Sonnberg Castle
The former Sonnberg Castle - a four-sided, uniform moated castle of the late Renaissance - is located southwest of the village of Sonnberg , in the western Weinviertel in Lower Austria , in a valley of the Göllersbach .
The building stands by decision of the Federal Monuments Office under monument protection ( list entry ) and is called the administration building of the penitentiary used Sonnberg.
history
Until 1596
In 1177 a Sunnenberg castle was first mentioned in a document, which was located a little above the current complex. Since 1066, the name of a family can be traced in the area who named themselves after this seat. At the time of the first documentary mention of the castle, a Liutwin de Sunnberg is called. He was fiefdom of the Margraves of Cham-Vohburg, who colonized this part of the Weinviertel . The castle dates from the 11th century and was a link in a defensive chain along the Göllersbach. Their task was to secure the trade route to Bohemia and Moravia. In 1231 the castle was destroyed by Duke Friedrich II during the conflict with the Kuenringers , because the Sonnbergers had supported the Kuenringers to whom they were related.
After the fighting ended, the Sonnbergers built a moated castle on the banks of the Göllersbach and in the following years built a large manor with goods in the area and possessions in Asparn an der Zaya and Schauenstein am Kamp . The Sonnberger family had become so powerful in the late 13th century that they were able to support Duke Albrecht in the Güssing feud with 70 armed men .
In the following years the Sonnbergers got into economic difficulties and the wealthy Tursen von Rauheneck systematically bought up the Sonnberger's goods, but in 1377 they sold half of the rule and in 1386 the second half to Kadolt the Elder from Eckartsau . The Sonnberger family died out in 1400 with the death of Vivianz, the last Sonnberger.
Over the next 200 years the rulership changed hands several times. The last Eckartsauer was Jörg von Eckartsau, from whom the property passed to one of his sons-in-law, Christoph von Rohr, after a temporary division. Since he also died without an heir in 1516, rule over Christoph Freiherr von Ludmannsdorf passed in 1523 to the lord of the castle of Judenau , Hans Wolfgang Matsebner.
In 1559, after Matsebner's death, Christoph von Rueber took over the run-down rule and improved the financial situation significantly in the following years. He expanded the castle and refurbished it. After a will contestation and several court judgments after corresponding appeals, the property was finally awarded to the brothers Wolf Georg and Hans von Gilleis in 1565, the other heirs were paid off by 1574.
Wolf Georg von Gilleis was appointed baron in 1579 and served Emperor Rudolf II as Obersthofmarschall .
From 1596
Wolf Georg Freiherr von Gilleis had the moated castle expanded into a four-wing structure around 1600 in the late Renaissance style. It got its current appearance and is inscribed with 1596.
Under the Protestant Gilleis , Hollabrunn developed into a center of the cattle and wine trade . It was not until 1620 that Ernst Wolfgang Freiherr von Gilleis switched to Catholicism , which enabled him to maintain the rule. During the Thirty Years War , Sonnberg was first conquered by Count Matthias von Thurn and in 1645 by the Swedes . An economic collapse was the result. Isabella von Gilleis sold the run-down property in 1663 to Count Gundaker Dietrichstein.
Count Dietrichstein was minister , diplomat and court steward under Emperor Leopold I and was raised to the rank of imperial prince in 1684 . Under the Dietrichstein family, Sonnberg was the administrative seat for their estates Groß (municipality Hollabrunn), Merkenstein , Spitz , Schwallenbach , Arbesbach and Sitzendorf .
Sonnberg remained in the possession of the Dietrichstein family until 1864, when the rule was sold to Carl Graf Schönborn-Buchheim , who adapted the castle. Since he himself resided in the nearby Göllersdorf Castle (today a prison), he rented the castle.
Princess Friederike zu Lippe-Biesterfeld, née Countess Schönborn , sold the property in 1934 to Archduke Anton Habsburg-Lothringen , who lived in it with his wife Ileana . As an avid aviator , he had a private airport built next to the castle . During the Second World War , Anton Habsburg-Lothringen served as an aviator in the German Wehrmacht until the end of 1944 and, in contrast to almost all other members of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, was a supporter of National Socialism . As a result, the castle was used as a hospital during World War II and was completely devastated by soldiers of the Soviet occupying forces after the end of the war .
After the occupation soldiers withdrew in 1955, Sonnberg Castle was sold by the Archduke to the Justice Administration of the Republic of Austria , which set up a modern penal institution on the site.
The castle itself serves as the institution's administration building and was restored in 1963/65 and 1971/73.
Building description
The castle is located in the middle of the prison security system behind high walls and is hardly visible from the outside. The entrance to the castle is flanked by two square porter's houses from the end of the 17th century, which, like the castle, are listed. They are two-storey, symmetrically arranged multi -storey buildings with hipped roofs, which are connected by ball-crowned gate pillars.
Behind it is the 800-meter-long enclosure wall of the penal institution with the security systems (people and vehicle locks) followed by a bridge over the moat of the former castle with a statue of St. Johannes Nepomuk , which forms the entrance to the palace area.
The three-storey, almost square, four-wing building of the castle with grooved window walls is covered by tiled hipped roofs. Renovations during the Renaissance (1560/63) and Baroque periods (1730/35) determine its current appearance.
In the west wing rises a fourth floor, over 17 meters high gate tower, which is crowned over a closing viewing terrace with balustrades by an octagonal top floor with a massive bell dome and a lantern. The masonry of the tower goes back to the keep of the former moated castle from the 13th century. In the tower axis there is a round-arched pilaster portal with a triglyph frieze . The frieze bears the Gilleis coat of arms and is marked "1596". A cartouche with the coat of arms of Schönborn is located above the window on the first floor.
The southern front is dominated by a former arbor , which was built over by a late baroque staircase with vase attachments in the 18th century. On the first floor there is an architraved hall portal with a triangular gable from the 17th century and an inserted cartouche of princes Dietrichstein from around 1690.
A baroque garden with some baroque stone sculptures extends in front of the south front of the palace.
The courtyard, which was closed in the 17th century, originally had open arcades on all floors on the east and west sides, which were walled up at the end of the 17th century. The hall windows on the first floor of the southern courtyard facade have richer cladding than the other windows. Here, too, there is a Dietrichstein crest cartouche marked 1690. A late Baroque bust of Caesars stands on a plinth in a niche in the western courtyard facade .
Furnishing
The interiors are often covered by lancet barrels and groin vaults from around 1600. The furnishings of the castle are largely limited to parts fixed to the wall, because the inventory was completely looted after 1945.
In a late Baroque salon in the southern wing, an oval central image on a grooved flat ceiling with stucco foliage from around 1700 shows Diana and Actaeon as well as still life with flowers in the corner medallions . In the stucco window walls there are medallions with hunting still lifes, stucco frames indicate former murals. The carved portals of this room have lintels with still lifes from the third quarter of the 18th century. A late baroque marble fireplace completes the equipment.
One hall of this building wing is equipped with a coffered Renaissance wooden ceiling and a stone fireplace of the same type with caryatids .
In the eastern wing of the building there is another late baroque salon with bandwork on the flat ceiling and a stove in a niche from around 1730/40.
In a hall in the western wing there is a coffered ceiling later whitewashed and decorated with angel heads as well as two richly ornamented wooden portals from the beginning of the 17th century.
In another room there is a high tiled stove from the Baroque period.
In the middle of the inner courtyard there is a capital-shaped renaissance fountain bowl with gothic blind arches and coats of arms, probably from the 16th century.
See also
literature
- " Dehio manual. The art monuments of Austria. Lower Austria north of the Danube. “Edited by Evelyn Benesch, Bernd Euler-Rolle et al. Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7031-0652-2 , p. 1097 f.
- “ The owners of the Sonnberg estate ” by Wilhelm Hauser, in our home 2/84 publisher. Association for regional studies of Lower Austria, St. Pölten.
- " Heimatbüchlein der Pfarre Sonnberg " by Johann Nebenführ, Kath. Pfarramt Sonnberg, Hollabrunn 1970.
- " Austrian Castle Lexicon " by Georg Clam Martinic , Landesverlag Linz 1991/1994, ISBN 3-85214-559-7 .
- “ Palaces and castles in the Weinviertel ” by Manfred Jasser u. Peter Kenyeres, self-published Kulturbund Weinviertel, Anton Gössinger 1979.
- “ From lock to lock in Austria ” by Gerhard Stenzel, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-218-00288-5 .
- " Opening of the newly built workshop wing of the Sonnberg Prison - Festschrift 2010 " Publisher: Obstlt. Franz Neuteufel, Deputy Head of Prison, Printing: Sonnberg Prison.
- Diploma thesis " The Lords of Sonnberg and their environment - A ministerial family in the Weinviertel " by Josef Sziderits, accessed on September 22, 2014.
Web links
- Entry about Schloss Sonnberg in Lower Austria Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, University of Salzburg
- Entry via Schloss Sonnberg to Burgen-Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Festschrift p. 6.
- ↑ Dehio p. 1097.
- ↑ see also Hans Rueber on Pixendorf
- ↑ a b Festschrift p. 7.
- ↑ a b c Dehio p. 1098.
- ↑ Festschrift p. 8.
Coordinates: 48 ° 32 ′ 19 ″ N , 16 ° 3 ′ 41 ″ E