five oversized battlements with tendril attachments.

The inner castle area was surrounded by an outer castle garden wall, especially in the east and north , which also included the castle park in the southwest. The park was west at the castle as articulated baroque ornamental garden with a fountain in the Rococo forms created, continue west to the old Schwebheim to as a park.

The farm yard in the south of the palace complex formerly had five buildings or stables that were laid out in a row south of the palace area. Bounded to the west by the manager's building and to the south by a long row of several barn buildings, there was a pond in the middle of the so-called outer courtyard , which still exists today. To the east, close to the eastern corner tower of the Bering, stood the former hunting lodge as the end of the farm yard in this direction.

Today the buildings have been preserved to varying degrees. Extensive restoration work and conversions for residential purposes have been ongoing since around 1999. The castle is privately owned.

museum

The local history collection of Schwabheim, called the Museum in the Castle Barn, is located in the 2nd and 3rd barn. It presents the history of the village and the castle in 46 sections on approx. 920 m² and is carried out by the local history work group Schwebheim e. V. supervised.

literature

  • Heinz Rötter: Castles in Lower Franconia. Verlag Neue Presse, Coburg 1991
  • Hans Schwinger: The Schwebheim line of those from Bibra and their end. BoD, Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7526-8830-6
  • Hans Schwinger: In Schwaam is good laam. Schwebheim in testimonies from its past. BoD, Norderstedt 2021, ISBN 978-3-7557-1081-3 . Pp. 203-209 et al.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s building history Schloss Schwebheim , private website; accessed on November 1, 2021
  2. ↑ a b c d e Schwebheim Palace at www.frankentourismus.de ; accessed on November 1, 2021
  3. ↑ History & Geography , website of the municipality of Schwebheim; accessed on November 2, 2021
  4. ↑ a b Hans Schwinger: In Schwaam is guad laam . P. 205
  5. ↑ a b c Hans Schwinger: In Schwaam is guad laam . P. 205 f.
  6. ↑ a b c Descriptions based on the card in: Hans Schwinger: In Schwaam is guad laam . P. 207
  7. ↑ List of monuments for Schwebheim (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (PDF; 127 kB)

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 31.3 ″  N , 10 ° 15 ′ 3.2 ″  E