Sternberg Castle Meeder

Sternberg Castle

South-east facade

The Sternbergschloss Meeder stands on a tower hill in the middle of the Upper Franconian community of Meeder . It belonged to a moated castle from the 11th century, developed into a manor and in 1624 was fundamentally rebuilt into a palace in the Renaissance style.

Geographical location

Eight kilometers northwest of Coburg, a wide, fertile plain that was originally swampy extends between the Long Mountains in the north and the Callenberger Forest in the south. Meeder lies in the geographical center of the plain. The Sternbergschloss is located in the southern core area of ​​the village at Bahnhofstrasse 7.

history

Occasionally, settlements from the time around 800 BC were found in the area of ​​today's Meeder. Be proven. Historians assume that the settlement named Moydere ( = swampy area ), from which the later Meeder could have emerged, already existed. In a deed of donation from Queen Richeza from the year 1056, the place Molire is mentioned, which is believed to be the former Meeder. The place and castle were clearly named in a document for the first time in 1074.

In the period that followed , farm buildings were built around the Motte , which were managed as farms by the Lords of Sternberg , who were seated at Castle Callenberg . The Sternbergers were a Frankish noble family and connected to the Ernestine line of the Wettins . In the High Middle Ages , the Motte had become a peculiar manor with a moat, on which the lordly Vogt also had his fortified property.

After the death of the last Sternberg feudal man at Callenberg Castle in 1588, it went to Duke Johann Casimir von Sachsen-Coburg as an open fief . In the parish church of St. Laurentius there are some tombs of the Sternbergers, on which their names, dates and ancestors can be read. Duke Casimir, who from then on used Callenberg Castle himself and had it expanded, transferred the Meederer property to Cantor Max Amling in 1592. As can be read in a building inscription on one of the south-facing windows of the palace, Ameling had a profound renovation carried out in 1624, which gave the palace its current appearance.

Until 1632, the Thirty Years' War passed Meeder almost without a trace, until the end of the clashes Kronach soldiers took up quarters in the village, plundered and pillaged the property. After Max Ameling, his son Johann Christian took over the property until 1675, then his descendants. Around 1700 ownership changed to the royal Prussian captain Johann Ludwig von Eckersberg, who sold it to Peter Meyer and his wife Margaretha in 1764, who in turn set up an inn in the castle. In 1878 Johann Meyer added a brewery. After the Second World War , the restaurant, which had been closed for a few years, was not reopened; the brewery continued to operate elsewhere until 1983. Refugee families lived in the building and there was a shop in the castle for a while.

The uninhabited castle fell into disrepair, until 1972–1982 it was freed from all non-original additions and completely renovated. It has been privately owned since then and has been left to decay again. A public auction of the castle is scheduled for June 25, 2015 at a minimum bid of € 10,000.

description

Originally the palace complex on the tower hill consisted of a wooden tower surrounded by palisades , which was replaced by a stone residential tower in the late Middle Ages . The wooden enclosure gave way to a fortification wall, the remains of which are partially preserved in the farm buildings belonging to the castle.

In 1624, Max Amling removed the defensive character of the residential tower by having a two-winged annex built at the same height to the northeast, taking into account the existing building fabric. The old residential tower received larger windows and a gable, and the upper floors were constructed from wood with dividing gable gables and ornamental frameworks. Amling had the trenches filled in and the surrounding wall removed. An octagonal stair tower was built into the inner corner of the two wings in such a way that only a third of it protrudes from the facade. In the stair tower, a wooden spiral staircase leads to the upper floors.

Part of the once rich stucco decoration on the ceilings and walls from Amling's time is still preserved. On the first floor there are the six Christian virtues and a representation of the Annunciation on two ceilings and the four evangelists with their symbols on one wall . The ceiling and a wall on the second floor are decorated with allegorical figures of the four seasons, as well as angel heads and a magpie .

literature

• Helmut Hofmann: Meeder in old pictures. Geiger, Horb a. N. 1986, ISBN 3-924932-68-9 .
• Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown. Tape. 1st 3rd edition. Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 1974, pp. 63–65.

Web links

Commons : Sternbergschloss Meeder  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ulrich Göpfert: The Sternberg Castle in Meeder.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrich Göpfert: The Sternberg Castle in Meeder.
2. ^ Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown. Tape. 1st 3rd edition. 1974, p. 63, para. 1
3. ↑ Gerd Aufmkolk , Sigrid Ziesel, Kerstin Schlange: Cultural and historical framework plan Coburg north. Explanatory report. WGG - Werkgemeinschaft Freiraum, Nuremberg 2002, p. 349, ( digital copy (PDF; 4.3 MB) ).
4. ↑ Kausehm ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Lotta Ritz: Landmark: The Sternberg Castle is falling into disrepair. ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Neue Presse , September 19, 2012. 
6. ^ German real estate auctions AG

Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 9.4 ″  N , 10 ° 54 ′ 27.2 ″  E