Anton van Obberghen

Kronborg Castle in Elsinore

The great armory in Gdansk

Anton van Obberghen (* 1543 in Mechelen ; † 1611 ) was a Flemish architect and fortress builder and a major master of the Nordic Renaissance .

Also Antonius, Antoni and various name variants of the surname (Obbergen, Opberghen, Oberberg, Obernberg, Oberg, Overberg, Upbargen).

He began his professional career in Antwerp , where he worked on the construction of city fortifications. In 1575 he came to Denmark and from 1577 to 1585 led the renovation of Kronborg Castle in Helsingør as the royal court architect . In 1586 he came to Gdansk, where he was appointed builder of the fortifications in 1592 and city builder in 1594. He created important works of the late Renaissance in Gdansk.

He took part in the construction of the Weichselmünde fortress and the castle in Küstrin (1590) as well as the river regulation of the Vistula. In Danzig he also built the St. Gertrud Bastion, the Peinkammertor (and Peinkammer am Stockturm, 1597–1599), the Great Armory (1602–1605) and probably the Old Town Hall (1587–1589). In addition, many patrician houses came from him and he took care of the interior of the town hall. The renovation and interior fittings of the old town hall in Thorn, originally dating back to the 14th century, is ascribed to him in 1602–1605.

literature

• Georg Cuny: Obbergen, Antonius . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 25 : Moehring – Olivié . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1931, p. 547 .
• Rudi De Mets: Mechelen. Art from the Middle Ages to the present. Deurne 1997, ISBN 90-5720-047-3 , p. 49.
• Arnold Bartetzky: The great armory in Danzig. Building history, architectural history, representative function. (= Research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe , Volume 9). Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07542-9 (also dissertation, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg 1998).