Schloss Lieser

The Lieser Castle stands on the site of a farm house built in 1710 as part of a church property, possibly a former Kurtrier estate. Lieser Castle (i.e., the manor house) consists of two sections, an older section (from the Mosel viewed as the slightly larger right part) in the forms of Neo-Renaissance and a younger section in the forms of Art Nouveau. The architect of the older section - built between 1884 and 1887 - was Heinrich Theodor Schmidt. He had made a name for himself in the Frankfurt area as a villa specialist but also designed public buildings. His buildings included the aquarium in the Frankfurt Zoo, the reconstruction of the Palmengarten society house, which was destroyed by fire in 1878 in Frankfurt, and the Villa Holzmann on Untermainkai for the contractor Philipp Holzmann. He was also involved in the restoration tasks of Elz Castle. After many of his buildings were demolished, he largely fell into oblivion. The builder of the older section was the manufacturer Eduard Puricelli (1826-1893). Eduard Puricelli founded and managed several gasworks and also in Trier and the Rheinböller Hütte. Puricelli ran for parliamentary mandates for Catholic and conservative parties several times and was a member of the constituent Reichstag of the North German Confederation. After the Franco-German War of 1870/71, Puricelli, along with eleven other companies from Trier, advocated for the annexation of Lorraine. Eduard Puricelli's daughter Maria, the sole heiress of the parental estate, married the high Prussian official Dr. Clemens Freiherr von Schorlemer-Alst (1856-1922) in 1880.

Through his work in the Prussian administrative service, Clemens von Schorlemer became acquainted with Emperor Wilhelm II, who held him in high regard. The emperor was a guest at the castle three times. The recorded protocols of these visits indicate how meticulously the events were planned. Not even the correct appearance of the village policeman was left to chance. After the death of Dr. Clemens Freiherr von Schorlemer-Alst, the possessions included, alongside the expanding Rheinböller Hütte, extensive vineyards in Lieser, Zeltingen, Wintrich, Graach, and Brauneberg, newly created vineyards near Serrig and Ockfen, forest ownerships in Winterhauch at the Nahe and in Merxheim, as well as plots and houses in Trier. Remarkable about this building section is that the ground floor - in order to avoid the constantly threatening flood danger as much as possible - consists only of cellar and utility rooms. The core of the villa is a main pavilion subdivided into four floors with a prominent front tower. To the east, the house chapel is attached, and to the west, a three-story side wing. On the west side of the older section, the new building is attached, through which the villa was expanded into the castle complex. A three-story intermediate section connects both parts. The extension became necessary when Maria and Clemens von Schorlemer-Alst settled at Lieser Castle. The exact date of construction is no longer verifiable. The literature offers conflicting data, all of which fall between 1895 and 1906. Even though the (Art Nouveau) detail forms differed from the older part of the castle, the not publicly known architect aimed to create the impression of a uniform overall structure through a similar building design and the choice of construction materials.

 The castle had its own power plant, which Schorlemer had built in 1901. Parts of the interior furnishings from the time of construction (stoves, open fireplaces, stairs, doors) still exist. In 1981, the municipality of Lieser purchased the castle complex with ancillary buildings for 600,000 DM from the Schorlemer-Lieser family. In this context, the complex was placed under monument protection. The last resident was Marliese Rheinen (1898-1990), widowed Baroness von Schorlemer-Lieser. After her death, the building stood empty for over 10 years and was only used once a year for the castle festival at Pentecost. (Dorothe Werner; Lieser Castle on the Mosel).