Old Palace (Hermitage)

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Coordinates: 49 ° 56 ′ 56.2 ″  N , 11 ° 37 ′ 29.5 ″  E

Old Hermitage Palace

The Old Palace is one of the two palaces in the historic Hermitage Park east of the St. Johannis district of the Upper Franconian city ​​of Bayreuth . The building is not to be confused with the old castle in the city ​​center .

history

Beginnings

The forest area, which was previously owned by the church as a parish forest, came into the possession of the Bayreuth margraves through purchase in 1616 . From 1664 Margrave Christian Ernst had a zoo and hunting garden and later a “grotto and fountain house” laid out.

The old castle was built as a pleasure house from 1715 on the orders of Margrave Georg Wilhelms . The architect was probably the agricultural inspector Johann David Räntz the Elder. Ä., A student of Paul Decker . The construction management was with Johann Heinrich Endrich, who later built his own house on the edge of the park (later known as Monplaisir ). The castle was built as a four-wing complex that was entered through a small grotto in the south . In the north wing there was a ballroom in addition to the rooms of the margrave couple, in the east and west wings there were simple hermit apartments. The castle was surrounded by linden trees, and a ground floor lay in front of the ballroom.

The Hermitage was reserved for the margrave and a few courtiers. The court played a hermit life (hence the name "Hermitage"): during the day they stayed as hermits in the hermit houses scattered in the forest and met in the evening in the ballroom of the palace.

Reconstruction by Margravine Wilhelmine

Japanese cabinet in the old castle

In 1735, Margrave Friedrich gave his wife Wilhelmine the Hermitage for her birthday, after which she had the palace expanded. She left the structure of Georg Wilhelm untouched, but changed it according to her own intention: The Hermitage was to become a place of inner contemplation. Thus, the north side was expanded by 5 rooms each, so that the margrave and margravine now each have an entire apartment. While the hermit cells remained in the margrave's wing, those in the ladies' wing became Wilhelmine's artistic study. The ruin character of the facade was retained, however. Among the rooms added by Margravine Wilhelmine are the Japanese Cabinet , two of whose lacquer panels were a gift from Wilhelmine's brother Friedrich II , the Music Room and the Chinese Cabinet of Shards of Shards , in which she wrote her memoirs.

19th century until today

After Bayreuth fell to Prussia, the Prussian minister Karl August Freiherr von Hardenberg lived in the Hermitage during the summer months, and from 1806 Princess Friederike von Solms-Braunfels . She is said to have bought new furniture for the old castle and commissioned some repairs, but the refurbishment remained incomplete because Bayreuth was conquered by Napoleon in the autumn of the same year .

In 1810 Bayreuth became part of Bavaria, whereupon the Hermitage was often used as a vacation stay for members of the Bavarian royal family. Duke Pius in Bavaria spent the summers in the Hermitage since 1823. In 1851 King Maximilian II visited the Hermitage with his family for a few weeks and had a few renovations carried out. King Ludwig II last lived in the Old Palace of the Hermitage during the Wagner Festival in 1876.

Inner grotto in the old castle

The old castle was restored from 1928 to 1935, but the measures partially falsified the historical situation. From 2005 to 2009 the old castle was restored again and since then it can be visited again as part of guided tours.

literature

  • Georg Dehio , Tilmann Breuer: Handbook of German art monuments . Bavaria I: Franconia - The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia. 2nd, revised and supplemented edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-422-03051-4 , pp. 206-208.
  • Peter Oluf Krückmann: The Hermitage in Bayreuth - official guide. Bavarian Palace Administration, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-941637-06-1 .

Web links

Commons : Old Palace (Hermitage)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 7-8 .
  2. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 8-13 .
  3. ^ Marieluise Müller: Hermitage Bayreuth . Bindlach 1993, p. 20 .
  4. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 22-23 .
  5. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 79-93 .
  6. ^ Friedrich Ludwig Müller: The Margravine. From the life of the Prussian Princess Wilhelmine . Bonn 2003, p. 120-126 .
  7. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 34-36 .
  8. ↑ Bavarian Palace Administration (ed.): The Hermitage in Bayreuth . Munich 2011, p. 36-42 .