Gutshaus Neuensund (Neuensund Hall)
The old salt and herring road runs through the historic estate.
Gut Neuensund, Neuensund, Strasburg (Uckermark), Deutschland
Located on an important trade route that had been active for thousands of years, it can be assumed that the history of Neuensund reaches farther back than the first mention of its church in 1375.
The salt and herring route, which visibly leads right through the estate to this day, was one of the main supply routes of such luxuries as salt and amber, but also much more necessary products and objects for everyday life. Archaeological finds in the region include artefacts from as far away as ancient Egypt and Rome and hint at a rich trading history.
The 13th century then gave rise to many a robber knight haunting the neighbourhood.
The more recent history of Neuensund Hall starts in 1764 when the district administrator Ernst von Arnim Lützlow bought the estate. After his death in 1782, his son started with a complete re-built of the property, erecting the house, stables, barns, an inspectors house and dwellings for laborers.
More land was acquired and the estate, now encompassing more than 600 hectares and half a dozen other farms and properties, became the second-biggest estate in Mecklenburg.
But the following years were full of deprivation. With Napoleon’s rise began devastating war campaigns, men and supplies were regularly withdrawn, most of them lost on the battlefields of Europe. The von Arnim family themselves lost their only 17-year old son fighting for those opposing Napoleon.
Still, there was a next generation to take over the running of the estate. In 1840, Hans Carl Friedrich von Arnim married Marie von Heyden. In the course of the wedding, extensive reconstruction took place. The Hall was rebuilt to suit the latest fashion and the until then rather formal park was redesigned by Lenné in the English style.
But only a few decades later, the family moved their seat and the estate was used as a summer retreat until its expropriation in 1945.
The church in Neuensund, the only room on the estate still with its original interior, sports four paintings of the evangelists, all depicted with a book and a symbol. Matthew with a man, Luke with a bull, Mark with a lion and John with an eagle.
