Schloss Hohenprießnitz: A Baroque Palace Complex in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Electorate of Saxony, German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page13 sections
History
Schloss Hohenprießnitz is a Baroque palace complex in Germany, in Hohenprießnitz, now part of Zschepplin in Saxony’s Nordsachsen district. Built between 1699 and 1702, the three-wing residence was commissioned by Baron Anton Albrecht von Imhoff, chamber president at the court of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Its design is possibly associated with Hermann Korb, a German architect of the Baroque period.
Construction and the Hohenthal family
From 1704, von Imhoff served at the court of Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. After von Imhoff died, the Leipzig merchant Peter Hohmann acquired the palace. In 1717, Hohmann was ennobled as Panner and Edler von Hohenthal, a noble designation rather than a personal name. The property then remained in his family for five generations.
The ballroom was redesigned from 1723 onward. Its elaborate stucco decoration and ceiling painting expressed the family’s rising status. The central scene shows Hercules being introduced to Olympus and refers to Peter Hohmann’s elevation to the imperial nobility. Count Moritz von Hohenthal, a member of the Prussian House of Lords and a retired Royal Prussian cavalry captain, was later associated with the estate. The alliance coat of arms of Moritz and his wife remains on the manor house.
The estate in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Further alterations and extensions took place during the nineteenth century. In the early 1920s, the Hohenprießnitz estate covered 492 hectares, with another 176 hectares in the municipal district. Its associated holdings included the 875-hectare Gruna manor and the 395-hectare Laussig estate, both leased to Max Volland. The Hohenthal family’s Nieder-Glaucha manor comprised 185 hectares, together with a 24-hectare share in Ober-Glaucha, and was leased to Arthur Grothe. The 437-hectare Priestäblich manor and 31 hectares of associated land were farmed by I. Berndt.
The last owner was Count Georg von Hohenthal (1877–1970), who was born at the palace and married Gabriele Freiin von Plessen. They had six children, including Count Ludwig, who was born in the manor house in 1929. The Hohenthal family retained the property until 1945. During their ownership, the interior was enlarged, and two rooms from this work survive on the upper floor.
Restoration and landscape development
An English landscape garden was laid out in the 1790s on the ground descending from the garden side toward the Mulde, probably following plans by Johann Georg Gottlieb Schoch, a German landscape designer associated with English-style gardens. After 1945, the garden became overgrown, although its original structure remained. Reconstruction began in 1983. The palace was restored in 1972, followed by conservation of the stucco in 1984 and the ballroom ceiling painting in 1987. The building was used by the Saxon Academy for Teacher Training before being sold to a private owner in 2011.
Remains
Palace complex and courtyards
Schloss Hohenprießnitz is arranged as a spacious three-wing Baroque complex. A large ceremonial courtyard extends before the palace. Toward the road, two symmetrical three-sided groups of service and administrative buildings form another courtyard and help close the complex.
Main residential block
The two-storey principal residential block has strongly projecting central and corner sections, known as risalits, which project from the main wall. A hipped roof carries a small roof turret. On the courtyard side, the central projection is three bays wide and ends in a triangular gable decorated with cartouches. The short side wings are one storey high, with two-storey pavilions as their end buildings. Their tent roofs once had mansards, roofs with two slopes on each side, and are crowned by lanterns, small raised roof structures. Two round stair towers with curved hoods occupy the angles between the main block and side wings. They bear the date 1894.
Service buildings
The service buildings are one storey high. Two-storey pavilions with mansard hipped roofs stand on either side of the passageway. On the garden facade, the original pilaster articulation has been simplified into flat vertical strips called lesenes, which are shallow, non-structural elements used to organize a wall.
Interior rooms
Staircase and garden hall
Parts of the original room sequence survive inside the palace. The main staircase is a wooden staircase with two flights and occupies the full width of the central projection. On the ground floor, the garden hall lies on the central axis and was simplified during a nineteenth-century redesign.
Hunting room
Beside the garden hall is a hunting room in the heavy Neorenaissance style, a nineteenth-century revival of Renaissance forms. It retains a rare complete set of wood panelling and built-in cupboards. Its fireplace is decorated with figurative tiles showing hunting scenes.
Ballroom
The upper-floor ballroom has rich, strongly three-dimensional stucco decoration, molded plaster used for architectural ornament. The work is probably by the brothers Giovanni Pietro and Carlo Antonio Castelli. A ceiling painting made around 1730, probably by Carlo Ludovisi Castelli, depicts Hercules being introduced to Olympus. Four cartouches around the central image contain personifications of the sciences and peace. The painting has been lost along the window wall. Stucco profile busts of four Roman emperors occupy the corners of the curved wall-to-ceiling transition, and Baroque fireplaces are built into the room’s narrow sides.
Landscape garden
The English landscape garden retains its original structural layout despite the overgrowth that followed 1945 and the later reconstruction. Some of its park architecture has been lost. Several nineteenth-century steles and memorials to members of the Hohenthal family remain partly preserved.
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