Dettensee / History / The Steward's House (Vogtei)

The Beginning

The Steward's House (Vogtei), a remnant of the old Castle of Dettensee, was built around 1585 by Christof Ladislaus Count of Nellenburg. One can assume the castle was built at the same time. The Vogtei building was designed in the Renaissance style with beautiful gables, window-frames and cross-bars, and a so-called “lying roof-truss”. The exact design of the castle is unknown; but one can be pretty sure that, apart from having twice its size, it looked very similar to the Vogtei.
There has been some speculation that it was a water castle (a castle surrounded by a moat), but this is highly unlikely since the cellar vault would have been below water level. However, there probably was a moat on the southern side of the construction.
The exact place of the Zehnt barn (Zehnt, Latin Decima = tenth part of a peasant's crop and income, to be paid as tax to the government) is unknown; both the place of the modern townhall and the modern priest's house are possible.

The castle complex once had at least three towers, with a fourth one begin uncertain. Of these towers, one has survived.

Reconstructions

After a series of changes of ownership, the building was redesigned after the Thirty Years' War in 1653 to the Baroque style. In doing so, e.g. stucco ceilings were plastered on the second and third floor. After 1715, when Dettensee came to the Swiss monastery of Muri, both the castle and the Vogtei were probably unoccupied for decades. In 1818, the castle had become so dilapidated that it had to be torn down. Some of the stones were used to build the synagogue in 1820. The Vogtei, however, remained and was sold to two private persons in 1843, who redesigned it in the following years as dwelling-house with two separate apartments. At this occation, some brutal changes were done both to the interior and exterior of the house. From then on until the 1980s, the building was occupied all the time - however, its state got worse more and more.

Renovation

In 1985, architect Albrecht Laubis from Horb and his family acquired the Vogtei building. After extensive analyses of the statics and the substance of the building, he restored the building until 1990 both inside and outside - preserving and restoring as much of the original state of 1585 and 1653 as possible. Since then it serves as dwelling-house and office. The exemplary work was honored in 1992 with the Denkmalschutz (monument protection) prize of the Swabian Home Society and the Württemberger Hypo bank.
Without the commitment of the Laubis family, the Vogtei would most probably have been doomed to total decay.

Last update: April 2, 2003 - www.dettensee.net
Sources: Albrecht Laubis, Herbert Zander and Hohenzollerische Heimat 4/1969
Pictures: all Albrecht Laubis except the sketch of the old castle: Father Jodegar Meyer (around 1750), manuscript No. 295 in the archives of the monastery of Muri/Gries (Switzerland)