Lehen Castle

The Lehener Weiherschloss is a fortified manor house in the Freiburg district of Lehen, on Bundschuhstraße, about 60 meters south of the baroque church of St. Cyriak. The oldest historical record dates back to 1478.

In addition to the documented mention of the "Curtis zu Leheim" from 1478, when Jakob Widergrün von Staufenberg received the village of Lehen along with the Weiherhaus as an Austrian fief from Archduke Sigismund, it is likely that a house mentioned in 1427 also refers to it, where Duke Friedrich of Austria gave Heinrich Bangergeben from Freiburg a fief with house, court, and seat. Who built the moated castle is not traceable. It is probable that it dates from the post-Zähringen period, as there was no formation of local nobility in the 11th and 12th centuries. After the Widergrüns, the castle was owned by Balthasar von Blumeneck, during whose time in 1513 the Bundschuh also fell to Lehen. In the list of houses destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525, the moated castle is probably listed as the house of Balthasar von Blumeneck's widow. The successors of the Blumenecks, the von Stadion family, sold the village, castle, and burgstall to the city of Freiburg in 1587 for 24,000 guilders. The deed of sale also mentions the moats, ponds, and a Fron- und Schutzhof with newly built stone dwellings; this farm still exists today and is known as Hof zu Tutsch. After the sale to the city in 1587, the village was administered by the city. The Weiherschlösschen is described in the house directory of 1863 as uninhabitable and as a high-rise building. After its restoration, it served as the accommodation for the municipal hunter in Lehen. The Lehener Schlösschen was sold to a private individual in 1870 and is still inhabited and privately owned today.