Moritzburg lighthouse
The lighthouse in Moritzburg is an inland lighthouse in Saxony . The staffagebau ( Folly ) was built in the late 18th century as part of a setting for re-enacted naval battles ( Naumachie ). It is the only lighthouse in Germany built for this purpose and at the same time one of the oldest internal lighthouses in the Federal Republic.
Location
The lighthouse stands in the district Moritzburg on the western shore of the Lower Great Pond , which to the north-west of Dresden located Moritzburg Lakes belongs. The tower is located about two kilometers east of Moritzburg, one kilometer west of the Radeburg district of Bärnsdorf and 700 meters north of Cunnertswalde . Near the lighthouse, Friedewald and Moritzburg pond area merge into the Moritzburg small peaks landscape .
There is a port facility at the lighthouse, which itself stands near the tip of a semicircular, approximately 50-meter-long pier . Immediately adjacent to it is the old Moritzburg pheasantry with the pheasant castle 200 meters west of the lighthouse . Moritzburg Castle is just under two kilometers to the west .
Structural matters
The Moritzburg lighthouse is a massive stone construction. It reaches a total height of 21.8 meters. The lower six meters, which stand on a circular base, are designed in the shape of a truncated cone that tapers towards the top . A cornice lies above it . Above this, in the middle part of the tower, the two-storey shaft continues in the form of a straight circular cylinder , another six meters high. The upper part is made up of the two-part, curved copper roof, the octagonal lantern with its narrow, high windows and the lamp house as well as the weather vane . The architecture shows echoes of the East Asian pagoda style .
The barred entrances to the lighthouse are on the west side facing the port and opposite on the east side. To the north and south there is a porthole-shaped window about one and a half meters high ; about two meters above and above the two doors are a total of four somewhat smaller, also circular window openings. The central part of the tower has an opening in each of the four cardinal directions that resembles a small balcony and is provided with a railing . Inside the tower, a steel spiral staircase with 74 steps leads up to the lamp house, which has a small platform. The pattern of red rectangles and white “joints” is just a painting that was intended to simulate the north German brick architecture. Viewed from a distance, the lighthouse appears pink.
history
The erection of the lighthouse and other maritime structures on the large pond was done in honor of a historical event. At the beginning of July 1770, Russian ships led by Alexei Grigorjewitsch Orlow defeated the Ottoman fleet in the sea battle of Çeşme in the eastern Aegean. When Friedrich August III. received the Russian admiral in Dresden in 1775, the elector learned firsthand details of the naval battle. Impressed by this, he had an entire coastal landscape recreated at the large pond near the Moritzburg hunting lodge .
Around 1780 a port facility was built with a representative, walled landing stage, stone bollards and a pier on which the lighthouse was built and cannons were set up. In addition, the elector had several warships built to re-enact the battle on the large pond. The lighthouse was in fact part of the backdrop of a large open-air theater until the festivities were stopped at the beginning of the coalition wars.
The tower is the second oldest inland lighthouse in Germany after the Mangenturm in Lindau on Lake Constance ; it is several decades older than, for example, the Heliosturm in Cologne-Ehrenfeld and the New Lindau Lighthouse . At the latest until the construction of an internal lighthouse on Bärwalder See in Upper Lusatia near Klitten in 2011, the building was also Saxony's only internal lighthouse.
The Moritzburg lighthouse, which is around 400 kilometers from the nearest coast (Baltic Sea near Usedom ), was of course never important for the navigation of ships . The distance to the opposite bank of the large pond near Bärnsdorf is barely more than 500 meters, so such a high navigation sign is unnecessary there.
The spiral staircase inside the lighthouse was initially made of wood. Its originally octagonal zinc roof was curved in earlier times. It was lost in a fire in 1949 and was replaced by a slate roof, which gave way to today's copper construction in 2006.
From 2006 to 2007, the state company Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement (SIB) renovated the lighthouse in just under ten months of construction for 270,000 euros. The tower also received a “ light ”. It is located on the top of the central column of the spiral staircase and is also switched on on special occasions. Wolfgang Voss , State Secretary in the Saxon Ministry of Finance, handed over the restored building to the State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony on August 22, 2007 .
sightseeing
The lighthouse can be viewed from May to October on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of guided tours. It is also open and accessible on special occasions such as the Open Monument Day and for special tours.
Movie and TV
In the past, the Moritzburg lighthouse served several times as a backdrop for television programs, e.g. B. “Dare you!” ( RTL II ), “Schlössertour” ( Dresden television ), “Today on tour” ( MDR ) and “Coffee or tea?” ( SR ). During the GDR era, the lighthouse was seen in two episodes of the television series “ Polizeiruf 110 ”: “ Fehlrechnung ” (1974) and “ Der Fensterstecher ” (1976).
Philatelic
As of June 11, 2015, Deutsche Post AG issued a postage stamp worth 45 euro cents with the motif of the Moritzburg lighthouse as an extension of the lighthouse stamp series . The design comes from the graphic designer Johannes Graf from Dortmund.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ceremonial handover of the lighthouse at Bärnsdorfer Großteich in Moritzburg ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release of the Saxon State Ministry of Finance , August 22, 2007
- ^ Margitta Coban-Hensel: The frigate on the Bärnsdorfer Großteich , in: Dresdner Latest News , September 5, 2005, p. 6
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 6.5 ″ N , 13 ° 42 ′ 35 ″ E