Mausoleum and ancestral crypt of the Gafen von Holnstein
The mausoleum in the cemetery of Schwarzenfeld was built in the neo-Romanesque style on behalf of the Royal Bavarian Master of the Horse and Imperial Councilor Maximilian Karl Theodor Graf von Holnstein from Bavaria between 1882 and 1884.
The chapel above the crypt is unique in the Upper Palatinate. The walls are richly decorated with ornaments and oriental-looking fantasy cities that are reminiscent of the early Christian Roman West. The coats of arms of the Holnstein and Gumppenberg families refer to the marriage of Count Max von Holnstein with Maximiliane Freiin von Gumppenberg-Pöttmes. This extraordinary furnishing shows the artistic hand of the famous architect and Royal Chief Court Architect Julius Hofmann, who also worked for the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico and for King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The ancestral crypt next to the mausoleum is decorated with a large granite cross on a rugged chunk of shell limestone. The Royal Bavarian Master of the Stables, Max Count von Holnstein from Bavaria, had this grave built for his ancestors.
After the honorary grave was completed in 1876, the count had his ancestors, who were buried in the general Schwarzenfeld cemetery, reburied in the crypt.
The following people rest in magnificent coffins in the crypt:
Maximilian Karl Theodor Count von Holnstein from Bavaria, Royal Bavarian Master of the Stables and
Imperial Councillor, who died in the castle on February 1, 1895,
Caroline Baroness von Gumppenberg-Pöttmes, née Countess von Bayrstorff, eldest daughter of
Prince Karl of Bavaria and
Karl Theodor Count von Holnstein from Bavaria (died 1875 at the age of one year and three
months), third child of the Royal Bavarian Master of the Stables, Max von Holnstein.
The wife of the Master of the Horse, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Maximiliane Countess von Holnstein from Bavaria, née Baroness von Gumppenberg-Pöttmes, rests in a grave in the crypt.
The market town of Schwarzenfeld acquired the Holnstein mausoleum and the ancestral crypt with the associated property in 1950 from Ludwig Maximilian Count von Holnstein from Bavaria, a grandson of the Royal Bavarian Master of the Horse, Max Count Holnstein. At the end of the 20th century, the mausoleum was renovated in an exemplary manner on behalf of the market town of Schwarzenfeld.
Source: information board