Handover of the renovated old building on the Luisenstift grammar school campus

After a construction period of three and a half years, the listed old building of the Luisenstift grammar school was officially handed over today on 28 August 2024 as part of a ceremony.

Following the renovation of the Weinberghaus in 2007 and the construction of the new extension in 2017, this is the third time that the headmistress, Mrs Heike Stolzenhain, has been presented with a golden key as "landlady".

The old building, which is now a listed building, was built in 1870 by the construction company Gebrüder Ziller on the site of the former Fuchs vineyard. On 2 May 1870, the Protestant-Lutheran teaching and educational institution for daughters of the educated classes, founded in Tharandt in 1857 and relocated to Niederlößnitz due to a lack of space, began teaching there under the auspices of the Dresden Deaconess Institution. In 1940, the town of Radebeul took over the school sponsorship, first as a secondary school, then from 1959 as an extended secondary school (from 1975 with the name "Juri Gagarin"). In 1992, the extended secondary school was merged with the neighbouring polytechnic secondary school to form the Luisenstift grammar school.

The building underwent a complete refurbishment and was also brought up to the latest fire safety standards. A passenger lift was also installed and a link created between the old building and the new (extension) building. The latter closed glazed bridge is still under construction due to flooding problems at the manufacturer.

The project, which cost around €7 million and received a grant of €1.597 million from the Free State of Saxony, involved 14 specialist planners and engineering firms and 31 construction companies.

"With the renovation of the school building, we are consistently continuing our Radebeul approach of school centre solutions (several school buildings on the largest possible school sites). This will enable us to react flexibly to changing structural and school organisational requirements in the future," explains Lord Mayor Bert Wendsche.

The refurbished old building houses storage, workshops, technical facilities and caretaker rooms in the basement. On the ground floor are rooms for music and art with preparation rooms, teachers' rooms, counselling teachers and sanitary facilities. The language laboratory with preparation, classroom, cloakroom, head teacher's room with secretary's office, coordination room, doctor's room and further sanitary facilities are located on the first floor. The 2nd floor houses classrooms and IT cabinets as well as sanitary facilities.

Among other things, 15 km of electrical cables and 12 km of data cables were installed. The construction period was extended due to the coronavirus and long delivery times for the procurement of materials.