Proschwitz Castle

Schloss Proschwitz is a Neo-Baroque style castle in the Proschwitz district of Meißen in the Meißen district. Connected to it is Saxony's oldest still existing private winery in Zadel.

The Proschwitz vineyards were owned by the Bishops of Meißen from the mid-12th century until the Reformation. A large part of the mass wines needed in Saxony at that time came from the Proschwitz winery.

The first documented mention of a knight Eckbert von Proschwitz occurred in a document from 1102. The place name Proschwitz indicates an early Sorbian settlement. Until the Reformation and subsequent secularization of most ecclesiastical estates, Proschwitz was a bishop's table estate.

From 1554, the estate was owned by Ernst von Miltitz. This also included the Nassau outpost. After the destruction of the castle in the Thirty Years' War, Peter Werdemann acquired the estate in 1657 together with the patronage right for Zscheila. The construction of the Baroque castle can be attributed to the von Schilling family, who acquired the estate in 1704. In 1732, the widowed Countess Magdalena von Beichlingen, née von Miltitz, bought it and built a simple L-shaped Baroque castle. After the Countess's death, it initially passed into the possession of her second daughter, the Countess von Gersdorff. In 1790, the Electorate of Saxony's Hofmarschall and Baron Carl Friedrich von Berlepsch acquired the castle. It then passed by inheritance to the von Carlowitz family.

Between 1882 and 1888, Schloss Proschwitz was extended by the addition of a residential wing to the west. In 1901, the wedding of Count Clemens zur Lippe-Biesterfeld-Weißenfeld to Friederike Freiin von Carlowitz took place at the castle. From 1914, the castle was restored by Clemens Reichsgraf zur Lippe-Biesterfeld-Weißenfeld under the direction of the architectural firm Lossow & Kühne. After the death of Friederike Princess zur Lippe-Weißenfeld, the castle was confiscated by the NSDAP in 1943. Later, children from areas of Germany threatened by bombing were housed in the castle.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Christian Prinz zur Lippe, the son of Clemens and Friederike, was dispossessed by the communists, imprisoned with his family, and finally expelled to the western occupation zones. The castle was plundered and later used as a sanatorium for lung diseases. In 1979, it was converted into a district rehabilitation center for mentally disabled children and adults. Since 1990, Georg Prinz zur Lippe bought back his parents' vineyards piece by piece and rebuilt the Schloss Proschwitz winery in Zadel. In 1996, Prinz zur Lippe also reacquired his parents' castle, which could be used for the care of the disabled until September 2000. After the repurchase, the castle had to be renovated piece by piece over years due to extensive structural damage. Georg Prinz zur Lippe was significantly supported in this by the German Foundation for Monument Protection. Today, concerts, park and castle festivals, banquets, conferences, and weddings are held at Schloss and Park Proschwitz.

Servants' House

The servants' house on the east side of the castle courtyard was built in 1776, with the core of the building being of older substance. It consists of two two-story, Baroque hip-roofed pavilions, connected by an intermediate building with a pre-faced balustrade on the upper floor and a clock tower with a dome.

Castle Park

In the strongly undulating terrain of the Knorrgrund to the west and south, an English landscape garden of five hectares was created at the beginning of the 19th century. From 1913, the geometrically French garden in the style of the early 18th century was laid out in front of the west facade. An oversized sandstone figure of an armored warrior from the 17th century, presumably a gift from Fontainebleau, adorns the park, which also contains an old medieval wine cellar.