Point 6 - THE OBERHOF (Upper Courtyard) OF SCHIRGISWALDE

THE OBERHOF (Upper Courtyard) OF SCHIRGISWALDE

The Oberhof was the second manorial estate in the area of the early town besides the Niederhof (Lower Courtyard), established around the middle of the 14th century. For a long time the von Luttitz family owned it. In 1628, the Catholic cathedral chapter of St. Petri in Bautzen bought the Oberhof.

The manor house or castle served as quarters for the Bautzen cathedral deans, and the later bishops converted it into an episcopal summer residence.

Bishop Ignaz Bernhard Mauermann had the castle park and an orangery laid out in 1833. As early as 1830, Bishop Mauermann had furnished two rooms on the upper floor with valuable hand-printed panorama wallpaper from manufactories in Rixheim in Alsace and Paris respectively.

On 4 July 1845, the ceremonial handover of Schirgiswald from Austria to the Kingdom of Saxony took place in these rooms.

Over the years several institutions were located in the house, sometimes simultaneously: from 1923 to 1970 a nurses' station for outpatient nursing, from 1959 to 1970 a seminar for church music ministry in the GDR.

From 1972 until after 1982, the castle was home to the Marienheim of the Catholic Welfare for Girls, Women and Children and from 1972 to 2006, to the kindergarten of the Catholic parish.

In 2019, the cathedral chapter sold the castle and large parts of the castle park. The so-called Hofescheune, standing parallel to Bahnhofstraße, was used in the 20th century as storage and operating space by various companies.

On 5 July 1957, the barn burnt down to the ground. After reconstruction and use by the ecclesiastical agriculture and forestry, it was converted into the Catholic children's house St. Antonius in 2005/2006.