Castle Sien
Sien Castle is a former hunting lodge of the Princes of Salm-Kyrburg , built in 1770/71 , today owned by the Counts of Luxburg .
Geographical location
The castle is located in the center of Sien at an altitude of 345 m above sea level. NN at Fürst-Dominik-Straße 29. Immediately next to it is the Protestant parish church, which, like the castle, was built a few years earlier by Johann Thomas Petri in the baroque style. Sien is located in the North Palatinate mountains between Idar-Oberstein or Kirn and Lauterecken on the federal highway 270 and is now part of the Birkenfeld district in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate ; The seat of the association is Herrstein . The location of Sien on the watershed between Nahe and Glan gave the place its historical importance.
history
With the death of Ludwig Otto zu Salm in 1738, until then sovereign a. a. of the Oberamt Kyrburg with Sien, the princely line of Salm-Neufville became extinct in the male line. Between the cousins Nikolaus Leopold zu Salm-Hoogstraeten , also the son-in-law of the deceased (founder of the Salm-Salm line ), as well as Johann Dominik Albert zu Salm-Leuze and his brother Philipp Joseph , there was a legal dispute over the inheritance. The parties involved - like the testator himself - shared their great, great, great grandfather Friedrich I. Graf zu Salm-Neufville, Wild- and Rheingraf zu Dhaun and Kyrburg, from whom the parties derived their inheritance claims.
After five years - in the meantime the Salm-Hoogstraeten line (1739) as well as the Salm-Leutze line (1743) had been elevated to the rank of prince - it was agreed that Nikolaus Leopold next to Schloss Anholt 3/8 von Kirn and the whole of Lorraine Salm estate with the Senones (Sens) residence in the Vosges Mountains . Johann Dominik and his brother inherited (in addition to other small estates in Flanders and Hainaut ) the rest of Kirn and the Oberamt Kyrburg with Sien, which was an exclave from the Wild and Rhine Counties in the middle of foreign possessions and had its own mayor's office subordinate to the Oberamt Kyrburg decreed. From then on, the brothers Johann Dominik and Philipp Joseph called themselves Prince of Salm-Kyrburg .
On the occasion of Franz I's coronation as emperor in Frankfurt am Main on September 13, 1745, Johann Dominik, who had taken his permanent residence in Vienna , came to Kirn for the first time, the "capital" of the inherited principality. His impression was sobering. To his brother, who lives in Paris, he wrote: “ (...) even if there were a castle in Kirn, I wouldn't want to spend 3 weeks a year there! “From a distance, the brothers ruled their principality together at first, but this led to disputes that were finally settled by introducing the primogeniture . Since Johann Dominik was childless and showed no interest in women, Philipp Joseph or his eldest son Friedrich was able to inherit the principality in this way. Until then, Philip Joseph received a prerogative as compensation.
As the sole sovereign, Johann Dominik moved to his principality in 1763 after the lost Seven Years' War - he had to provide the Imperial Army with a military contingent of 39 men. The views about Kirn that he had expressed to his brother 18 years earlier were unchanged. He consequently refrained from building a castle in Kirn, and he no longer had the Kyrburg , the seat of his ancestors, which had been destroyed 30 years earlier in the War of the Polish Succession (1734), rebuilt as a manor. Instead, his decision to build a castle later fell on the Sien enclave outside Kirn, where he could devote himself to hunting beyond official business. In Kirn, he initially only took up quarters in a simple town house on the market square ("Herold House"). After the Princely Winery was built (1769–1771), he then moved into the right wing of the administration building. Before its completion, he only had a Piarist college built as a representative building in Kirn , the west facade of which, completed in 1758, was later to become the model for his palace in Sien.
Before Johann Dominik considered building a “manorial house”, he first devoted himself to the economic and intellectual consolidation of the long-neglected country. Improving the social situation of the population, building roads and building churches took precedence over building a castle. In addition, when his inheritance began, the enclave of Sien was divided into two domains: One half belonged to the Wildgraves' line he inherited, the other half to the Lords of Sickingen , feudal men of the Wildgraves, whose property Johann Dominik bought in 1764 and thus the 500-year-old Condom on Sien ended. Now Johann Dominik was the sole master of Sien, while he had to share 3/8 of the official residence town of Kirn with the Anholter nephews. This fact reinforced his decision to realize the planned castle in Sien - as a hunting castle, where the passionate hunter could devote himself to hunting.
But first Johann Dominik had his court builder Johann Thomas Petri build a new church with simultaneous use on the foundations of the dilapidated church in the baroque style (today's Protestant church), since the Sickingen part was Protestant, the Wildgräfliche part was Catholic. After the completion of the church, Prince Dominik started planning his palace, which he also commissioned Johann Thomas Petri to carry out. As a location, however, Johann Dominik did not choose the moated castle, which was formerly in Sickingen and was destroyed in the War of the Bavarian-Palatinate Succession in 1504 - today in the Sienerhöfe district. -, but the property located on Ur-Wildgräflicher area directly next to the church, which was connected to the castle by an underground passage. The hunting lodge was completed in 1771 as a baroque counterpart to the church. Johann Dominik spent most of the year there, although he officially resided in Kirn. In this way, Sien Castle became the “second residence” of the Principality of Salm-Kyrburg, as Johann Dominik also carried out official business from here.
description
The three-storey baroque building, loosened up by a wide central projectile, with a mansard hipped roof and attached dormers , is balanced by regularly arranged arched windows with wedge stones on all four wall sides. The edges of the building and the protruding flat, gable-crowned central projection are accentuated by pilaster strips ; the horizontal structure is emphasized by the cranked cornices . The gable triangle of the central risalit contains a cross-oval or elliptical oculus ( ox-eye ) with baroque ornaments . On the ground floor of the central risalit there is a sandstone portal with rusticated pilasters , above which the princely coat of arms of the builder, held by two wild men , is embedded. This relief was created by Johann Philipp Maringer , who also made the altar of the neighboring parish church. A staircase that is now pyramidal leads to the entrance of the house; the cellar windows next to it have partly disappeared under the later installed base tiles.
What is striking about the structure of the front is the identity with the Piarist College in Kirn (towards the Hahnenbach side; today the town hall), which came from Johann Thomas Petri. The interior layout is also similar to that of the college. The vaulted cellar of the castle, which rests on 2.50 m thick foundations, can be reached via a side entrance. The basement consists of two rectangular rooms that are connected by an arch opening. Small exterior windows ensure brightness via light shafts. Part of the castle does not have a basement, but blind windows (now hidden) are attached outside to maintain the symmetry of the view. In the second basement room, which is connected to the ground floor by a steep staircase, there is an approx. 29 m deep well, next to it is the confluence of an underground passage that connected the castle with the neighboring parish church. When the castle was occupied in 1794, this corridor is said to have brought the residents to safety from the French. Today the corridor has been filled in and the entrance - like the one in the parish church - walled up.
Next to the cellar entrance is the side entrance, which leads to a mighty, oak-made spiral staircase (which is now also a listed building) that extends to the attic. Originally, these stairs did not have access to the ground floor and the first floor. Presumably it served the staff (attic) or the hunting party who could gather in the large ballroom on the second floor, which took up almost the entire building complex and in the middle of which there was a large fireplace. The actual input through the main entrance into a generous porch ( vestibule ), around which the individual rooms are grouped. Under an arched ceiling one reaches a wide stone staircase that leads to the bel étage , the three front rooms of which face the street are connected by double doors to form an enfilade . Despite the simple design, the structural equipment allows the rooms to be recognized as state rooms or representative rooms.
Uses
During the hunt, the builder and his hunting party stayed in Castle Sien, but the building also served as a refuge. Since the castle was empty during his absence, the Catholic priest was given permission to use some of the rooms on the ground floor of the castle as a parish apartment.
After the death of Johann Dominik (1778), his brother Philipp Joseph took over the castle, who, however, died a year later in Paris without ever having come to Sien. Whose eldest son Friedrich III. led a lavish lifestyle. He needed the entire castle for his hunting parties, which is why he moved the Catholic pastor out of the house immediately after taking office. A few days before the end of the " reign of terror " and the beheading of Robespierre , Frederick III died on July 23, 1794 in Paris under the guillotine . His underage son Friedrich IV and his guardian Prince Moritz zu Salm-Kyrburg and Princess Amalie Zephyrine von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (née Salm-Kyrburg) were only able to take possession of the castle for a short time, since French revolutionary troops in the late autumn of 1794 during the first Occupied the coalition war and requisitioned the castle.
With the Peace of Campo Formio in 1798 Sien was incorporated into the French state, the principality abolished, the estates declared as French national property and auctioned off to the highest bidder. The “manorial garden” behind the castle was divided into several parcels and partially built over by the new owners. The castle itself initially remained the administrative center of the newly formed French model Mairie Sien, located in the Canton Grumbach of the department de la Sarre belonging arrondissement Birkenfeld was until it finally before the end of the French period found a new owner.
After the Congress of Vienna , Sien fell to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (after 1826 the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ) and belonged to the Principality of Lichtenberg . Sien remained the mayor's office even after the town was bought by Prussia in 1834 . During this time the community had its own office building built (1860). The castle, which is already too French time in the private property of the bailiff was Johann Schnorrenberger, nephew of the last resident in the castle pastor Nick passed, served for some time as the administrative headquarters until the passage of time different by multiple owner and function change of uses - as a leather processing company, butcher's shop, restaurant, hotel. In this context, buildings were added, walls changed, the large hall set up as a table tennis, dance and theater room or later converted into rental apartments. Currently, parts of the castle are being renovated and largely restored to its original state, taking into account the monument protection requirements. Some of the rooms in the now privately used property should be available to the public again from 2020.
literature
- Dehio, Georg / Gall, Ernst: Handbook of German art monuments . 2. Vol. Rheinlande , Munich 1949, p. 437.
- Dehio, Georg: Handbook of the German art monuments. Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland , 2nd edition, Munich 1984, p. 957.
- Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Kulturdenkmäler in Rheinland-Pfalz , Vol. 11, Kreis Birkenfeld, edited on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Culture by the State Office for Monument Preservation, edited by Ulrike Weber and Maria Wenzel, 2nd edition Worms 1998, pp. 272–274.
- Dursthoff, Lutz et al. a. (Red.): The German castles and palaces in color , Frankfurt 1987, p. 818
- Eckhoff, Ruth and Ulrich: Johann XI. Dominik Albert Prince of Salm-Kyrburg. The Age of Absolutism and Sien , Sien 1996
- Feistel, Achim: Sien and the hunting lodge of Prince Johann Dominik von Salm-Kyrburg through the ages , in: Landkreis Birkenfeld: Heimatkalender. Contributions to the past and present of the country on the upper Nahe, the Westrich, the Hoch- and Idarwald, Idar-Oberstein 1997, pp. 153–158.
- Freckmann, Klaus: The wild and Rhine county in the late 18th century. Structural expression of a dynasty in rural areas , Bad Sobernheim 1993
- Gemmel, Erich: The story of Sien , Sien 1954.
- ders .: Prince Dominik zu Sien and his time , in: Messages from the Association for Local Studies in the Birkenfeld district, Idar-Oberstein 1961, pp. 8–13.
- ders .: History of the place Sien , commemorative publication for the 1000th anniversary, Sien 1970.
- Medding, Johannes: Castles and palaces in the Palatinate and on the Saar , Frankfurt 1962
- Rohr, Johannes: Chronicle of the village Sien , Sien 1954
- Wild, Klaus Eberhard: Sien - A village and its history , in: Messages from the Association for Local Studies in the Birkenfeld district, pp. 24–34, Idar-Oberstein 1969
- ders .: Johann Thomas Petri. A master builder from the Nahe-Hunsrück area , in: Messages from the Association for Local Studies in the Birkenfeld district, pp. 3–12, Idar-Oberstein 1971
Individual evidence
- ↑ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Princely Houses Vol. III, main processor: Hans Friedrich v. Ehrenkrook, Glücksburg 1955, p. 122
- ↑ Wild: Sien - A village and its history, p. 28
- ↑ Genealogical Handbook, ibid.
- ↑ Eckhoff, Johann XI. Dominik Albert Prince of Salm-Kyrburg, p. 32
- ↑ Gemmel, Prince Dominik zu Sein and his time, p. 9
- ↑ In his letters and documents, Prince Dominik only speaks of the “manorial house”, since the castle should not be a residence, but a refuge
- ↑ Gemmel: Prince Dominik zu Sein und seine Zeit, p. 8 ff
- ↑ a b Wild: Sien - A village and its history, p. 30
- ↑ On the accounts cf. Salm-Salm'sches Archiv in Anholt, Inv. No. 270
- ↑ Only a commemorative plaque and various hallway or street names such as "Schlossstrasse", "Schloßwies" etc. are reminiscent of the "Old Castle" built by the Counts of Loon in the 13th century.
- ↑ Gemmel: Prince Dominik zu sein and his time, p. 11
- ^ Rohr: Chronicle of the village of Sien, p. 16
- ^ Father Reinhold a S. Paulo, a piarist from the Kirner college
- ↑ Eckhoff, Johann XI. Dominik Albert Prince of Salm-Kyrburg, p. 55
- ↑ Wild: Sien - A village and its history, p. 32
- ↑ The castle remained in the possession of the Nick family and their descendants (Bortscher, Schwickert) for a long time until it came to relatives of the current owners who were married in (via the Comtes de Luxbourg line ) and who had family ties to this area
Coordinates: 49 ° 41 ′ 35.2 " N , 7 ° 30 ′ 8.4" E