A whisper of history. That’s what Klingewalde breathes. Standing here you feel it.
Klingewalde a charming suburb of Gorlitz. It’s more than just pretty houses and tree-lined streets. Its story stretches back to the Neolithic Age. Archaeological finds prove people lived here long ago. The official records however start later. In 1468 documents mention the place. Its name then was In der Clinge meaning in the valley in Middle High German.
A small settlement grew on former manor land in 1539. The manor itself appears in records from 1581. The Klingewalde manor house also called Klingewalde Castle served as a Rittergut a type of noble estate. Imagine knights and ladies strolling through these very grounds.
To the south stood a Bockwindmühle a post mill. Built in 1685 a storm destroyed it in 1832. A new mill a Hollanderwindmühle a type of Dutch windmill replaced it in 1852. Sadly this too suffered from weather damage by 1970.
Some old buildings remain. They are impressive examples of three-sided farms with timber-framed upper stories. A cannonball and a stone slab with the year 1813 on a gable at Klingewalde number 24 mark the Napoleonic Wars.
From 1953 to 1985 the old manor house served as a nursing home. After seven years of vacancy renovations started in 1992. By 1998 1999 the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure Saxony completed work on the house and park. Now Haus Klingewalde houses the cultural management program of Zittau Gorlitz University. It also hosts the Collegium PONTES a trinational academic college. The International Summer School of the Arts also calls it home. This grand house a protected monument boasts ceiling paintings from the 17th century. In 1854 it underwent a neo-Gothic makeover.
The former Klingewalde brickyard served the agricultural cooperative during the GDR era. In the north on the former drill ground a pig farm opened in 1952. The VEG the People’s Owned Farm Animal Production evolved into today’s Gut Tierproduktion Gorlitz GmbH. Klingewalde’s past is rich. Its present is vibrant. Its future holds the promise of continued stories to tell.