The diplomat and member of the provincial and national parliaments, Josef Baron von Schwegel (1836–1914), was, as the castellan of Grimšče Mansion near Bled, first buried in the corner chapel of Bled Cemetery. The inscription on his tombstone read as follows: “Statesman and diplomat, real secret councilor, member of Imperial Council and Prov. Diet of Carniola (1879–1913), member of House of Lords in Vienna (1879–1914). honorable citizen of: Bled, Ljubljana, Jesenice, Tržič, Novo Mesto, Kočevje, Bela Peč, wrote poetry in mother tongue as Josip Radonjič.” However, when rumors spread during the Second World War that the overcrowded Bled Cemetery would be moved elsewhere, Ivan Švegel, the baron’s nephew and main heir, feared that his uncle’s chapel might fall to ruin. Therefore, after obtaining permission from the Holy See, he had his remains transferred to the newly constructed tomb in St. Andrew’s Church in Rečica near Bled, where he also erected a new epitaph for him. The mausoleum in Bled was sold to the local Rus family, which removed the original inscriptions and coats of arms—apart from Baron Schwegel, the tomb was also the final resting place of his mother-in-law Maria von Battistti di San Giorgio (née von Knoch) and his brother-in-law Edmund.

Baron Schwegel’s grave is marked by a big stone baronial coat of arms as was granted to him on his elevation in 1875: the heart-shaped inescutcheon with a sphynx represents Schwegel’s basic knightly coat of arms from 1870, and the main escutcheon is expanded by the coat of arms of the Barons Grimschitz featuring a falcon perched on a cradle. Schwegel selected this motif to honor the memory of the baronial family, from which he purchased Grimšče Mansion in 1869. The symbolism of the sheaf of five arrows in the first and fourth fields, respectively, remains unknown for the time being.

Literatura:

Rugále, Mariano in Preinfalk, Miha: Blagoslovljeni in prekleti. 1. del: Plemiške rodbine 19. in 20. stoletja na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Viharnik, 2010, pp. 170–173.