Moszna
Encyclopedia
Moszna ' is a small village in south-west Poland
, approximately 30 km (18.6 mi) from Opole
, known for its notable castle
.
A horse breeding
farm was founded in Moszna in 1946. It was based on a herd from a liquidated farm in Dłonie, near Rawicz
. The farm in Moszna has kept thoroughbred
horses from the very beginning and it expanded its husbandry with cross-breeds in 1961.
s in the western part of Upper Silesia
. The history of this building begins in the half of the 17th century, although old cellars were found in the garden
s during excavations which were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the investigators, including H. Barthel, claimed that those cellars could have been remnants of a presumed Templar
castle, but their theory has never been proved true. After World War II
, further excavations discovered a medieval
palisade
.
The central part of the castle is an old baroque
palace
which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler (the son of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler). The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery
. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neorenaissance style. It can be noticed, that the architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic
. The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spire
s, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turret
s. Inside, it contains 365 rooms with a total floorage of 7,000 sq.m. and a cubic capacity of about 65,000 m3. The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year.
The castle in Moszna was the residence of a Prussia
n family Tiele-Winckler, who were industrial magnates, since 1866 until the spring of 1945 when they were made to move to Germany and the castle's premises were occupied by the Red Army
. The period of the Soviet residence left the major destruction to the castle's internal fittings in comparison with the very little damage caused by the preceding war.
After the war, the castle did not have its permanent owner and would be the seat of various institutions, until 1972 when it became a that-time convalescent home and is nowadays a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses
. It can still be seen by tourists, however. Additionally, the castle has a chapel
which is also used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the building houses a gallery, in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.
Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precised boundaries and combines with the nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak
and then horse-chestnut
avenues, towards the palace. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendron
s. The axis of the park is ended in the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele Winckler. On the eastern side of the lime avenue there is a pond with an islet
referred to by the owners as the Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached through a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, being a part of the whole park complex, was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. The preserved documents of 1868 inform that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was taken care of by Hubert von Tiele Wickler.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, approximately 30 km (18.6 mi) from Opole
Opole
Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 125,992 and is the capital of the Upper Silesia, Opole Voivodeship and, also the seat of Opole County...
, known for its notable castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
.
The village
In 1309 the area, which is nowadays occupied by Moszna, was settled by a family called Mosce or Moschin. In 1679 the village belonged to the family of von Skalls and it became the property of Wilhelm von Reisewitz around 1723. Later on, Moszna belonged to Heinrich Leopold von Seherr-Toss (since 1771); Heinrich von Erdmansdorf (1853); and to Hubert Tiele-Winckler (since 1866).A horse breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
farm was founded in Moszna in 1946. It was based on a herd from a liquidated farm in Dłonie, near Rawicz
Rawicz
Rawicz is a town in central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants . It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship ; previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship . It is the capital of Rawicz County.-History:...
. The farm in Moszna has kept thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
horses from the very beginning and it expanded its husbandry with cross-breeds in 1961.
The castle
The castle in Moszna is one of the best known monumentMonument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
s in the western part of Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
. The history of this building begins in the half of the 17th century, although old cellars were found in the garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
s during excavations which were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the investigators, including H. Barthel, claimed that those cellars could have been remnants of a presumed Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
castle, but their theory has never been proved true. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, further excavations discovered a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
.
The central part of the castle is an old baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
palace
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler (the son of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler). The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...
. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neorenaissance style. It can be noticed, that the architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
. The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
s, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turret
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
s. Inside, it contains 365 rooms with a total floorage of 7,000 sq.m. and a cubic capacity of about 65,000 m3. The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year.
The castle in Moszna was the residence of a Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n family Tiele-Winckler, who were industrial magnates, since 1866 until the spring of 1945 when they were made to move to Germany and the castle's premises were occupied by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. The period of the Soviet residence left the major destruction to the castle's internal fittings in comparison with the very little damage caused by the preceding war.
After the war, the castle did not have its permanent owner and would be the seat of various institutions, until 1972 when it became a that-time convalescent home and is nowadays a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
. It can still be seen by tourists, however. Additionally, the castle has a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
which is also used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the building houses a gallery, in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.
Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precised boundaries and combines with the nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak
Northern Red Oak
Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak or champion oak, , is an oak in the red oak group . It is a native of North America, in the northeastern United States and southeast Canada...
and then horse-chestnut
Aesculus
The genus Aesculus comprises 13-19 species of woody trees and shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere, with 6 species native to North America and 7-13 species native to Eurasia; there are also several hybrids. Species are deciduous or evergreen...
avenues, towards the palace. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
s. The axis of the park is ended in the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele Winckler. On the eastern side of the lime avenue there is a pond with an islet
Islet
An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....
referred to by the owners as the Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached through a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, being a part of the whole park complex, was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. The preserved documents of 1868 inform that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was taken care of by Hubert von Tiele Wickler.