Barbara Franziska of Welz-Wilmersdorf

Who was Barbara Franziska of Welz-Wilmersdorf?

Franziska Barbara of Welz-Wilmersdorf was baroness of Wilhermsdorf. She was the daughter of Francis of Welz-Eberstein, Count of Welz, Baron of Eberstein, and Anna Barbara de Gun, daughter of William Gunn, Freiherr von Ulm.

She married in 1689 the much older Count Wolfgang Julius of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein, widower of Sophie Eleonore of Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön. Wolfgang Julius died in 1698 after nine years of marriage at the age of 76. The marriage remained childless. The legacy of her husband fell to his brother, John Frederick I of Hohenlohe-Öhringen; Franziska Barbara only received the Lordships of Wilhermsdorf and Neidhardswinden, which Wolfgang Julius had bough on 4 May 1667.

Three years later, in 1701, she married a 35-year-old second husband, Count Philip Ernest of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst. Franziska Barbara retained her residence at Wilhermsdorf. She had renovated the palace considerably. Under her rule Wilhermsdorf experienced its heyday. She realized the construction of the church Julius Wolfgang had planned in the years between 1706 and 1714. Between 1707 and 1718, she built the school house in Burgmilchlingstraße, the hospital in Spitalstraße, the Consultant House building and the Gottesacke Church. In Wilhermsdorf she is described as the "benefactress of Wilhermsdorf" even today. On 3 April 1718, she died at the age of 51 years. She was ceremoniously buried in a magnificent sarcophagus in the crypt of the main Protestant church.