Germany · 18th century
The New Uhyst Castle (German: Neues Schloss Uhyst) is located on the northern edge of the town of Uhyst in the Saxony district of Görlitz, Germany. It is located near the Spree river flowing through the village and borders the Bärwalder See Landscape Park. The castle grounds have a Baroque garden and an English landscape park.
There was already an estate in Uhyst in the 15th century. In the 16th century, Kaspar von Nostitz had a castle built in the local Hirchgarden, which remained in possession of his family until Hans von Warnsdorf Warnsdorf (Adelsgeschlecht) auf Kuhna acquired it in 1607. His son sold it to Hans von Metzradt, who became the feudal lord of Uhyst in 1626. In 1725, Friedrich Caspar Graf von Gersdorff (1699-1751) replaced Metzradt's descendants as feudal lord.
From 1738 to 1742, Gersdorff, who found the Old Castle too small, had the New Castle built according to plans by an Italian architect (possibly also by Johann Christoph Knöffel]) not far from the old building in the village and made it the residence of his family.
In 1745, a sorbs seminary for preachers and teachers, founded in 1730 on Gersdorff's estate in Klix, moved temporarily into the New Castle, along with its school, after the school in Klix had become too small due to the rapidly increasing number of pupils. The Old Castle was demolished in 1836. The other owners of the New Palace were Sigismund von Dallwitz, a member of the Higher Regional Court from 1840, Ernst von Bredow from around 1865 and Rudolf Freiherr von Kratzler from around 1876. In 1883, the New Palace became the property of Ferdinand Johann Balthasar Baron von Rabenau. He had an illegitimate child, Herbert, with his maid Marie Hässler.
Marie Hässler was then married to the widowed estate administrator Alvin Kluge, who had a son, Gerhard, and two daughters. After Baron von Rabenau's death in 1899, the castle passed first to Marie and later to Herbert and Gerhard Kluge. After the death of his brother in 1925, Herbert Kluge was the last gentleman at Uhyst Castle in 1945.
During the Second World War, the Schutzstaffel establish a base in Uhyst castle and forced the lord of the castle Herbert Kluge and his family to leave. The director of the Municipal Art Collections of Görlitz, Sigfried Asche, recognized the cultural-historical value of the castle architecture, which was well-preserved at the time.
Text adapted from “Uhyst castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Uhyst Castle ranks #6,515 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #578 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded 1742, it is older than 18% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 696 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,046 times in the last 60 days, more than 52% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Dresden, 64 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →