White lock
The Weißiger Castle is located in a central and widely visible location in Weißig , a district of the municipality of Oßling in the Saxon district of Bautzen . It is about ten kilometers north of Kamenz and has been privately owned since 2005.
history
In 1466 a knight's seat in Weißig was first mentioned. Carl von Ponickau sold the manor in 1723 for 25,376 thalers and seven groschen to the Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court, Justice and Appeal Councilor Hans Bastian III. von Zehmen (1691–1763), who bequeathed it to Heinrich Ludwig von Zehmen in 1763. In 1837 Georg Christian Ludwig von Zehmen bought it from his relatives for 32,000 thalers. After his death in 1844 it became the property of Moritz Oskar von Zehmen.
Oskar Horst von Zehmen inherited the manor in 1899 and from 1902 leased its fields to the farmers in the area. Since the old, simply built mansion from the 17th century did not meet his requirements, he had it demolished and entrusted the well-known Dresden architects Lossow & Kühne ( William Lossow and Max Hans Kühne ) with the construction of a new castle. Von Zehmen was able to finance the construction project with the income from a quarry, which he leased to the Berlin company Siemens & Halske from 1905 . Construction work on the palace began in 1907 and was completed at the end of 1908. It was built a little northeast of the location of the old manor house by the Bernsdorf construction company Müller.
Zehmen's son and heir, Oskar Horst Ernst, a lieutenant in the 2nd Royal Saxon Jäger Battalion, died in 1912 on the Dresden Heller in a duel with a rival who had seduced his wife. His son Georg, in turn, who inherited the castle and estate from his grandfather in 1927, was killed in World War II in 1941 . For economic reasons, at the end of 1942, his wife Margot was forced to sell the castle and a nearby half-timbered house to the Reichsbund für Deutsche Jugendherbergen e.V. for 155,000 Reichsmarks . V. Berlin for sale. The young widow Margot von Zehmen stayed in Weißig, survived the end of the war and then emigrated to Buenos Aires / Argentina with her young children. The Döbelner architect Kurt Hennenberg was then commissioned to convert the castle into a "HJ retraining home for German girls abroad". At the end of 1943, Hennenberg suggested setting up a KLV convalescent home in the castle instead . However, both projects were not implemented and the castle ultimately served as a military training camp for the Hitler Youth . The young people trained there in handguns and anti-tank weapons fled in April 1945 shortly before the Red Army marched in . The mayor of the time and the people of Weißiger refrained from defending themselves against the Soviet soldiers and were thus able to prevent the town and the castle from being destroyed. As early as the beginning of 1945, up to 14 resettled families from the eastern regions of the German Empire were accommodated in the palace. When it was announced shortly after the end of the war that the castle should be demolished, the resettlers, together with the mayor and the residents of Weißiger, successfully opposed demolition. In autumn 1945 the local elementary school finally moved in with three classes. From 1947 the now state- owned castle also served as a retirement home until it was converted into a district children's home in 1949.
In the course of German reunification , the Kamenz district office became the owner of the castle. After the children's home was closed in the summer of 1993, the castle stood empty for years and increasingly fell into disrepair. In 1996, a homeland association was finally founded, which set itself the task of maintaining the castle and helping the district office to find a suitable buyer. Since the financial resources were very limited, the roof of the tower could only be repaired temporarily in 1998. Further repairs such as renewing and sealing rain gutters and roof terraces were carried out a year later. At the end of 1999, an investor from Gelsenkirchen acquired the castle and the associated manor and intended to use it for tourism and gastronomy. After a short time, however, he withdrew from his purchase. As before, they tried to find a new buyer via the Internet. In 2005, the Dutch real estate developer Jan Pierre van Ede finally acquired the listed castle and immediately had it completely renovated by local companies and craftsmen. In 2007 the 6th Krabat Festival took place at the castle , which was opened by the President of the Saxon State Parliament, Erich Iltgen . A year later, the 100th anniversary of the almost completely renovated castle was celebrated on the private complex with the local residents. After the death of the owner in 2014, the castle was sold to a Dresden entrepreneur couple in October 2015.
Building description
Old mansion
The previous building from the 17th century, which had been dismantled, was a rural building with a clapboard on a rectangular floor plan. The compartments of the half-timbered upper floor were filled with Weller . The original St. Andrew's crosses in the framework were plastered later. The main cornice consisted of a profiled beam. The beams in the ceiling were also profiled. The building consisted of a hallway, a kitchen, two vaults, a room and an adjoining room. An extension was built in 1846. The barrel vaults of the cellars were made of granite and clay.
New lock
The three-storey building was built in the historicism style with Renaissance gables, two bay windows, a stepped terrace porch and a swinging open staircase. It has around 70 rooms of various sizes and its own Gothic style chapel, which is dedicated to St. Elizabeth. The floor area is 2,300 square meters. Two courtyard gates lead to the castle courtyard. Two lion sculptures are placed at the eastern entrance to the castle. The castle tower, which reaches a height of 31 meters on the roof, is covered with copper sheets. The coat of arms of the von Zehmen family is emblazoned on the entrance front and on the east and west gables. Under the coat of arms on the front, the inscription "1908 OHVZ" commemorates the builder Oskar Horst von Zehmen. In the course of the renovation from 2005, a dining room was converted into a reception room. The kitchen was originally in the basement and was eventually set up near the living area. During the restoration, based on old documents, walls that had changed the original floor plan of the premises were removed again.
Interior
Baroque cupboards, hunting trophies, rococo furniture , pictures, carpets and silver sconces from the old manor house were used again in the new castle. A set of armaments that was in a greenhouse that had also been dismantled had already been sold to Berlin around 1840. In the entrance hall of the new castle there are now antique furniture , pictures and carpets. Fabric wallpapers cover the walls. Since the renovation, the chapel has again had pews, portraits, colored windows and figures of saints from the Netherlands. Since 2010 there has also been an approximately 120-year-old laundry mangle from L. A. Thomas from Großröhrsdorf in the castle , which was previously in Großgrabe for 43 years .
Park
The forest-like landscape park belonging to the Weißiger Schloss is 5.2 hectares in size. On the main path of the park there is a neo-Gothic mausoleum about 150 meters east of the castle , which the von Zehmen family had built as a family burial place from 1842 to 1844. The ogival entrance to the forecourt is adorned above the coats of arms of Moritz Oskar von Zehmen, who died in 1899, and his second wife Thekla von Wolfersdorff . The family coat of arms with blue and white squares is emblazoned above the portal. It is marked on the left and right with the inscriptions "GvZ 1844" and "GvZ 1938". The former refers to the year the building was completed under Georg Christian Ludwig von Zehmen (1776–1844), who was buried in the crypt that same year. The second inscription "GvZ 1938" commemorates the year of renovation under Georg von Zehmen, the last lord of his house. The mausoleum was provided with a barred window on both sides of the huge entrance door made of oak. The simply designed interior measures 4.20 by 4.20 meters and is about five meters high. The side walls merge into three Gothic pointed arches that come together in the middle of the room. On the left side wall is a 1.80 meter high and about one meter wide tombstone with a sandstone relief depicting Hans Heinrich von Luttitz (d. 1648) as a life-size knight with shoulder-length, curly hair. The tombstone comes from the main church St. Marien in Kamenz and was brought to Weißig around 1840. A partially weathered inscription on the lower edge of the stone proclaims:
"Anno 1648 on October 18th between 2 and 3 o'clock fell asleep in God. The well-born stern and manly gentleman Mr. Hans Heinrich von Luttitz auf Weißig his age 33 years 3 days your soul God grace."
After the Second World War, the Weißig community's mausoleum was temporarily used as a mortuary. In 1983 and 1984 the exterior facade and interior were renovated. From 2000 to 2001, the crypt, which is under monument protection, was renewed once more by citizens of Weißiger under the direction of a local restorer.
In the immediate vicinity of the mausoleum stands a simple granite monument with a cast-iron inscription plate. It was set up in 1818 on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Heinrich Ludwig von Zehmen (died 1832) at his favorite place in the park.
literature
- Cornelius Gurlitt : Weissig . In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 35. Issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Kamenz (Land) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1912, p. 333.
- Adam v. Watzdorf: Book of fate of the Saxon-Thuringian nobility 1945. CA Starke Verlag, Limburg an der Lahn 1994, ISBN 3-7980-0689-X , pp. 528-530., Report by Margot v. Zehmen, née Vasak, wife of Georg v. Zehmen auf Weißig.
- Matthias Donath : Saxony's most beautiful castles. edition Sächsische Zeitung Redaktions- und Verlagsgesellschaft Elbland mbH, Meißen 2008, Weißig p. 202.
Web links
- Official website
- Castle history on weissig-sachsen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. History on schlossweissig.com
- ↑ a b cf. heykodehn.de
- ↑ cf. bernievancastle.de
- ^ Manfred Prescher: Castle sales . weissig-sachsen.de, August 2012.
- ↑ Everything Lausitz: New future for Schloss Weissig ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b cf. Refurbishment on schlossweissig.com
- ↑ Enjoy Upper Lusatia and feast in the Weissiger Castle . oberlausitz.com, July 14, 2010.
- ^ Preliminary overview of the parks in Upper Lusatia . In: Ernst Panse (ed.): Park guide through Upper Lusatia . Lusatia Verlag , Bautzen 1999, p. 254.
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Weissig . In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony . 35. Issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Kamenz (Land) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1912, p. 333.
- ↑ a b cf. The mausoleum on weissig-sachsen.de
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 3.2 ″ N , 14 ° 7 ′ 18.1 ″ E