The Schacky-Park support group in Dießen is one of 14 winners of the Upper Bavarian Monument Prize, which was awarded for the first time.
In doing so, the Upper Bavaria district honors the commitment of many people to the preservation of listed objects.
Dießen
- At first they were "completely surprised". Then they would have been "really happy". In an interview with Starnberger Merkur, Marion Ratz, press officer of the Schacky-Park support group, describes the emotional world of those responsible around chairwoman Christine Reichert when she received the good news. Because the association has received the Upper Bavarian Monument Prize for its 16 years of work.
"Since 2005, the sponsorship group has been taking care of the maintenance and care of the long-run-down site, which today shines in new splendor and is under monument protection," says the brochure of the Upper Bavaria district, which this year was the first to award the prize.
And further: "The support group has also made a contribution to researching the history of the park and its accessibility."
Marion Ratz can still remember the beginning, when the market town leased the park from the owner at the beginning of the noughties and called on citizens to participate.
“The citizens should see for themselves what they are doing there,” says Ratz.
Full of euphoria, a group of people from Dießen threw themselves into work on one half of the 18-hectare park.
The other half is owned by the riding and driving club.
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Proud award winners: the chairwoman of the sponsorship group Christine Reichert (center) and her deputy Christl Bernhard received the monument award from the hands of District Assembly President Josef Mederer.
© Photo: W. Englmaier
“It was like a jungle, you had to clear everything,” Ratz remembers.
And things kept coming to light that kept the euphoria high, if not even increased it.
“At the beginning, for example, we didn't even know that there was a tea house there.” The private initiative kept going, based itself on the original, restored the Monopteros and over the years created a gem that is unparalleled in the already picturesque city of Dießen.
Craftsmen from Dießen also lend a hand free of charge when something needs to be touched up, cut back or repaired.
And now the monument award - “this praise motivates us further,” says Marion Ratz. Especially since the sponsorship group is one of only five winners who also received prize money of 3,000 euros. In addition to the Schacky Park, these are projects in Altomünster, Ruhpolding, Farchant and Kochel am See. Nine recognitions as part of the monument award went to Munich, Altmannstein, Kinding, Hohenwart, Dörndorf, Graswang, Kaufering and Eichstätt.
The sponsorship group now has more than 500 members, Marion Ratz puts the “hard core” at around 15 people. What happens to the prize money? The press officer could not say that yesterday. However, the committed people of Dießen do not run out of ideas, nor do they run out of work. Eight lavishly designed parking lights and the roof of the Monopteros are currently being refurbished, the support group would like to have a Venus in the garden, and tree care work and the like always have to be done.
The district writes about the history: “The Schacky-Park was built from 1903 by the royal treasurer and lieutenant colonel a. D. Ludwig Freiherr von Schacky created. The villa on top served him and his wife Julia as a summer residence. Schacky integrated fountains, statues, a tea house and a monopteros into the English-style park with groups of trees, arcades and trellises. When the baron died in 1913, the farmer's doctor Georg Heim bought the property, but passed it on to the Sisters of Charity in 1933. "