27: From Russia to Sayn
In Germany, Louis endeavoured to acquire a large property corresponding to his wealth. Finally, he succeeded in settling in Sayn, where the family had its origin and lived until the Sayn line died out in 1604.
Count Clemens Boos of Waldeck, the district administrator of Koblenz, was prepared to sell his manor, the former manor houses of Reifenberg and Stein, whereas King Friedrich Wilhelm IV decided to hand back the ruins of the ancestral castle, situated just above Count Clemens’ manor, as a present to the returnees.
The Parisian Louvre architect Alphonse F. J. Girard was commissioned to convert the old manor house into a modern princely residence.
The intensive use of cast iron for stairs, fountains and, quite uniquely, also window jambs provided the cast iron foundry in Sayn with plenty of work and countless families a good income over the years, which was a boon to the locals as unemployment was rife in the revolutionary years 1848/49.
Princess Leonilla, with the help of the Dernbach sisters, founded the Leonilla Foundation next to the palace as a place of care for children, the sick and elderly.