Bolongaro Palace

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North facade on Bolongarostraße
South view of the Bolongaro Palace
West side wing of the palace, today the registry office Frankfurt-Höchst
Site plan of the palace (middle lower square) in the city expansion that was never realized in the 18th century
Triton fountain in the Bolongaro garden

The Bolongaropalast is a large baroque palace in Frankfurt-Höchst . It is located on the south side of Bolongarostraße , the south-facing garden is on the high bank above the mouth of the Nidda in the Main .

history

From 1772 to 1774 the merchants and tobacco manufacturers Josef Maria Markus Bolongaro and Jakob Philipp Bolongaro from Stresa on Lake Maggiore had the palace built.

Emergence

The Bolongaro brothers had settled in Frankfurt am Main in 1735 and founded the largest tobacco shop and snuff manufacturer in Europe there. Despite the considerable fortune they had acquired in this way, they had tried in vain to obtain citizenship in the city of Frankfurt am Main , which they were denied as Catholics in the Lutheran imperial city of Frankfurt. Therefore, they finally accepted an offer from Elector Emmerich Josef von Mainz to settle in Höchst Neustadt, founded in 1768 . In 1771 Josef Maria Markus Bolongaro became a citizen of Höchst. The new town project was abandoned after the elector's death in 1774, and the Bolongaros only used the palace for a short time. After the death of Josef Maria Markus in 1779, the heirs finally reached an agreement with the Frankfurt Council and in 1783 received Frankfurt citizenship.

use

The palace subsequently served as the appropriate quarters for various military leaders during the coalition wars , the most famous of which were Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte , who was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig and who spent his last night here on German soil from November 1st to 2nd, 1813 (the near Mainz was already part of France at that time ), as well as the Prussian Marshal Blücher who was persecuting him and who used the palace as his headquarters from November 17th to December 27th.

The Bolongaro family sold their palace in 1862 to the Mainz factory owner Friedrich August Sonntag , who set up a factory for gas and water pipes there. In 1880 the Rödelheim pastor Eduard Lohoff bought the Bolongaropalast, divided the property into smaller units and sold some of them on. The Bolongaropalast continued to be used as a factory building, among other things as a brass foundry or for the production of bed springs. This led to damage to the richly decorated interior.

In 1907 and 1908, the city of Höchst bought the parceled property from the respective owners, restored the palace at great expense for around 400,000 Reichsmarks and returned it to representative use. It served as the town hall from 1908 until the town of Höchst was incorporated in 1928 . Today it houses the city ​​district administration and a registry office in the western pavilion of the park, where Otto Vollbehr spent his old age . The Lord Mayor of Frankfurt has had an office in the palace since Höchst was incorporated. From 1947 to 1950, the German District Association also had its office there. The former mayor of Frankfurt, Walter Kolb (* 1902, † 1956) lived in the west wing of the palace, which today houses the registry office.

The Bolongaro Palace will be renovated by 2021 and will then serve as a cultural and event center.

description

Building and park

The street front of the north facade is 117 meters long. The floor plan of the three-wing complex has the shape of a horseshoe. The park, which is located on the southern side, slopes down into two terraced steps and is flanked in the lower part by two garden pavilions.

In 1909 the “Triton Fountain” by the Frankfurt sculptor Josef Keller was created. The neo-baroque ornamental fountain with a round water basin is dominated by a lying dolphin on which a water-spouting triton rides.

View from the park side of the Bolongaro Palace

inside rooms

In the building there are magnificent rooms with mirrored walls, ceiling paintings and silk wallpapers. The house chapel and the richly decorated ballroom are also worth seeing. On the first floor there is a unique and most complete porcelain exhibition of Alt-Höchst reproductions, which the Passau manufactory produced especially for the city of Höchst in 1927, as well as a Frankfurt cabinet . The chapel hall and other rooms richly decorated with stucco and wall coverings give an impression of the life of the Bolongaros in the Höchst of the 18th century.

Concerts and literary events are currently taking place in the chapel hall. The atmospheric backdrop of the garden is used for theater performances in summer. The Barock am Main theater festival has been taking place here in late summer since 2004 .

literature

  • “If you want something, you will find ways”, Markus Großbach on the future of the Bolongaro Palace, the chance of a new identity for Höchst and tourist opportunities, interview, Frankfurter Neue Presse, April 13, 2015
  • Claudia Grossbach: The gardens of the Bolongaropalastes in Frankfurt-Höchst - a garden monument of the baroque period? In: Denkmalpflege & Kulturgeschichte 1/2001, pp. 52–57. Wiesbaden 2001.
  • The Magistrate of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Conversion and restoration of the Bolongaro Palace in Frankfurt-Höchst. Frankfurt am Main 1987: Building Department.
  • Rudolf Schäfer: The Höchst Neustadt and the Bolongaropalast. Frankfurt a. M.-Höchst 1975: Association for history a. Antiquity e. V.
  • Silke Wustmann: Bolongaropalast, Frankfurt (architectural and art monuments 109). Bad Homburg / Leipzig 1999.
  • Hans Waag: The Bolongaro Palace at Höchst am Main, 1904

Web links

Commons : Bolongaropalast  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Höchst Kreisblatt: Until 2021: Bolongaropalast: Frankfurt's most venerable construction site | Highest circular leaf . ( Kreisblatt.de [accessed December 5, 2017]).

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 4 ″  N , 8 ° 33 ′ 8 ″  E