Lower Castle (Beilstein)
The Lower Castle is located in Beilstein in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg . It is located halfway between the village and Hohenbeilstein Castle . The Lower Palace goes back to an official courtyard built in the 16th century, on the site of which a villa was built for the manufacturer Robert Vollmöller from 1906 to 1908 according to plans by Albert Benz . The Lower Castle has been the conference center of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg since 1957 as the house of the children's church , which has owned the building since 1959.
history
The first official buildings halfway between the castle and town were probably built in the time of Eberhard im Barte in the late 15th century. The location of the office building, box and cellar was at the point where the side wall between the castle and town merged into the town wall. In 1569 the Beilsteiner Vogt reported about the dilapidation of the box , a little later about the poor condition of the office building. In 1572 the city wall collapsed below the office building. In 1577 a new office building was built.
The office building and box went up in flames with the rest of the city during the attack by the French army during the Palatinate War of Succession in 1693. During the reconstruction, a new office building was built in 1699 on the main street not far from the town hall. The burnt down office building on the mountain was only poorly restored and probably only served storage purposes.
In 1898, the manufacturer Robert Vollmöller acquired Hohenbeilstein Castle. In the following years Vollmöller gradually acquired almost the entire castle hill. First he had the old rectory of the Magdalenenkirche converted into a country house. In 1905 he also acquired the old office building, in the place of which from 1906 to 1908 a stately villa was built on the old foundation walls according to plans by Albert Benz in the historicism style .
Vollmöller lived in the villa as a country residence during his stays in Beilstein. He had far-reaching plans to rebuild Hohenbeilstein Castle, which should also be done according to Benz's plans. For this purpose Vollmöller had August Holder publish a book about the history of Hohenbeilstein Castle, which contained numerous photos of the villa below the castle and made it known nationwide to the historically interested public. However, Vollmöller was no longer able to realize his further plans. On the one hand, the wealthy investor attracted the resentment of the Beilsteiners, who now resisted Vollmöller's plans: in 1908 there was an arson attack on some of the castle's buildings that had already been reconstructed, and in the same year Vollmöller decided to buy the old Magdalenenkirche to round off his property refused on Burgberg and his plan to set up a factory in Beilstein was not approved by the local council. On the other hand, his death in 1911 put an end to all plans.
After Vollmöller's death, the villa remained in the possession of his descendants for a long time and was last lived in by his daughter Elisabeth until her death in 1957. The son Jürgen Wittenstein , who emigrated to the USA, rented the building to the Evangelical Church, which set up the house of the children's church as a conference venue. On December 29, 1959, the regional church acquired the building and converted it. It was reopened in 1961. Today the Lower Castle belongs to the Württemberg Evangelical Regional Association for Children's Services. V., a non-profit umbrella organization for churches with children within the Evangelical Church in Württemberg. The house will continue to be used as a conference venue for further education in the field of church and social affairs, and as a location for weddings and company events.
description
The main features of the villa are based on the little castle in Höpfigheim and, with arcades, pillared knights' hall and half-timbered corner turrets, have numerous features of the castle architecture, which is what the current name of Lower Castle is based on.
On the left of the building complex are the old wine press and the old rectory, which has been converted into a country house and later into the administrative headquarters of the wine press, which give the building group on the mountain the look of a castle with a farmyard.
literature
- Julius Fekete : Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn. 2nd Edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , p. 114.
- Hermann Ehmer: From the Amthof to the factory owner's villa and the house of the children's church . In: History sheets from the Bottwartal , No. 9. 2004, pp. 16–24.
Web links
- Homepage schloss-beilstein.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ House of the Children's Church. In: Church with children in Württemberg. December 19, 2013, accessed December 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Schloss Beilstein - House of the Children's Church. Accessed December 5, 2018 (German).
Coordinates: 49 ° 2 ′ 25.2 " N , 9 ° 18 ′ 57.8" E