Hanseviertel Demmin

Description

Haus Demmin is situated on an island at the confluence of the Tollense and the Peene, southeast of the Hanseatic town of Demmin, and today presents the ruins of a Pomeranian princely castle and a later manor house. The complex plays a significant role in regional history and, because of its early medieval core, is regarded as the cradle of the region.

An early Slavic hillfort already existed on the island in the 8th century; the first written mention dates to 1127 under the name „Alte Burg“. The roughly one-hectare site comprised an inner and an outer bailey. In 1128 it served as an overnight base for a missionary bishop; a meeting with the Pomeranian prince Wartislaw I also took place here. Further expansions followed in the 12th century. The masonry core, a circular brick tower, is dated to around 1200 and belongs to the earliest secular buildings in Pomerania. Until the death of Wartislaw III in 1264 the dukes of Pomerania-Demmin resided at the castle. After military destructions in the 12th and 13th centuries — among others repeatedly by the troops of Henry the Lion — and further enlargements, by 1620 an extensive complex had developed with gatehouses, a stable block, residential buildings, cellars and courtyards. In the course of the territorial division of 1295 Haus Demmin passed to Pomerania-Stettin; the castle’s development also made it an important customs point at the river crossing.

During the Thirty Years’ War the complex was drawn into the fighting; in 1631 the buildings burned down except for the tower. In 1648 the remaining tower stump was blown up and the remaining fortifications removed. Today only fragments of the defensive tower and the ruin of the 19th-century palace are visible. Archaeological excavations revealed unusual convex brick shells in the lower layers of the façades, indicating a complex late-medieval building phase. A reconstructed plan of the oldest masonry section yields an octagonal-appearing, star-shaped layout, underlining the castle’s outstanding importance for the development of the surrounding area until its decline.

The manor house was built in 1840 as a late Neoclassical stuccoed building with French-Baroque touches. In 1881 it passed into the ownership of another noble family and was expropriated in 1945. From 1948 to 1986 the building served as a boarding school and school; it was returned in 1991. In 1998 the house burned down to the external walls; later the property reverted to the Hanseatic town of Demmin. Proposals for use ranged from an administrative seat for a planned foundation national park to studies for sustainable revitalization; funding for feasibility studies was promised. Architectural features of the manor house include three-and-a-half storeys with two-storey side wings, stucco articulation, straight and shallow-arched window pediments, roofs concealed by attics, and remnants of a balcony. In one room painted pictorial wallpapers were preserved depicting the Podewils’ Crangen Palace and the new manor house.