Mitwitz moated castle

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Mitwitz moated castle, east side
Gate construction of the moated castle Mitwitz
North-west side of the moated castle Mitwitz

The moated castle Mitwitz is located in the market town of Mitwitz between Coburg and Kronach in Steinachgrund at the confluence of the Föritz in the Steinach .

history

Formerly owned by von Schaumburg and von Rosenau

The Mitwitz moated castle was first mentioned in a document in 1266. At that time it belonged to the Barons von Schaumberg as a Bamberg fief . The lower floors of the north wing and the north corner tower already existed at that time.

In 1425 the knightly lords of Rosenau (noble family) , who were wealthy in the area . The descendants of the family formed a family of mint masters from Coburg who became the new owners of the castle and village of Mitwitz.

Owned by those von Würtzburg and Cramer-Klett

The castle was looted during the German Peasants' War and partially destroyed by fire in 1525. In the following years it could only be poorly repaired before Hieronymus von Würtzburg bought it in 1575 . At the end of the 16th century, Hans Veit I von Würtzburg, from the noble family of the same name, had the castle rebuilt and expanded to its present appearance. He commissioned the builder Daniel Engelhardt, who had previously planned the expansion of the Rosenberg fortress in Kronach. Until the death of Ludwig Freiherr von Würtzburg at the age of 77 in 1922, the complex was owned by the Freiherren von Würtzburg. Since his daughter Annie von Würtzburg had married Theodor von Cramer-Klett junior , son of the industrialist Theodor von Cramer-Klett , in 1903 , the castle became the property of the von Cramer-Klett family. At the end of the Second World War , the Frankfurt city library was relocated to the Mitwitz moated castle.

District of Kronach and today's right of use

In the years 1977 to 1989, the district of Kronach renovated the castle and received a 99-year right of use. The Upper Franconian Ecological Educational Center and the Upper Franconian Beekeeping School are located in the castle, with a small beekeeping museum that can be visited. Today the castle and the adjacent park are used regularly for cultural events, markets and festivals. Castle tours are held from May to September. The filming of the fairy tale film The Three Feathers took place in and around the castle in the summer of 2014 . With a purchase contract signed in December 2019, the district of Kronach acquired the castle from the Cramer-Klett family at the beginning of 2020.

Core lock

The Renaissance moated castle , surrounded by a moat, is a three-storey four-wing building with gable roofs and four corner towers. It houses some sights inside. In the inner courtyard of the main castle there is a Neptune fountain from the 18th century and the sandstone statue The Franconian Knight , created by Pankraz Wagner between 1572 and 1577 , which was located at the city fountain of Weismain until 1879 . The castle chapel is located in the west wing. On the upper floors there are many original furnishings from the 16th to the 20th century in various rooms. The mirror room is furnished with a cycle of paintings from 1755, to which Georg Anton Urlaub is attributed.

literature

  • Heinz Köhler: Guide through the moated castle Mitwitz through Mitwitz and the surrounding area . Verlag Link, 1989, ISBN 3-556-97026-0 .
  • Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown, 1st volume . 3. Edition. Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse GmbH, Coburg 1974, pp. 96-99.

Web links

Commons : Wasserschloss Mitwitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.np-coburg.de/lokal/kronach/kronach/Dreharbeiten-am-Wasserschloss;art83426,3498558
  2. ↑ Marian Hamacher: That is why the Kronach district is buying the moated Mitwitz castle. inFranken.de, December 16, 2019, accessed on December 31, 2019 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 53 ″  N , 11 ° 12 ′ 23 ″  E