Mildenstein Castle

Last updated
Mildenstein Castle
Flag of Saxony.svg
Burg Mildenstein, Schloss Leisnig
Leisnig in Germany
Burg Mildenstein an der Mulde.jpg
Mildenstein Castle above Freiberger Mulde
Saxony location map.svg
Castle.svg
Mildenstein
Location of Mildenstein in Saxony
Coordinates 51°9′44″N12°55′32″E / 51.16222°N 12.92556°E / 51.16222; 12.92556 Coordinates: 51°9′44″N12°55′32″E / 51.16222°N 12.92556°E / 51.16222; 12.92556
Typecastle
Site information
Owner Free State of Saxony
Operator State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony
Open to
the public		yes
Website http://www.burg-mildenstein.de
Site history
Built10th century
In use14th century
Museum, concert and event venue

Mildenstein Castle, in German Burg Mildenstein, also called Schloss Leisnig, is located in Leisnig in Landkreis Mittelsachsen, Saxony, Germany. It is a property of the Free State of Saxony and is administrated by the company State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony. [1]

Contents

Geography

The castle is located on a spur above the river Freiberger Mulde, at the northern edge of the town of Leisnig proper and opposite the village of Fischendorf. The rock is a former lava dome and consists of pre-mesozoic rhyolite, in particular the so-called Leisniger Quarzporphyr. [2]

History

Illustration by Johann Kamprad (1753) BurgMildenstein1753JohannKamprad.jpg
Illustration by Johann Kamprad (1753)

There is archeological evidence for an ancient settlement on the rock spur above Freiberger Mulde.

Mildenstein castle was probably built in the 10th century. However, it was first mentioned only in 1046 when Emperor Heinrich III gifted the Burgwards of Colditz, Rochlitz, and Leisnig to Agnes of Poitou. In 1084 the castle was enfeoffed by Emperor Heinrich IV to Wiprecht of Groitzsch. [3] In 1143 it went by marriage to Franconian earl Rapoto von Abenberg, Stiftsvogt of Bamberg, who sold it in 1148 to Duke Friedrich III of Schwaben who later became known as Emperor Barbarossa. The latter made the castle in 1158 an imperial property, tied to the office of the Emperor [3] and enfeoffed to the Burgraves of Leisnig. As such, it became a governing centre of the Imperial Territory of Pleißenland.

In the early 13th century the castle was the seat of the imperial ministeriales family von Mildenstein who had to give up their properties in the area after they lost a dispute over the entitlement to tithes from former church properties, and Margrave Henry the Illustrious captured the castle in 1232. [4]

The Burgraves of Leisnig founded Buch Abbey in 1192 [5] and acquired the lordship of Mutzschen before 1308. They became one of the most powerful families in the area. Burgrave Otto I of Leisnig, together with his father-in-law, Burgrave Albrecht IV of Altenburg, also gained the lordships of Lauterstein (1323) and Waldheim (1324), and inherited the lordship of Rochsburg from the latter in 1329. However, the joined Ämter Leisnig and Altenburg fell to Margrave Frederick the Serious after Albrecht IV died in 1329. [6] The Leisnigs lost their imperial immediacy, were forced to sell their burgraviate in 1365, [7] kept only their possessions around Rochsburg and Penig [6] and died out in 1538.

Mildenstein castle was rebuilt in the late 14th century under Margrave Wilhelm I. It was, however, not used as a residence, but remained the seat of the local government (Amt Leisnig). Castle and town suffered heavy damage during the Thirty Years' War. In 1706/1707 it was chosen as a residence by Stanisław Leszczyński, who had been elected anti-king to Augustus the Strong. Later in the 18th century the castle housed the regional court of law, a prison and apartments for officials. [3]

Beginning in 1798, the local Mirus family had a romantic park constructed around the castle, which is notable for its artificial ruins and a rock tunnel built in 1866. Since 1890 Mildenstein castle has been used as a museum. A small zoo was also established in the park, but closed in 1990. [3]

Buildings

Bergfried in the inner courtyard Leisnig Mildenstein Bergfried.jpg
Bergfried in the inner courtyard
Pagenhaus (squires' quarters) Leisnig Mildenstein Pagenhaus.jpg
Pagenhaus (squires' quarters)
Roof construction of the granary Leisnig, Burg Mildenstein - Kornhausboden Vorderschloss (01-2).jpg
Roof construction of the granary
Herrenhaus (Lord's residence) Leisnig, Burg Mildenstein - Herrenhaus des Hinterschlosses (01-2).jpg
Herrenhaus (Lord's residence)

The chapel dates from the 12th century and was rebuilt around 1400. The Bergfried in the inner courtyard dates from the late 12th century. [8] It is 32 m (105 ft) high and has a diameter of 14 m (46 ft). Its lower part is built from locally found quartzite blocks, above a height of 8 m (26 ft) bricks have been used. Due to increasing dilapidation it was partly dismantled in 1791. Since its restoration in 1875 it has been used as an observation tower. [9] The second Bergfried in the outer ward was built in the 1st half of the 13th century. The gatehouse originates from the late 12th/early 13th century while the granary with its impressive roof structure, the Herrenhaus (Lord's residence), and the Pagenhaus (squires' quarters) were rebuilt under Margrave Wilhelm I near the end of the 14th century. [3]

Attractions

Giant boot in Mildenstein museum (2008) Mildenst. Riesenstiefel.jpg
Giant boot in Mildenstein museum (2008)

From 1957 [10] until 2010 the museum had been home to the Giant Boot of Döbeln, a 2.48 m (8 ft 2 in) high riding boot which had been manufactured in 1925 on occasion of the 600th anniversary of the shoemaker's guild of Döbeln and is now shown in Döbeln town hall. [11] In 1996, two Leisnig shoemakers presented another, 4.90 m (16.1 ft) high boot that is exhibited in a building near the castle and is regularly shown on parades. [12]

Permanent exhibitions in the museum are dedicated to Christian art, [13] the life in the castle when it was used as a noble residence, the administrative tasks of the early modern period, and the history of the prison system. Topics of special exhibitions vary from year to year. [14]

The castle also offers guided tours, concerts, reenactment events, [15] and themed events for children and families. [16]

Related Research Articles

Colditz Place in Saxony, Germany

Colditz is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II.

Leisnig Place in Saxony, Germany

Leisnig is a small town in the district of Mittelsachsen, federal Free State of Saxony in Germany, 50 kilometers southeast of Leipzig,

Döbeln Place in Saxony, Germany

Döbeln is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, part of the Mittelsachsen district, on both banks of the river Freiberger Mulde.

Halsbrücke Place in Saxony, Germany

Halsbrücke is a municipality and village in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated just north of Freiberg, on the banks of the Freiberger Mulde river.

Rötteln Castle castle ruins in Lörrach, Germany

Rötteln Castle, located above the Lörrach suburb of Haagen, lies in the extreme southwest corner of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, just 10 kilometres north-east of the Swiss City of Basel. The fortification was one of the most powerful in the southwest, and today, it is the third largest castle ruin in Baden.

Bernhard, Count of Anhalt Duke of Saxony and Count of Anhalt

Bernhard, a member of the House of Ascania, was Count of Anhalt and Ballenstedt, and Lord of Bernburg through his paternal inheritance. From 1180 he was also Duke of Saxony.

Mittelsachsen is a district (Kreis) in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

The Dohna Feud was a 14th-century dispute between the burgraves of Dohna, who resided in the Eastern Ore Mountains of Central Europe, on the one hand and Saxon nobleman, John of Körbitz and the Meißen Margrave William I on the other. The feud lasted from 1385 to 1402.

The Borsdorf–Coswig railway is a mainline railway in the German state of Saxony, originally built and operated by the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company. It runs mostly along the Freiberger Mulde from Borsdorf via Döbeln and Meissen to Coswig near Dresden. It is part of a long-distance connection from Leipzig to Dresden, but is now used for local traffic only.

Dohna Castle rocca

Dohna Castle on the once important medieval trade route from Saxony to Bohemia was the ancestral castle seat of the Burgraves of Dohna. Of the old, once imposing double castle only a few remnants of the walls remain. The ruins of the old castle are located on the hill of Schlossberg near the subsequent suburb of the town of the same name, Dohna, in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge in Saxony, Germany.

Kriebstein Castle rock castle

Kriebstein Castle is a castle in Kriebstein near the town of Waldheim in the German state of Saxony.

Windeck Castle (Bühl) castle

Windeck Castle, also Old Windeck Castle, is a ruined Black Forest spur castle which stands on a 378-metre-high spur in the Bühl district of Kappelwindeck, in the county of Rastatt in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Rochsburg Castle château

Rochsburg Castle, which was probably founded in the late 12th century, stands on a rock spur, surrounded on three sides by the Zwickau Mulde river, above the eponymous town quarter in Lunzenau in Saxony. The medieval site and its division into the inner bailey, outer bailey and two zwingers is still easy to recognise. In its present appearance the schloss dates, however, to the Late Gothic and Renaissance periods. Its main construction phases date to 1470 and 1548; it is an important example of Renaissance architecture in Saxony. Over centuries the Rochsburg has formed the centrepiece in the Saxon district of Rochsburg.

Kyffhausen Castle

The Imperial Castle of Kyffhausen is a medieval castle ruin, situated in the Kyffhäuser hills in the German state of Thuringia, close to its border with Saxony-Anhalt. Probably founded about 1000, it superseded the nearby imperial palace (Kaiserpfalz) of Tilleda under the rule of the Hohenstaufen emperors during the 12th and 13th centuries. Together with the Kyffhäuser Monument, erected on the castle grounds between 1890 and 1896, it is today a popular tourist destination.

Rochlitz Castle Castle in Rochlitz, Germany

Rochlitz Castle or Rochlitz Palace lies in the west of the town of Rochlitz in the county of Mittelsachsen in the Free State of Saxony. It was built on the site of an imperial castle, erected in the second half of the 10th century, which fell into the possession of the Wettin margraves in 1143. Its appearance, which includes several Romanesque wings, is considerably influenced by its remodelling into a margravial schloss in the fourth quarter of the 14th century. Further conversions and additions followed at the end of the 15th and in the 16th centuries, when the castle became a secondary residenz, dower house and hunting lodge for the Wettin family. The castle or palace was the residence for members of the Saxon princely house eight times. From the 18th century the castle served as an administrative centre ; in 1852 it became a gaol, which necessitated considerable alteration. The museum founded in 1892 was gradually expanded and, today, takes up almost the entire castle.

Yburg Castle German castle

The Yburg is a ruined hilltop castle atop the Yberg, on the western edge of the Black Forest near Baden-Baden, in southwestern Germany.

Lastau Ortsteil of Colditz in Saxony, Germany

Lastau is a village in Landkreis Leipzig, Saxony, Germany with approx. 222 inhabitants (2012). On 1 January 1994 it was incorporated into the town Colditz.

Buch Abbey former Cistercian abbey near Leisnig, Germany

Buch Abbey, in German Kloster Buch, is a former Cistercian monastery near Leisnig in Saxony.

Lauterstein Castle (Marienberg) castle

Lauterstein Castle, in German Burg Lauterstein, also called Burgruine Niederlauterstein, is a medieval castle in Niederlauterstein, town of Marienberg, Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony. It has been a ruin since the Thirty Years' War.

References

  1. ↑ Andrea Dietrich (2015). "Die Staatliche Verwaltung von Schlössern, Burgen und Gärten im Freistaat Sachsen". ICOMOS–Hefte des Deutschen Nationalkomitees. 16: 19–22.
  2. ↑ Günter Schwerdtner; Heidrun Anger; Manfred Störr (2007). Die Kaolinlagerstätten des Kemmlitzer Reviers. Dresden: Landesamt für Umwelt und Geologie.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Geschichte der Burg Mildenstein". Burg Mildenstein. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  4. ↑ Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae regiae. Part I, volume 3, p. 475
  5. ↑ Karlheinz Blaschke (2002). "Leisnig". Lexikon des Mittelalters. V. Munich. pp. 1863–1864.
  6. 1 2 Gerhard Billig (2002). Pleißenland– Vogtland. Das Reich und die Vögte, Untersuchungen zur Herrschaftsorganisation und Landesverfassung während des Mittelalters unter dem Aspekt der Periodisierung. Plauen.
  7. ↑ Ekkehard Leisering (2006). Die Wettiner und ihre Herrschaftsgebiete 1349 bis 1382. Sächsisches Staatsarchiv. p. 207.
  8. ↑ Ingolf Grässler (1996). "Der Bergfried der Burg Mildenstein, Leisnig". Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Schlösser, Burgen und Gärten in Sachsen. 4.
  9. ↑ "Bergfried". Burg Mildenstein. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  10. ↑ "Döbelner Riesenstiefel jetzt im Kreismuseum Burg Mildenstein". “Die Brücke” - Monatszeitschrift für Kultur und Heimat. Döbeln. 1957.
  11. ↑ "Döbelner Riesenstiefel". Stadt Döbeln. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  12. ↑ "Die Stiefelwacht" . Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  13. ↑ Riese, Brigitte (ed.) Die Botschaft der Heiligen: Skulpturen aus fünf Jahrhunderten; Katalog zur Sammlung sakraler Plastik vom Mittelalter bis zum Barock. Museum Burg Mildenstein, 1998.
  14. ↑ "Ausstellungsbereiche auf Burg Mildenstein" . Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  15. ↑ "Veranstaltungen". Burg Mildenstein. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  16. ↑ "Kinder- und Jugendprogramme & Familienangebote". Burg Mildenstein. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.