Sommerau moated castle

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Moated castle Sommerau in today's Eschau, northwest view
Entrance coat of arms on the Renaissance building: alliance coat of arms Fechenbach and Hettersdorf
Double coat of arms over the lintel
Family tree from 1845
The old access via the moat
View from the palace to the adjacent oldest part of the building, moat and access

The moated castle Sommerau is a castle house first built around 1271 on the Elsava in Sommerau opposite Eschau in Lower Franconia . After Mespelbrunn Castle and Oberaulenbach Castle (→ Kottwitz von Aulenbach ) it is the third water castle in this side valley of the Main in the Spessart .

history

According to recent research, the palace in Sommerau was not built in 1143, but only after 1271 as a counter-installation by the Archbishop of Mainz (→ History of the Diocese of Mainz ) to the domain of the Counts of Rieneck in Eschau, opposite. The estate was given to the Kottwitz as a fief . In 1365, the Sommerau Castle was divided between the related Kottwitz and Fechenbach . The Kottwitz and the Lords of Fechenbach were joint owners of the castle until 1550. The alliance coats of arms above an entrance portal (dated 1613) and a door portal show the coat of arms of Johann Reinhard von Fechenbach (* 1591) and his first wife, Anna Magdalena von Hettersdorf. After taking over the Kottwitz shares, the Fechenbachers were now the sole owners.

During the Peasants' War the castle - according to the Spessart legend, designed by the teacher, folklorist and local writer Valentin Pfeifer - was stormed by rebellious farmers on May 2, 1525 under the leadership of Jakob Hock from the Sommerau Hesselsmühle and set on fire. It was rebuilt or rebuilt, but destroyed again in the Thirty Years War . In 1650 the wing, which still exists today, was erected in a Renaissance building, whereby the remains of the fortified tower and the moat were preserved. According to the "Renovirten Grundsteuererkadaster" from 1856, Hartmann Freiherr von Fechenbach Sommerau and Friedrich Karl Joseph von Fechenbach Laudenbach were joint owners. After that, after the last male descendant of the Fechenbach family had died, the moated castle passed to the successors of Aufseß in Laudenbach .

From 1916 to 1920 the castle - rented with all its inventory - was the artist residence of the painter and artist couple Oskar and Gertel Hagemann . Gertel Hagemann is the author of the little book "MUSCHIK" - From the life of a horse. This story - it takes place in Sommerau as well as in Karlsruhe and the surrounding area - was published after her death in 1940

From 1925 to 1954 the doctor Dr. Josef Drescher with his wife Theresia in the castle. The kitchen was on the ground floor and the doctor's surgery and private rooms on the upper floor.

In 1953 Baron Mechthild von Aufseß, her husband Baron Hugo von Aufseß, had fallen in World War II , sold the moated castle to the merchant Kurt Kamphausen, who invested considerable funds in maintaining and expanding the castle.

In 1973 Kurt Kamphausen sold the palace and its inventory to the advertising salesman Kurt Redieß. The Redieß couple also invested considerable sums in the property. A riding hall with stables was built on the south side of the castle park .

In 1994 Redieß sold the castle to the Alte Leipziger insurance company based in Oberursel im Taunus . The riding arena and stables were demolished and the castle completely gutted. A conference hotel was to be built in the park with the castle as a meeting place. After a change in the management board, however, these plans were abandoned. In 1998 the castle was put up for sale.

The palace has been owned by the architect Wilfried Stendel since 2004. He began with the renovation of the palace complex and the planning of a residential complex in the palace park.

(Spessart) sagas

There are some legendary stories about the Sommerau moated castle, which Karl Heinrich Caspari , pastor in Eschau, Michael Joseph Wirth, hat maker - Ratsschultheiß - chronicler in Miltenberg wrote down. These can also be read in the book " Spessart -Sagen" by Valentin Pfeifer . The following saga - poem is intended to illustrate this:

Attack on the castle in Sommerau

“Midsummer night rests over Sommerau. / Torn clouds, gloomy and gray,
they chase away over the man's castle, / That half once destroyed a peasant train.
Only now and then does a moonbeam meet / The mighty walls, bare and bare, surrounded
by ponds and tangled branches, / defying centuries, rise proudly.
Eerie sounds from the elms at the gate, / The owl's dull, rumbling call;
The alders by the brook bend the might of the storm! - / Midnight strikes down from the church tower! -
There it comes to life from the churchyard - / In the village the
criss-crossings are spreading - Down to the castle in a hurry, / Panting a huge peasant crowd storms!
But not with rifle and morning star / Threaten the castle of your landlord,
As once they did it in blind rage, - / No, they drag stones, beams,
and straight lines and angles, plumb bob, hammer and kettle, / ax, Saws shine brightly in the moonlight.
There is a roar on the wooden bridge, the gate is blown! / The eagle owl flutters up in alarm. -
The peasants are already busy at work, / They chop and dig, they arm and wall,
they carpentry and plane, fiddle with files, / With hammer and chisel in a flying hurry,
And before another hour has passed, / See brightly they flaunt their craft in the moonlight!
The weathercock turns and squeaks on the tower - / It strikes one! -
The storm is howling again! - / A lightning bolt and a blow! - / It crumbles and cracks! -
Sunken in the pond all the splendor rests - / Until the next midsummer night again. "

- Adolf Völkers , alias "Grimbart", Sommerau (monthly magazine "Spessart" 5/1906)

literature

  • The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Volume 3: District of Lower Franconia. Issue 23: Adolf Feulner , Bernhard Hermann Röttger : District Office Obernburg. Oldenbourg, Munich 1925 (Unchanged reprint. Ibid 1981, ISBN 3-486-50477-0 ).
  • Otto Pfeifer: Historical house book of Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim, publisher Markt Eschau, self-published, 2010.
  • Otto Pfeifer: The history of the parish and the churches of St. Laurentius Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim, publisher Markt Eschau, self-published, 2012.
  • Monika Schmittner: Sommerau Castle in the Elsava Valley awakens from its deep sleep . In: Spessart, issue 8/2007. Aschaffenburg 2007.
  • Gertraud Speth: Monuments in Eschau, Sommerau, Oberaulenbach and Hobbach . Admission thesis University of Würzburg , 1976.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L. Tomczik: Oskar and Gertel Hagemann in Sommerau , in Spessart (online), Aschaffenburg July 2008, pp. 21 + 23 ( memento from October 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Oskar Hagemann in the Stadtwiki Karlsruhe
  3. ↑ See also: # 15 Schloss Sommerau ; In: Johann Schober: Sagen des Spessarts , Werbrunn 1912, p. 121 f.

Coordinates: 49 ° 49 ′ 18.5 ″  N , 9 ° 15 ′ 11.5 ″  E