Eichhof Castle

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Eichhof Castle in Bad Hersfeld, front view

The Eichhof Castle is one of the abbots of the imperial abbey Hersfeld built castle in Bad Hersfeld . It is located about 3 km south of the old town on federal highway 62 on the left bank of the Fulda . The Johannesberg rises on the other side of Fulda , and on the other side of the palace lies the Eichhof district on a slope .

description

Copper engraving from Eichhof Palace (Matthäus Merian from 1655)

The castle has a square basic shape, which was initially a single-storey Gothic moated castle . The mighty square keep was built on the southern corner of the four castle wings. The castle was built from red sandstone . The gate leads through the southwest wing of the castle to the inner courtyard . This complex was surrounded by a moat . In front of this moat on the southwest side of the castle there was another outer bailey , which in turn was surrounded by another moat.

In the 16th century, the castle was expanded into a palace in the Renaissance style . It became the abbots' summer residence. It received a Renaissance gable and another half-timbered floor as well as magnificent wood paneling inside.

Since then, the appearance of the castle has changed little. The stone outer walls and the keep of the first castle have remained almost unchanged.

history

Coat of arms of Abbot Ludwig V (1571–1588) in the entrance area of ​​Eichhof Palace
Eichhof Castle in Bad Hersfeld, rear view

At the beginning of the 14th century, the city tried to become independent from the imperial abbey . This was not possible without the resistance of the abbots, who had been head of the clerical principality of Hersfeld since 1232 at the latest . So they also considered themselves the owners of the city.

This was the beginning of a small war that lasted about two hundred years. Abbot Ludwig II of Mansbach therefore began in 1328 with the construction of the "Castle to the Oaks" outside the city, in the Fuldaaue. It is believed that the name comes from an oak forest that used to spread in the floodplain. This oak forest was part of the Heuringswald. Presumably, the kingdom of forest is to the Abbey in 1003 Wildbann received and has been mentioned as Eherinevirst.

The abbot became more and more isolated, as even the convent was on the side of the citizens. The monastery also ran into considerable financial difficulties, and so construction probably came to a standstill during the term of office of Abbot Johann II von Elben . The castle was only completed in 1372 under Abbot Berthold II of Völkershausen . During the clashes with the city and the many other feuds in which the abbey was involved, the castle became the abbots' retreat. In 1378 Abbot Berthold II wanted to bring the city back under his control with the help of the Sternerbund . This did not succeed, however, and so he entrenched himself in this stronghold and undertook forays from here and from the Johannesberg that devastated the whole area.

On April 30, 1521, Martin Luther passed here on the way from the Reichstag in Worms to the Wartburg and was received as a guest of Abbot Karto in the Eichhof. The next day Luther preached in the collegiate church . One room in this castle is called the Luther Room and is a reminder of this visit. However, Luther probably didn't spend the night here, but in the cloister of the monastery.

Abbot Ludwig V (Ludwig Landau) expanded the palace from 1571 to 1588 in the Renaissance style into a summer residence.

When the Hessian landgraves came into possession of the Hersfeld Abbey in 1606, it was used as a hunting lodge. At the latest in the Thirty Years' War , when the castle was looted, the medieval furnishings disappeared. The castle later became a landgrave's domain , which became a state in the 18th century. The outer bailey and the two moats were completely demolished and leveled in 1820.

The Eichhof has been a branch of the "Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen (LLH)" with the name "Landwirtschaftszentrum Eichhof" since 1965. Subsequently, new agricultural buildings were built around the castle. Since 2010 there has also been a branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology .

Since 1986 , mainly comedic plays have been performed here on the second open-air stage of the Bad Hersfeld Festival .

See also: History of the City of Bad Hersfeld

administration

Eichhof Castle formed its own administrative and judicial district, see the list of offices in Hersfeld Abbey . In addition to Eichhof Castle with its dairy, this also included the sheep farm, the cup mill and the grinding and beating mill. At the head was his own bailiff . In the second half of the 18th century this office was abolished and its components turned into the office of Hersfeld .

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Palaces and fortresses in North and East Hesse . Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen, 1996, ISBN 3-86134-237-5 , pp. 38-39.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 24-25.

Web links

Commons : Eichhof Palace  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article in the Hersfelder Zeitung of October 8, 2010 "Fraunhofer Institute and Eichhof step on the gas"
  2. ↑ Article in the Hersfelder Zeitung of February 8, 2011 "Energy takes root"
  3. ↑ Elisabeth Ziegler: The territory of the Reichsabtei Hersfeld from its beginnings to 1821, 1939, pp. 94–96, 149.

Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 41 ″  N , 9 ° 41 ′ 2 ″  E