Breitenburg Castle
The width Castle in Breitenburg is one of the most important secular buildings in Steinburg and was in the 16th and 17th centuries, one of the political and cultural centers of Schleswig-Holstein .
The two-wing complex has been expanded and rebuilt in its almost 500-year history from a fortified Renaissance seat to a historic country residence. Since it is still family-owned and inhabited, it has limited public access.
History of the castle
The prehistory of the castle grounds
In the Middle Ages , the area of Schloss Breitenburg in the valley of the Stör belonged to the extensive possessions of the Bordesholm monastery . In 1526 the general Johann Rantzau bought the land. Rantzau served the Danish king as governor in the Duchy of Holstein and came from the neighboring town of Steinburg . The Rantzaus were among the wealthiest and most influential families in Schleswig-Holstein and already owned extensive estates and high-yielding estates. Johann Rantzau intended to build a residence for himself and another manor on the site, which was deserted after a flood in 1521. The only hill in the wider area was an overgrown dune with a small monk's court on it, the so-called Breitenberg. In the 16th century it was still necessary to fortify a noble residence, and from a strategic point of view the flat hill offered the best conditions for this. The old courtyard was demolished and a manor was built in 1530 - the future Breitenburg.
The fortified Renaissance seat
To protect the area against the constant flooding of the Stör, the first thing to do was to build a dike and surround the castle hill with a ditch. The ditch served a dual purpose; as a moat, it secured and protected the fortress and at the same time served to drain the area. Johann Rantzau had a house built within the fortified complex that corresponded fully to the building tradition customary at the time: a double house still influenced by the Gothic style with two separate roofs and decorative stepped gables, which was later doubled. Outside the actual castle and secured with palisades was a farmyard that served as the outer bailey and the operation of the manor. The Breitenburg Johann Rantzau was one of many mansions in his possession and was not permanently inhabited by him, but his son and heir Heinrich Rantzau used it as his main residence.
Under Heinrich Rantzau, the rectangular island was secured with high ramparts and these were planted with thorny bushes such as raspberries and dog roses . In addition, palisades were rammed into the middle of the trench to prevent the facility from swimming through. After this work was completed, the Breitenburg was one of the safest fortresses in the Danish-dominated area.
Extensive expansion of the facility began in 1565. Building blocks north and south of the courtyard, which served as a farm building and cavalier's house , extended the mansion to a three-wing complex, which was decorated with Renaissance decorative elements . From 1580 to 1590, the fifth building was the chapel. The shape of the complex at the end of the 16th century is recorded in various engravings by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg , which show a strongly fortified courtyard and the five houses, each with differently designed gable surfaces. For the first time in Schleswig-Holstein, an aristocratic Renaissance garden is also shown here, with fruit tree quarters, fish ponds, first ground floor beds and a vine arbor.
The castle as a center of humanism
Under Heinrich Rantzau, the Breitenburg developed into one of the most culturally important courts in the country. Heinrich earned his fame as a financier, bailiff of the Danish king and successful economist. His estates flourished and his wealth ensured that he could even lend money to the royal family if necessary. He made the Breitenburg a center of humanism in Northern Europe. He received scholars of his time here and, himself a Protestant , did not shy away from open exchange with members of the Catholic denomination . Rantzau also supported various artists as a patron , had contact with Tycho Brahe and introduced the art of the Renaissance to his estates. In addition to the expansion of the Breitenburg and other mansions, the Mannerist Temple of Nordoe near the castle also stems from the governor's passion for building. The era of the Rantzau family, who owned up to 71 estates in the country and in Denmark, was also referred to as the Rantzauche era due to their influence .
The Thirty-Year War
As a result of the looming Thirty Years' War , Gerhard Rantzau , Heinrich Rantzau's son, had a second moat built, which enclosed the castle, the farmyard and the gardens. Bastions additionally secured this weir system, which as a rudiment still forms today's castle moat.
In 1627 imperial troops advanced to northern Germany and reached the Breitenburg in late summer. The fortified castle was besieged by Wallenstein's forces for two weeks ; the defense of the Breitenburg was mainly done by the farmers in the area. The imperial army finally stormed the castle on September 29, 1627, the gatehouse was blown up, the soldiers murdered the remaining crew and devastated the castle grounds. The library with its extensive collection of over 6300 volumes was looted; Remnants from the booty, recognizable by Heinrich Rantzau's supralibros , can be found in many libraries in Europe.
In 1643 the castle got into the chaos of war again. This time the attack came from Swedish troops under the command of Lennart Torstensson . The Breitenburg was captured on December 17th of that year and looted again.
The reconstruction of the palace under Christian zu Rantzau had to be started several times due to the repeated attacks. The work was carried out between 1630 and 1633 and then again from 1647 to 1651.
The gradual decline of the Breitenburg
With the elevation of the Rantzau to the rank of imperial counts in 1650, the influential noble family was temporarily upgraded. Christian Rantzau acquired the Barmstedt office in 1649 and built his new residence there on the Barmstedt Castle Island . He had the Breitenburg castle, which had been damaged by the war, repaired, but he no longer lived there regularly. Christian's son Detlev took over the inheritance from his father in 1663 and used the manor house on Gut Drage north of Itzehoe as his main residence, the Breitenburg now fell into disrepair.
In 1721 the following imperial count, Detlev's son Christian Detlev zu Rantzau , was murdered in the Barmstedt Forest. His brother Wilhelm Adolf was made responsible for the act and the county and the goods in Breitenburg, Drage and Rantzau were then confiscated by the Danish king , with the result that the political importance of the family waned again. In 1726 the Breitenburg went with the permission of Christian VI. to Wilhelm Adolf's sister Catharina Hedwig, but with the condition that she would have to bear the brother's legal costs of 230,000 Reichstalers . Catharina Hedwig was married to Count Johann Friedrich from the House of Castell-Rüdenhausen . As a result, the Breitenburg remained in the Castell family for two generations. The granddaughter Louise Amoene finally married Friedrich Graf zu Rantzau from Ahrensburg in 1761, which means that the Breitenburg property went back to a Rantzau line.
During the 18th century, plans were developed several times to rebuild the palace, but both designs by Johann Christian Böhmes from 1747 and a concept by Johann Gottfried Rosenberg from 1760 were discarded. Both developed plans that, if implemented, would have resulted in the most elaborate baroque palace in Schleswig-Holstein. The Schleswig architect Rosenberg envisaged a wide palace-style castle instead of the multiple house into which the chapel would have been fully integrated. According to his plan, the courtyard should be surrounded by similar pavilions and bordered in the east by a gatehouse. He also designed a complete French garden. Ultimately, however, Friedrich Rantzau lacked the financial means for this major project. The former main building of the Breitenburg had to be demolished and for almost 50 years the castle consisted only of the former side wing and the chapel. However, the Breitenburg remained a functioning property even without a representative manor house and was successfully managed.
From the new building of the 19th century to the present
It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the palace was gradually rebuilt under Conrad zu Rantzau in a modern, historicist style. The work that gave the castle its present form was not completed until the turn of the 20th century. Although the Breitenburg no longer served as a political center in the country, it was still a cultural meeting place. Conrad Rantzau supported the painter Detlev Conrad Blunck financially, he was close friends with Bertel Thorvaldsen and he often received the poet Hans Christian Andersen here .
The castle survived the world wars of the 20th century without being destroyed. Although the neighboring Itzehoe was attacked several times by Allied air forces during the Second World War , the Breitenburg was too far from the city center for the attacks to have caused damage.
The Breitenburg is still in the possession of the Rantzau count family, who still use it today as a residence. The farm continues to operate, but has been supplemented by a lucrative leasing of the land to a golf club and regular horse shows. Elke Gräfin zu Rantzau is in charge of the estate administration. Due to the almost complete use as a private house, there is neither a museum nor publicly accessible rooms in the castle. However, the count's family occasionally leads registered groups through the showrooms. Appointments and registrations are possible via the estate management.
Designation lock
As the center of a noble estate , the new building of the Breitenburg is actually a mansion , since the designation castle in Schleswig-Holstein (and Mecklenburg) was reserved for sovereign or episcopal seats. Because of its importance in the state's history, its rich art collections and the elevation of the Rantzauer to the rank of imperial count in 1650, Breitenburg is at least commonly referred to as a castle . Johann Rantzau made a political statement with his name Schloss in the chapel inscription from 1530. The Breitenburg would be more historically correct.
Buildings
The origin: a typical house in the country
- I am a solid castle, my name is Bredenborg, Mr. Johann Rantzow Ritter had me built [...]
- Inscription carved in stone on the castle chapel .
The first construction of the castle on the Breitenberg was built under Johann Rantzau from 1530. With the shape of his new house, the client decided on a typical building structure in the country, the so-called double house . This type of construction was executed in different variations from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance, similar double buildings can be found, for example, on Gut Wensin and Gut Wahlstorf . As on many other Schleswig-Holstein estates, two gabled houses built lengthways to each other, each with their own saddle roof, formed the core of the estate. The semi-detached house was tripled and then quadrupled one after the other with an additional annex, whether this was done under Johann Rantzau or under his son can no longer be determined with certainty. While the middle houses had stepped gables and the stair tower was in the middle between them, the outer houses had simple triangular gables. A representation of the building can be found on the Rantzau plaque from the 16th century, the former shape of the manor house is shown in stylized form in the coat of arms of the municipality of Breitenburg .
Not much is known about the builders of the first Breitenburg. Heinrich Rantzau was connected to the Saxon Elector through dynastic connections and it is believed that the court architect Hans Irmisch planned and built at least the stair tower. It is certain that the 71 steps of the spiral staircase were a gift from August of Saxony and were made of Pirnaic sandstone.
Architecturally, the castle was related to houses such as Ahrensburg and Nütschau - also Rantzauer possessions - but here in the fourfold construction. The footprint of the individual houses was approx. 12 meters wide and 20 meters long. Glücksburg Castle still shows similar dimensions today , with its individual houses being 30 meters longer, but slightly less wide at 10 meters. There was space for a total of 31 rooms and halls, which were said to be splendidly furnished. In 1653, Matthäus Merian described the beautiful inscriptiones, all kinds of pictures, conterfeiten and beautiful grinders .
The extensions with the wing structures under Johann's son Heinrich also enlarged the facility. From the fortified mansion of Johann Rantzaus, a courtly Renaissance palace developed under his son. The old multiple house was demolished in 1763 except for the chapel and the cellar rooms.
Today's shape
The structure of the palace that is visible today is largely due to the extensive new buildings and conversions from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. The work began under Johann Matthias Hansen . Hansen was a nephew of the famous architect Christian Frederik Hansen , with whom he consulted during the planning and whose influence also had an impact on Breitenburg. The last work was carried out under Albert Petersen from 1898 to 1900 and gave the building the historicist facade with Gothic borrowings. The building consists of two building wings that are joined together at almost right angles around a paved courtyard, which together have the floor plan of a large L and are approximately 50 and 60 meters long. With its two-winged shape and the neo-Gothic remodeling, the castle is a specialty in the Holstein architectural landscape.
The north wing
Today's north wing mainly contains the living quarters of Breitenburg. It occupies the area of the former cavalier's house, which formed the northern part of the wing buildings built under Heinrich Rantzau. The year the house was built is listed on its gable side as 1673. Contrary to the stated year, the richly windowed building essentially dates from the 18th century and received its current form with the octagonal tower and the high dwelling in the 19th century based on designs by Kuno zu Rantzau-Breitenburg . The construction was the youngest part of the castle until the 19th century. With the extensive demolition and later rebuilding of the west wing, it became - apart from the castle chapel - the oldest building in the complex. The stair tower protruding from the corner between the wings was given its current appearance in 1898.
The main entrance to the north wing is the vestibule, which is decorated with overhangs depicting landscape scenes . The so-called Thorvaldsen Gallery is located on the upper floor of the building and contains numerous first casts of Bertel Thorvaldsen's works. The Danish artist was strongly promoted by Corand Rantzau and gave his patron the collection that the count had set up here and which continued the history of Breitenburg as a place of art. The north wing is connected to the knight's hall in the west wing through its hall of mirrors . The neo-baroque mirror hall received its festive appearance in 1887 and is richly decorated with tendrils, coupled pilasters and large mirrors.
The west wing
In addition to a number of living rooms, the west wing also houses the palace's large social rooms and library. The wing of the building rests partly on the foundations of the earlier multiple house, which was demolished in 1763 except for the cellar and the chapel. The three-axis gable house between the chapel and the north wing was the first new building after the move to be built around 1805. The house, which today includes one of the main entrances to the wing, was only joined together with the remaining parts of the building between 1898 and 1899 through its connecting structures. The east facade of the west wing is oriented towards the castle courtyard and from this side the building looks like a broad, compact structure, which is contrary to its varied rear shape. The palace chapel and the central gabled house protrude from the garden-side, west-facing facade and also frame the building of the library, which cannot be seen on the courtyard side. A view from the garden of the west wing with its three different gables and the chapel gives an approximate idea of the former shape of Heinrich Rantzau's five-fold connected houses.
The largest room in the west wing is the knight's hall , which occupies the entire upper floor of the connecting building between the middle gable house and the north wing. The hall is decorated with ancestral images of the Rantzau family and is connected to the hall of mirrors in the north wing. The gabled house with its three window axes contains various living rooms and the only staircase in the western wing. The picture gallery with works by Italian and Dutch masters is located in the southern connecting building and is designed as a relatively simple hall with a skylight. It also forms the transition to the library. On the garden side, it protrudes from the west wing as a transept and is decorated in the Italian Gothic style. It has a four-part vault resting on a central column and is illuminated by two large, ogival windows.
The castle chapel
The palace chapel is located at the southern end of the west wing. It is the oldest preserved building stock of the castle and dates from the time of Heinrich Rantzau around 1590. It was once the fifth parallel building of the Renaissance house. During the siege and looting in the Thirty Years War, the chapel was badly damaged in 1627 and the church hall had to be almost completely renovated from 1634. The polygonal stair tower facing the courtyard also dates from this time; the portal in the form of an aedicula was created in 1651. Further alterations to the chapel took place around 1810 under Matthias Hansen, during which the windows on the upper floor were redesigned and the tower was given its crenellated wreath . A fundamental renovation of the chapel took place in 1964.
The room is spanned by a three- bay star rib vault with gothic tendrils. The room is illuminated by three large , south-facing, pointed arched windows with figural glass pictures from the mid-17th century. Compared to the other castle buildings, the chapel forms a high hall with a rectangular floor plan; there is no formed choir. Due to its location within the palace complex, with the portal facing east towards the courtyard, the altar is located on the western front wall of the hall. The altarpiece with a resurrection scene dates from 1581, the altarpiece is of baroque origin.
The courtyard and the garden
The paved courtyard is bordered on two sides by the wings of the castle, the other sides open directly into the surrounding garden. A draw well from 1592 forms the center of the castle courtyard. The well, which was built under Heinrich Rantzau, is adorned with hermen figures and an onion-shaped arbor made of wrought iron and its type and design is almost unique in Schleswig-Holstein.
The entrance to the castle grounds is formed by a bridge with two framing residential buildings, which together mark a kind of gate situation. Both buildings date from the 18th century and were raised by one floor each in the 19th century. From here the path leads to the right to the castle and to the left to the farmyard. The farmyard is now irregularly furnished with functional buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries that served the estate. In Heinrich Rantzau's time there was space for 50 horses and 100 cows. There are no more traces of the Renaissance garden, which was formerly behind the farm yard and which was later used as a utility and kitchen garden. Its area is taken up by a riding arena belonging to the farm. The baroque gardens, which were laid out in the 18th century directly on the castle buildings instead of the filled house moat, have also been lost.
Instead of the old baroque garden , the palace was given green spaces based on the model of English landscape parks from the beginning of the 19th century . The redesign was commissioned under Conrad Rantzau . The old ramparts and the outer moat were incorporated into the garden landscape. The inner ditch was filled in as early as the 18th century. The site of the former fortification can still be guessed today and the rectangular structure of the former castle island can still be seen in aerial photographs. The garden was influenced by the works of Capability Brown , who called for a departure from the romantic gardens full of staffage buildings . The Breitenburger Park was only provided with a small orangery and a bird pavilion, the so-called chicken house . The area was modeled with gentle hills, shrubs and hedges adorned the lawns and the wider area around the sturgeon lowland served as a backdrop. A so-called Beltwalk , a circular route, led through the facility and was intended to encourage a hike in peace and quiet.
The landscape park was considered one of the most beautiful in Schleswig-Holstein at the time. The client, Conrad Rantzau, loved his garden so much that after his death in 1845 he was buried there without ceremony and in a secret place. Hans Christian Andersen , who was a guest at the palace several times, raved about the gardens in 1843:
- After the rain, I went for a walk in the garden between hawthorn, hawthorn, hanging birch and fir trees. The raindrops were still falling from the birches. The sun fell through the branches on the damp grass. The scent of the birch trees was especially in the air. Out in the meadows the cattle grazed in the tall grass with bells around their necks. A stork flew overhead with outspread wings. The evening was beautiful with the nightingale singing in the moonlight.
On behalf of Kuno zu Rantzau, the Altona garden architect Friedrich JC Jürgens (1825–1903) reworked the landscape park from 1882 to 1884 and created a small lake, among other things. After the Second World War, the winding, maintenance-intensive path system was largely abandoned and the western part of the park was separated.
Like the palace, the gardens are privately owned and therefore generally not accessible to visitors.
literature
- Henning v. Rumohr: castles and mansions in northern and western Holstein , reworked by Cai Asmus v. Rumohr and Carl-Heinrich Seebach 1988, 2nd edition, Verlag Weidlich Würzburg, ISBN 3-8035-1272-7 , p. 221.
- Hjördis Jahnecke: The Breitenburg and its gardens through the centuries. Verlag Ludwig, Kiel 1999. ISBN 978-3933598011
- Iris Carstensen: Friedrich Reichsgraf zu Rantzau on Breitenburg (1729-1806) . Verlag Waxmann, 2006. ISBN 978-3830917410
- Johannes Habich , D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Castles and manors in Schleswig-Holstein. L&H Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 978-3928119245 .
- Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1980. ISBN 978-3422007123
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-422-03120-3 , p. 205.
- Frank Trende: Historical places tell the story of Schleswig-Holstein . Boyens Buchverlag, 2004. ISBN 978-3804211513
- Hans u. Doris Maresch: Schleswig-Holstein's castles, manors and palaces . Husum Verlag, Husum 2006. ISBN 978-3898762786
- Otto Brandt , Wilhelm Klüver: History of Schleswig-Holstein. 7th edition, Kiel (Mühlau) 1976, ISBN 3-87559-003-1 .
- Deert Lafrenz: manors and manors in Schleswig-Holstein . Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Schleswig-Holstein, 2015, Michael Imhof Verlag Petersberg, 2nd edition, ISBN 978-3-86568-971-9 , p. 99
Web links
- Brief description of the castle on naherammlung-hamburg.de
- Reconstruction drawing of the castle around 1590 by Wolfgang Braun
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 22.
- ↑ a b c d e All construction data from Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein , p. 187 f.
- ↑ Jörg Matthies: "These parks are the poetry of the duchies" - manor gardens in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Marion Bejschowetz-Iserhoht, Reiner Hering (Hrsg.): The order of nature. Historic gardens and parks in Schleswig-Holstein. Exhibition catalog Landesarchiv Schleswig (= publications of the Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein. 93). Hamburg University Press, Schleswig 2008, ISBN 978-3-931292-83-6 , pp. 91–116, here pp. 91–93.
- ↑ J. Habich, D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Schlösser und Gutsanlagen in Schleswig-Holstein , p. 189
- ↑ Frank Trende: Historical places tell the story of Schleswig-Holstein , p. 45
- ↑ Brandt / Klüver p. 168 ff.
- ↑ The Imperial County of Rantzau. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 23, 2007 ; Retrieved March 30, 2008 . 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.
- ^ Karl Müllenhoff: Legends, fairy tales and songs of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. Kiel 1845, p. 71 f.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 71 f.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 24, 71 f.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 73 and 74.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 73 ff.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 91.
- ↑ The Reichsgrafschaft Rantzau on geschichte-sh.de ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2007 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.
- ^ About the time of Friedrich Rantzau: Iris Carstensen: Friedrich Reichsgraf zu Rantzau auf Breitenburg (1729–1806) .
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 96-112
- ^ About Friedrich Rantzau as an economist on Breitenburg: Iris Carstensen: Friedrich Reichsgraf zu Rantzau on Breitenburg (1729–1806) .
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 222
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 205-212
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 212-221
- ^ J. Habich, D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Schlösser und Gutsanlagen in Schleswig-Holstein , S. 188
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 30 f.
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Manors and castles in Schleswig-Holstein ., P. 46.
- ↑ Information on construction dates and dimensions from: Hjördis Jahnecke: The Breitenburg and its gardens through the centuries. , P. 30.
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Manors and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , p. 48.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 139-153.
- ^ Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein , p. 188
- ↑ J. Habich, D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Schlösser und Gutsanlagen in Schleswig-Holstein , p. 194
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein ., P. 49.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , Pp. 185-195
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: The width castle and its gardens in the change of century. , P. 220.
- ^ Ingrid A. Schubert: Friedrich Joachim Christian Jürgens . In: Adrian von Buttlar , Margita Marion Meyer (Hrsg.): Historical gardens in Schleswig-Holstein. 2nd Edition. Boyens & Co., Heide 1998, ISBN 3-8042-0790-1 , pp. 661-662.
- ↑ Hjördis Jahnecke: Breitenburg. In: Adrian von Buttlar , Margita Marion Meyer (Hrsg.): Historical gardens in Schleswig-Holstein. 2nd Edition. Boyens & Co., Heide 1998, ISBN 3-8042-0790-1 , pp. 181-190; Garden plan: p. 187.
Coordinates: 53 ° 54 '22.4 " N , 9 ° 34' 5.8" E