Büdingen Castle

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Location of the castle
Seen from the church tower
Exterior view of the Büdinger Castle as seen from the castle park

The Büdinger Castle goes back to a Staufer moated castle from the 12th century, which over the years has been expanded into a fortified castle and the residence of the County of Isenburg . It is located in the old town of Büdingen in Hesse in Germany .

Building

Inside the three-cornered, almost round humpback wall ring from the Staufer period are the main castle, the keep , a Gothic chapel with carved choir stalls and other buildings. The facility has been rebuilt and expanded several times over the centuries. The originally existing moat has now silted up. Only a watercourse and an artificial lake behind the castle give an idea of ​​it. As part of the restoration at the beginning of the 20th century under Professor Meißner from Darmstadt, the artist Otto Linnemann from Frankfurt created glass windows and extensive paintings in 1907. The large park is located directly behind the castle.

View of the Büdinger Castle from the slope of the "Pfaffenwald"

The outer castle courtyard with the office building and servants' apartments from the 18th century is in front of the actual core castle. Access to the actual castle is through the inner gate, also known as the Ludwigsbau.

Keep

The mighty two-part keep dates from the second half of the 13th century. The interior of this castle tower contains five vaults lying one above the other , the storeys thus created could only be reached from above using ladders or a reel . In a document from 1519 the tower is referred to as "Fry Thurn" . It is built in the style of a butter barrel tower and is therefore divided into a wider lower tower and a narrower upper tower. The lower tower has a height of 25.80 m and a diameter of 16.60 m. The height of the upper tower is 9.00 m, the diameter 5.50 m. Both parts of the tower have a circular floor plan. The inscription on the tower, dated 1610, reads: "Turris Fortissima Nomen Domini" (The name of the Lord is the strongest tower).

history

The moated castle was built on an island between the arms of the Seemenbach to protect the wilderness between Kinzig and Nidder , the Roman pile ditch and the high Vogelsberg . The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1219.

The castle was owned by the Lords of Büdingen , who were first mentioned in a document in 1131. These were also the burgraves of Gelnhausen . The family of the Lords of Büdingen died with Gerlach II, the first bailiff in the Wetterau , after 1240 but no later than 1247 in the male line, and most of the possessions fell to his four sons-in-law from the houses of Breuberg, Hohenlohe, Kempenich and Trimberg. A part also went to the Isenburg house with inheritance rights and its headquarters in "Sayntal" near Koblenz .

Sketch of the ground floor in 1890

The Ysenburg owned estates in the Wetterau as early as the 12th century, which they were able to expand over the years through purchase, exchange and inheritance. They succeeded in obtaining all rights over the Büdinger Forest and the neighboring courts. With the reign of the Lords of Büdingen, the citizens became extremely prosperous. This was promoted in particular by the imperial privilege of Ludwig the Bavarian to Luther von Ysenburg, issued on July 26, 1330, to be able to hold a weekly market in Büdingen on Mondays and a fair once a year.

As a sign of the establishment of a new line, however, these were written here with "Y". The later counts and princes of Ysenburg have resided in the castle since the 13th century.

Legends

The outer courtyard of the castle

The castle was given to the lords of Büdingen directly by the emperor as a fief. According to legend, Emperor Barbarossa gave the land to a charcoal burner in gratitude for his salvation. For it so happened that the emperor stayed in the Büdinger forests on a winter hunt and was separated from his company and lost his way. There he met a charcoal burner in the forest whom he asked for directions. However, the latter did not dare to speak to the noble gentleman and instead used two of his soot-blackened fingers to paint the path in the snow. The coat of arms of the Büdingen noble family is derived from this story : a silver ( snow-white ) shield with two black stripes divided across.

Figures at the castle gate

A little legend is told about the gate that leads from the outer to the inner courtyard. Left and right it is guarded by two stone figures with clubs. It is said that they change sides every night at midnight. However, the phenomenon can only be observed by people who have never lied in their lives.

In a fresco by Erhard Sanßdorffer from 1546, instruments from different epochs are shown based on the legend of Pythagoras in the forge about the origin of music theory .

Todays use

The Büdinger Castle is the residence of Wolfgang-Ernst Fürst zu Ysenburg and Büdingen , the current head of the Ysenburg-Büdingen family, and his family.

Parts of the palace are used as a museum and as a hotel / restaurant: The guided tours in the palace museum take place daily (except Mondays) at 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. from March to mid-December.

View of the castle from the "Wild Stone"

literature

Web links

Commons : Schloss Büdingen  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Salmen : Musical Life in the 16th Century - Introduction , Volume III: Music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , publisher: Werner Bachmann, VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik Leipzig (1976)
  2. ↑ Black and white photography see [1]

Coordinates: 50 ° 17 ′ 33 ″  N , 9 ° 7 ′ 10 ″  E