Weesenstein Castle
Weesenstein Castle rises on a ledge made of knotted mica schist with quartzite deposits over the valley of the Müglitz about 3 km south of Dohna in the district Weesenstein of the municipality of Müglitztal .
history
The castle was first mentioned in a document on December 17, 1318 in connection with the oath of help and service given by the burgrave Otto von Dohna to the Meissen margrave Friedrich the Freidigen .
The name Weesenstein can probably be traced back to the already mentioned quartzite rock in the rock. This rock, also known as “false opal ”, used to be called “Wese” or “orphan”, which is certainly due to the white color of the milk-white opal. As a result, the name varies little: Weysinberg, Weisinsteyn, Wesinstein, Weysinstein, Weißenstein etc. From the 16th to the 18th century, the name Wesenstein was used almost consistently, and finally the spelling Weesenstein prevailed at the beginning of the 19th century (1850 also officially).
It is probable that the castle and the surrounding countryside together with Rabenau as a dowry of the daughter of Burgrave Meinher III. von Meißen was brought into the marriage with Burgrave Otto the Elder of Dohna and thus came into the possession of the Burgraves of Dohna .
Gottfried Semper dates the first construction of the castle tower to the 10th century, but there is no evidence of this. This assumption is probably based on the assumption that in the 10th century King Henry I had the first border fortresses built in this region during his eastern expansion.
At Dohna, the road to Bohemia forked into an eastern path via Berggießhübel and Peterswald ( Kulmer Steig , Königsweg) and a western path via the Müglitz valley to Burkhardswalde , Liebstadt , Breitenau and Fürstenwalde . It is not known which of these routes z. B. during the military campaigns of Emperor Heinrich III. (1040), Wiprechts von Groitzsch (1107) or King Lothars III. (1126) have been used. What is certain, however, is that the route via Weesenstein has been preferred as a trade route since the 13th century, which would justify the creation of Weesenstein Castle at this time.
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Weesenstein Castle also suffered greatly in the Dohna feud (1389 to 1402). In 1405 it had to be conquered for the Wettins by a military campaign from Günther von Bünau and Otto Pflugk . The Wettin margraves enfeoffed Günther von Bünau in 1406 for his support against the Dohna burgraves, including Weesenstein. In the Eger Treaty of April 25, 1459, Weesenstein is formally referred to as the heir to the Crown of Bohemia. In order to avoid further conflicts, King George of Bohemia waived further claims. The sovereignty remained " de jure " and did not expire until 1809. Weesenstein remained in the possession of the von Bünau family until 1772 (albeit with changing family lines - see below).
After the Dohna feud, the Hussite invasion around 1429 was the next warlike time that affected Weesenstein with looting and destruction. Heinrich (I) von Bünau managed to repair this damage very quickly. However, his neighbors considered him extremely contentious, which led to many complaints. Even the clergy lodged a complaint with the bishop of Meissen , without the latter being able to be remedied. As a result, the Basel Council , which was just in session, was dealt with this matter and Heinrich von Bünau was banned from church as a criminal victim of the Meissnian clergy . Since no further evidence of this event is documented, a comparison was probably found.
The loan letters from this and later period show the owners of Weesenstein (mainly the von Bünau family) as the owners of a large number of villages, services, etc. These included the castle and city of Liebstadt, Burkhardswalde, Falkenhain , Nentmannsdorf , Friedrichswalde , Borna etc. up to shares in Gottleuba and the mines there and many other properties in the Leipzig area and in Thuringia. This property was expanded or sold as required.
Most successful in this context was probably Rudolf (II.) Von Bünau (1486 to 1543). Although he was only one of seven siblings to have the main castle with the surrounding villages, he expanded the property to include Lauenstein (castle and town), Falkenhain , Burkhardswalde , Biensdorf , Röhrsdorf , Ober- Meusegast , Seitenhain , Luga , Seidewitz , Friedrichswalde, Hausdorf , Parts of Gottleuba, Zitzschewig and Dohna, Hosterwitz , Laubegast , Zschachwitz as well as a number of different rights (e.g. fishing). For 39,000 guilders he finally acquired the Bohemian rule Tetschen ( Děčín ) in 1534 .
On April 2, 1504, Weesenstein received from Bishop Johann VI. von Meißen had the right to hold services for the rulers and servants in the castle chapel founded in the same year . The castle thus formed its own parish , which at least existed until 1870. At first the pastor of Dohna performed the spiritual duties. 1517 approved Pope Leo X the appointment of a castle clergyman who under the Kollatur was the lord of the castle.
During the Reformation , the Catholic-minded lords of the castle tried to oppose the Lutheran efforts in Saxony. It was only with the Protestant-minded Duke Moritz of Saxony (1541 to 1553) that Rudolf (II.) And Heinrich (II.) Von Bünau had to give up their resistance.
In the Thirty Years War , especially in the years 1631 to 1643, Weesenstein was badly devastated by the plundering Swedish Soldateska. The height of misery was reached in 1639 when the Swedes plundered the area around Pirna for several months .
With the transfer of the Weesenstein rule to the von Uckermann family, there were more and more arguments and occasional violence with the estate subjects. This finally led to an open riot in 1775, as the peasants believed themselves to be overly complained by the forced labor imposed on them.
At the beginning of the Seven Years' War (1756), Weesenstein was hit hard by Saxon and Prussian troops and in the Napoleonic Wars, especially in 1813, by French, Austrians and Russians.
After the wars of freedom , Weesenstein was often the scene of glittering celebrations and thus came into the focus of the royal family. In 1830, King Anton the Kind finally bought the castle. After Prince Johann , who later became King, took over Weesenstein in 1838 , he stayed in this castle very often. This is how essential parts of his translation of Dante's “Divine Comedy” were created here . In 1870 he approved the unification of the castle parish and the parish parish of Dohna into a single parish. The new congregation was allowed to use the castle church for church services and other spiritual official acts. It also got its own cemetery. The collature was given to the respective owner of the castle. Today the castle chapel belongs to the parish of Burkhardswalde. There are regular devotions and concerts.
After the First World War , the castle fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie and in 1933 it was finally owned by the Saxon Homeland Security Association . He set up a first museum in the castle.
During the Second World War , Weesenstein served as a main depot for approx. 450,000 art treasures from Dresden museums (e.g. from the Kupferstichkabinett , the picture gallery and the porcelain collection ). Thanks to the installation of appropriate security technology and the support provided by employees of the Dresden art collections , the castle survived the war well. The castle was also the seat of the “Führer’s Special Representative” for the Führermuseum Linz .
After the war the Saxon Homeland Security Association is expropriated. Although neither banned nor dissolved, the association lost its ability to work. The castle, which was in his possession, was initially taken over by the state of Saxony, later the Dresden art collections and finally the community of Weesenstein.
From 1945 to 1950 the castle served as an emergency shelter for bombed-out Dresden residents and displaced persons from eastern Germany . Among other things, Walter Timmling (1897–1948) lived and worked from 1946 to 1948 at Schloss Walter Timmling . Approx. 40 pictures by the Dresden painter of the New Objectivity are now in the collections of Weesenstein Castle.
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The museum reopened in 1952. Increasingly, especially since the mid-1970s, the funds for necessary renovation work were lacking. Only since reunification have the Free State of Saxony made funds available again for extensive renovation and restoration work. These were largely completed by spring 2015. Between 1991 and 2015, the Free State of Saxony invested around € 27 million in the renovation and structural maintenance of Weesenstein Castle. In the course of the renovation, u. a. valuable wall paintings and room paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries discovered and made accessible to visitors.
The flood of the century in August 2002 raged particularly violently in the community of Weesenstein and destroyed u. a. also the palace garden completely. The part close to the castle was accessible again since 2003. The remaining part was completed in spring 2007.
Owners in chronological order
| around 1275 | Burgrave Otto III. the elder (first documented on December 17, 1318) |
| until 1385 | Burgrave Otto Heyde I and Otto Heyde II von Dohna (the latter probably died in captivity in 1386) |
| until 1394 | Inheritance disputes between the sons of Otto Heyde II. (Otto Heyde III., Jeschke, Otto Mul, Jan) |
| 1394 | Weesenstein comes to the inheritance of Jeschke (is beheaded in December 1403 after fleeing via Weesenstein and Königstein in Ofen (today Budapest )) |
| 1402 | Margrave Wilhelm I of Meissen as a result of the Dohna feud |
| November 14, 1406 | Loan letter for Günther (I.) von Bünau (died 1428) |
| 1428 to 1467 | Heinrich (I.) von Bünau (son of Günther (I.) von Bünau) |
| 1467 to 1486 | Rudolf (I.) von Bünau (son Heinrich (I.) von Bünau) |
| 1486 to 1543 | Rudolf (II.) Von Bünau (second son Rudolf (I.) von Bünau) |
| 1543 to 1570 | Heinrich (II.) Von Bünau (eldest son Rudolf (II.) Von Bünau) |
| 1570 to 1626 | Rudolf (III.) Von Bünau (only son of Heinrich (II.) Von Bünau); dies childless in 1626; Extinction of the Weesenstein line of the von Bünau family |
| 1626 to 1658 | Heinrich (III.) Von Bünau (Lauensteiner Line) |
| 1658 to 1674 | Günther (II.) Von Bünau (only son of the previous one) |
| 1674 to 1700 | Rudolf (IV.) Von Bünau (only son of the previous one) |
| 1700 to 1719 | Günther (III.) And Heinrich (IV.) Von Bünau (sons of the previous one) |
| 1719 | Sold to Henrica Helena von Bünau (née Vitzthum von Eckstädt) for 100,000 Rhenish guilders |
| 1729 | Sale to Rudolf (V.) von Bünau (younger Lauensteiner line; husband of the previous one); died 1752 |
| 1752 to 1772 | Rudolf (VI.) Von Bünau (only son of the previous one); had to sell Weesenstein for 100,000 Rhenish guilders in 1772 |
| 1772 | Johanna Christiane Freifrau von Uckermann (wife of the Hessian privy councilor and general post manager Baron Johann Jacob von Uckermann) and her son Jakob von Uckermann (from 1789) |
| July 22, 1830 | Sale to King Anton the Kind (House of Wettin) for 325,000 thalers |
| 1836 to 1838 | Prince Maximilian (brother of the previous one) |
| 1838 to 1873 | Prince Johann , from 1854 King of Saxony |
| 1873 to 1904 | Prince Georg , King of Saxony from 1902 |
| 1904 | Prince Johann Georg (second son of the previous one) |
| December 27, 1917 | Sale to the secret councilor Alwin Bauer from Niederlößnitz for 1.9 million marks. |
| Spring 1934 | Sale to the Saxon Heritage Protection Association |
| 1947 | Sponsorship by the state of Saxony, as the above association was declared to no longer exist. |
| 1952 | Museum is taken over by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden |
| 1954 | Sponsored by the community of Weesenstein |
| from 1992 | Sponsored by the Free State of Saxony , from 1993 management by the State Enterprise State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony |
Building history
The castle is an eight-story structure. The specialty is that it was built largely from top to bottom. This z. B. the old basement rooms on the fifth and the horse stables on the fourth floor.
The tower seems to belong to the oldest part of the castle. It was probably built in the 12th century. If you draw old pictures such as For example, if we look at the painting in the stairwell of the castle from the 17th century for comparison, it can be stated that the tower was originally not as high as it is today. Originally than waiting serving in the military and trade route tower was later supplemented by residential and commercial spaces. A “courtroom” (the so-called “dining room of the burgraves”) was created on the sixth floor and a cellar underneath. From the courtroom you get to the “torture chamber” and a few steps further to the seventh floor to the “monk's passage”. During the rule of Rudolf II. And Heinrich II. Von Bünau were here in 15./16. The “stone hall” and the “billiard hall” were set up in the 18th century, and today the foundations have been destroyed.
With the foundation of the palace chapel on the sixth floor in 1504 by Rudolf II von Bünau, the courtyard was closed to the southwest. In 1738 the chapel was demolished and a new “house church” was built, which was consecrated on July 23, 1741. For a long time, George Bähr was considered the creator of the new church. Today it is assumed that the designs come from one of his students, the master builder Johann George Schmidt (1707 to 1774). The cost of the renovation was 4,177 thalers , 5 groschen and 6 pfennigs.
At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, the new part of the castle was built on the rock in the south and south-east. After the devastation by the Swedes in 1639, Rudolf IV von Bünau had a series of restoration work carried out, including the repair of the so-called "leather wallpaper room". After Rudolf V from the younger Lauensteiner line of the von Bünau family took over the castle from his wife Henrica Helena for 100,000 Rhenish guilders , extensive renovations and renovations took place at the castle. At the end of the palace park on a hill, a belvedere was built around 1750 . Today only the foundation walls of the building are preserved.
The castle owes the most extensive renovations to the von Uckermann family. First of all, the main portal was thoroughly renewed and in 1781 the old wooden bridge was replaced by a stone bridge. To the south of the castle, a baroque castle garden was created in the Müglitzschleife and in it the so-called "bathroom" at the foot of the rock.
In 1861, King Johan of Saxony initiated the renovation of the sandstone bridge that connects both parts of the park. In the same year, the sculptor Wolf von Hoyer created the marble statue of the Roman goddess Flora for the park on behalf of the king . The goddess of flowers and blooming wears a rosary in her hair. She quietly hands the viewer a rose from her bouquet.
With the takeover of the castle by the Wettins in the 19th century, the room suites were restructured so that they corresponded to the new, more complex usage requirements. In the 1850s and 1860s, various rooms were given new uses and some were refurbished. The historically valuable wallpapers in the leather wallpaper hall (colored gold leather wallpaper around 1720), in the bird wallpaper room (colorfully painted paper wallpaper with East Asian decor and exotic birds around 1780) and in the Chinese salon (wallpaper with Chinese motifs around 1814) were preserved. The decor of the rooms changed with the frequent guests. The representative reception situation in the area of the stately living area was created two years after King John of Saxony ascended the throne in 1854, based on the room design by Gottfried Semper in the neo-Renaissance style . The interior decoration was dedicated to the learned regent.
Todays use
Weesenstein Castle is subordinate to the state enterprise State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony . The castle museum invites you on a journey through the history of the castle and waits for you. a. with princely living quarters from the 18th and 19th centuries Century including the interior and valuable wallpaper - such as a Mechlin gold leather wallpaper from the 18th century. In 2011 the museum counted a total of 62,648 visitors.
Cultural events at Weesenstein Castle that should be emphasized are the castle chapel concerts, thematic special tours, and theater evenings.
In addition to the use of the palace as a museum, the premises are ideal for private parties (e.g. weddings, company events) and for gastronomic and cultural use.
After the brewery was shut down in 1863 and converted into the Royal Castle Kitchen, work began in the 1990s to revive the brewery at the historic site. Today the brewery (which can look back on 500 years of history) with the royal palace kitchen, the palace brewery and event rooms is the culinary and cultural center of the palace ensemble.
For more than two decades, the actor Rolf Hoppe (1930–2018) has been culturally active in both meritorious and diverse ways with his private theater at Weesenstein Castle. Hoppe presented the Sachsophonie program there in November 2006 together with Heinz Rudolf Kunze .
Views of the castle and park
View around 1860
Gatehouse view
Pulpit altar of the castle church
Castle Park (2016)
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See also
literature
- Hendrik Bärnighausen: Weesenstein Castle. Series of Saxony's most beautiful palaces, castles and gardens No. 17. Edition Leipzig. Leipzig 2003. ISBN 3-361-00527-2 .
- Wilhelm Theodor Moritz Becher: Castle Wesenstein and its surroundings. Grim. Dresden 1850. ( digitized version )
- Theodor Gampe: Weesenstein Castle in the Müglitzthale. Dresden 1880. ( digitized version )
- Einhart Grotegut (illustrations), Lutz Hennig, Katja Müller, Klaus-Dieter Wintermann : Weesenstein. 700 years of castle history. Publishing house of art. Dresden 1995. ISBN 3-364-00317-3 .
- Viktor Hantzsch : Weesenstein. In: Alfred Meiche (Hrsg.): The castles and prehistoric dwellings of Saxon Switzerland. Wilhelm Baensch publishing company. Dresden 1907. pp. 88-102.
- Iniciativa pro decinsky zamek (ed.): The Lords of Bünau in Saxony and Bohemia. Děčín 2006. ISBN 80-239-6852-1 .
- Christine Klecker / Udo Pellmann: Weesenstein Castle. Pellmann. Dresden 1994.
- Alfred Meiche : Historical-topographical description of the Pirna administration. Verlag Buchdruckerei der Wilhelm und Bertha v. Baensch Foundation. Dresden 1927.
- Alfred Meiche: Weesenstein, a precious stone among the castles in Saxony. In: Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz Dresden (Ed.): Messages. Volume XXIII. Issue 5-8 / 1934. Lehmannsche Buchdruckerei. Dresden 1934. pp. 97-125.
- Katja Müller: Weesenstein Castle. Row of historical place No. 47. Homilius. Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-931121-46-1 .
- Birgit Finger, Alexander Hänel: Bombproof! : Art hiding place Weesenstein 1945 . Sandstein Verlag. Dresden 2018. ISBN 978-3-95498-371-1 .
- Andrea Dietrich; Birgit Finger: Pearl from Saxony's crown - Wesenstein Castle in the Müglitztal and its surroundings . Sandstein Verlag. Dresden 2018. State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony (Ed.), ISBN 978-3-95498-411-4 (in German, English and Czech with 170 colored images).
Web links
- www.schloss-weesenstein.de
- History and architecture of Weesenstein Castle and Castle Gardens. In: ARSTEMPANO panorama travel guide . Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The devil is in the details , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) of May 11, 2015
- ^ More and more Czechs on Weesenstein , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from January 12, 2012
- ↑ Stipvisiten.de: A symbiotic team , accessed on November 15, 2018
- ^ Andreas Neubauer; Klaus-Dieter Wintermann: Hoppe's dream - the legendary Weesenstein. Dresden 1998, ISBN 3-925001-19-0
- ↑ a b Nmz Media: Eine Sachsophonie Part 1 - Rolf Hoppe and Heinz Rudolf Kunze , accessed on November 15, 2018
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 57.3 " N , 13 ° 51 ′ 33.7" E