Castle History
The Pieszyce village (German Peterswalde) was started by
German settlers in XIII century, on a land granted by a Polish
prince residing in Wroclaw. The first written note about Peterswalde
dates from 2.IV 1258. All successive owners of the village
were of German ancestry.
In 1608 Friedrich von Gellhorn married
Marie von Reibnitz, owner of Pieszyce that had already a population
of 3,000. In 1615 he started construction of the Pieszyce
castle as the center for his commercial activities and to
support his life style. In 1705 the Pieszyce village and its
castle bought textile industrialist Bernhard von Mohrenthal.
Von Mohrenthal has rebuilt the castle between 1705 and 1710
under the direction of famous Swiss architect Frantz Martin
Jr. who added new baroque facade and mansard roof. Because
Mohrenthal was competing successfully against the English
manufacturers, they have put embargo on his products and Mohrenthal
went into bankruptcy.
The new owner was count Erdmann von Promnitz, who also was
a textile industrialist and continued Mohrenthals operations,
making Pieszyce a center of textile industry in the Lower
Silesia.
Having good position with the Habsburgs and then
Hohenzollern's courts, he was able to grow its businesses
on the continent, avoiding the English dominated markets.
Not having any children, von Promnitz has given Pieszyce to
his nephew Christian Friedrich von Stolberg.
In 1765, the left wing of the castle was rebuilt to house
a protestant church. And in 1784 von Stolberg renovated the
facade. Nine years later he changed the castle tower by removing
tall, early baroque structure, and putting an observation
deck with balusters and huge Chinese umbrella.
In 1801 von
Stolberg has completed renovation of the entire castle; putting
new plaster on the walls, repairing floors and putting new
ceramic heating stoves in place of the fireplaces.
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