Creuzburg Castle
| Creuzburg Castle | ||
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 View of the castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Kreuzburg | |
| Creation time : | 1165 to 1170 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Preserved essential parts | |
| Standing position : | Landgraves, dukes | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone walls | |
| Place: | Creuzburg | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 3 '9 " N , 10 ° 14' 46" E | |
| Height: | 225 m above sea level NN | |
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The Burg Creuzburg is located north-west of Eisenach in the same place in the Wartburgkreis in Thuringia .
location
The medieval hilltop castle is 225 m above sea level. NN on a hill above the city in the Werra valley and is known as the "sister castle of the Wartburg " .
meaning
The Creuzburg was one of the places of residence of the Ludowingers and the preferred residence of Landgravine Elisabeth of Thuringia , who became the German "national saint " of the Middle Ages as Saint Elisabeth . She also gave birth to her son Hermann in 1222 at the castle.
history
The castle was built from 1165 to 1170 on behalf of Landgrave Ludwig II - according to tradition, on the site of an older fortified monastery complex , which the St. Jakob monastery was founded to replace around 1173 . This construction phase corresponded to the type of a Romanesque ring wall castle . From this period remained the curtain wall , the tower house with Elisabethkemenate and parts of the Palas received.
The castle was intended as a fortress north of Eisenach to protect the landgraves' possessions, the city of Creuzburg, founded in 1213, and the Werra bridge there. It experienced its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries when it was one of the secondary residences of the Landgraves of Thuringia.
During this time it had to withstand two heavy sieges: In 1260, during the War of the Thuringian Succession , the troops of Sophie von Brabant managed to take the city temporarily.
In 1295 the city and castle were besieged for four weeks by King Adolf von Nassau . They could only be taken when he set the city on fire with wreaths of pitch and the castle garrison was finally forced to give up due to a lack of water, despite dogged struggle and perseverance. Johannes Rothe mentions the names of these brave castle men in his chronicle: von Creuzburg , von Nesselrieden , Slune (Schlaun, i.e. hv Hayn called Schlaun), von Buttlar , von Stein, von Pferdsdorf, Strier (Strieger), Stouben (by Steuben) and Frowen. Later the von Harstall , von Boyneburg , Zenge and von Eschwege also belonged to the Creuzburger Burgmannen.
Under the Wettins , the Creuzburg was determined to be the seat of the Creuzburg administrative office , it comprised a significant portion in the north of what is now the Wartburg district. The castle complex was expanded with a well house, a granary and other outbuildings. Below the castle, within the city walls, were the residences of the castle men and knights.
With the advent of firearms , the military value of the fortress declined; from the 15th century onwards it served as a court and administrative seat, and the Yellow House was built for this purpose . During the Thirty Years' War and Seven Years' War, the castle often served as headquarters and officers' quarters for armies passing through.
In the 18th century, the Creuzburg was rebuilt as a palace complex by the state master builder Gottfried Heinrich Krohne for the Saxon Duke Johann Wilhelm ; the ducal house , the coach houses and probably also the putti located in the palace park date from this time . In 1779, Goethe went to the Creuzburg for the first time on business. In 1848 fraternity members were imprisoned in the residential tower. In 1879 the office was dissolved.
In 1899 a Herr von Dreyse - a grandson of the inventor of the needle gun - bought the castle and the property belonging to it. In 1921 the Erfurt hotelier and patron Georg Kossenhaschen bought the Creuzburg; He arranged for the renovation by the castle expert Bodo Ebhardt , used the Creuzburg as a private residence, furnished it artistically and made it available as a writer's home. Kossenhaschen had a tall, slender Boniface cross built in the courtyard and an Elisabeth bower. With the visit of the impostor Harry Domela , about whom he reported in his 1927 memoir "The False Prince", the Creuzburg briefly moved into the focus of the world public.
Until the beginning of the Second World War, regular children's parties and meetings of old people from the city took place at the castle at the invitation of the owners Schäfermeier-Kossenhaschen. Later refugees and wounded were taken in. The castle suffered only minor damage in the heavy artillery bombardment of the city by US troops on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. The next day the Americans occupied the castle. In May, they set up a special authority on the Creuzburg, before the refugees had to leave their accommodation within hours for the destroyed city. The Schäfermeier-Kossenhaschen family was expelled after the Red Army moved in and expropriated without compensation. Most of the castle's valuable furnishings were lost. The Creuzburg initially served as a barracks for the occupying power, then for the border troops, and was later made available to the city administration. The rooms were used as a school and holiday camp until 1975, but they were not repaired, so that in 1975 they had to be closed by the building authorities. In 1981 the citizens of Creuzburg founded the community of interest Die Creuzburg , an association for the renovation of the ruined castle, which cleared the rubble and gradually renovated it and made the complex and the park accessible to the public again by 1991.
The renovation work required to run the hotel was completed in 1997; today the castle is owned by the city of Creuzburg.
The heirs of Georg Kossenhaschen had applied for a transfer back in 1990. However, the responsible office for unresolved property issues only assigned a file number after the heirs' lawyer asked again. Another application by the heirs was rejected by the Office for Unresolved Property Issues in Gera in January 2011.
architecture
The entire complex now includes the Romanesque castle, the terrace-like park on the south and east slopes of the castle hill as well as the access roads and part of the city wall. The circumference of the castle wall is 340 meters, the inner area measures about 7400 square meters, making the Creuzburg one of the larger preserved stone castles from the Romanesque in Thuringia.
Today, the restored castle houses a hotel with a restaurant, the Creuzburg registry office , a private pottery and the Creuzburg local history museum with various collections in the Michael Praetorius room, the Elisabethkemenate, the torture cellar and the so-called home cabinet . The castle courtyard with a small baroque garden , a wooden Bonifatius cross, a deep castle fountain and the characteristic summer linden tree is freely accessible.
Zwinger and west gate, hall
View from the south
The north side of the curtain wall
The yellow house
The well is 37.5 m deep
A five-hundred-year- old summer linden tree in the courtyard
The park
New acquisition: Saxon artillery from 1691 in the inner courtyard
Individual evidence
- ^ Horst Schmidt: The Creuzburg history and building history . Ed .: Burgverein Creuzburg. Druck- und Verlagshaus Frisch, Eisenach 1998, p. 1-20 .
- ↑ Steffen Raßloff : The Creuzburg and the Georg Kossenhaschen era - the lord of the castle and his false prince. In: Susanne-Maria Breustedt (Ed.): 800 years of Creuzburg. A commemorative publication. Creuzburg 2013, p. 68 f.
- ^ Horst Schmidt: The Creuzburg. History and building history . Ed .: Burgverein Creuzburg. Druck- und Verlagshaus Frisch, Eisenach 1998, p. 21-29 .
- ↑ Former owners are demanding Creuzburg back. In: Thüringen Journal news magazine of the MDR. Archived from the original on February 8, 2009 ; Retrieved February 6, 2009 .
- ↑ The Creuzburg remains in the possession of the city. Retransfer has failed - previous owners cannot get through with their application . Thuringian newspaper, January 24, 2011.
- ^ Horst Schmidt: The Creuzburg history and building history . Ed .: Burgverein Creuzburg. Druck- und Verlagshaus Frisch, Eisenach 1998, p. 30-50 .
literature
- Kurt Langlotz: The Creuzburg. Eisenach 1941.
- Kurt Langlotz: The Creuzburg through the ages. In: Erfurt home letter. No. 28, June 6, 1974, pp. 55-65.
- Horst Schmidt: Historic buildings of the city of Creuzburg. Eisenach 1991.
- Council of the city of Creuzburg (ed.): Creuzburg. 775 years of the city of Creuzburg. 1213-1988. From the history of the city. Erfurt 1988.
- Thomas Bienert: Medieval castles in Thuringia. Gudensberg 2000.
- Antje Coburger: Creuzburg. Burg, Stadt und Museum , Kleiner Kunstführer, Verlag Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2009.
- Susanne-Maria Breustedt (Ed.): 800 years of Creuzburg. A commemorative publication. Creuzburg 2013.
- Georg Dehio ao: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Thuringia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 .
- Steffen Raßloff , Lutz Gebhardt : The Thuringian Landgraves. History and legends . Ilmenau 2017, ISBN 978-3-95560-055-6 .
Web links
