Forchheim Castle

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Forchheim Castle
Front view of the castle

Front view of the castle

Alternative name (s): Imperial Palace
Creation time : 14th Century
Castle type : Location
Conservation status: Receive
Place: Forchheim
Geographical location 49 ° 43 '13.1 "  N , 11 ° 3' 20"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 43 '13.1 "  N , 11 ° 3' 20"  E
Forchheim Castle (Bavaria)
Forchheim Castle

The castle in Forchheim (also called Kaiserpfalz ) was an important town castle of the Bamberg bishop in the city of Forchheim in Bavaria . The castle was built in the late 14th century. After extensive archaeological and architectural studies, it is one of the best-researched facilities of this time in Central Europe.

The castle now houses the East Wing, the Palatinate Museum with three special museums ( Archaeological Museum Upper Franconia , City Museum Forchheim and the Museum of Costume nature of the Franconian Switzerland ).

Place of the early medieval imperial palace?

From the 9th to the early 11th centuries there was a Franconian royal court and a palace in Forchheim (see the chapter on the early history of Forchheim). However, their exact location is not known. In the late 19th century, the location was equated with that of the episcopal city castle and this was also referred to as the Pfalz or Kaiserpfalz. Archaeological investigations during the restoration from 1998 to 2004 showed, however, that no remains of an early medieval settlement were found at this point. However, even in the more recent literature before Tillman Kohnert (2008) , the Palatinate is regarded as the direct predecessor of the episcopal castle. The name Kaiserpfalz , which has been naturalized for decades, has also been retained and is used as the official name for the castle.

The castle around 1400

From the late 14th century the Bamberg bishops, especially Bishop built Lamprecht von Brunn , a city castle, which their main residence outside of Bamberg Cathedral immunity was. The heart of the complex is the so-called large bower , the former residential building, built from 1391 in the east of the castle. An elaborate stone chamber air heater has been preserved there. The Gothic wall paintings, some of which probably originate from Bohemian masters, are of great art historical importance.

The bastion at the Saltorturm northwest of the castle. In the background the preserved Saltorturm of the medieval city fortifications
Easter fountain opposite the main front of the castle

Building description

Exterior construction

The almost square complex is surrounded by trenches. Until around 1550, the fortress in the northwest corner of the city ​​was included in the city ​​fortifications . North of the castle complex , the Saltorturm is the only medieval city gate that has been preserved. In front of the remains of the medieval city wall, a modern bastionary fortification based on Italian models was built in the 16th century. To the north and west of the castle district, two large casemated "old Italian" bastions escaped the demolition of large parts of the fortifications in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Large parts of the main building and the courtyard buildings go back to the 14th century. The eastern main building is connected to the western courtyard buildings by walls and half-timbered corridors. The two upper floors of the north-west wing are also designed as a simple half-timbered construction facing the castle courtyard.

The town castle was rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century. At that time the picturesque half-timbered corridors were built over the connecting walls. From 1603 an octagonal stair tower was added to the four-storey main building . The mighty hipped roof of the main building dates from the 18th century. Originally the east wing was closed off by a gable roof with stepped gables. A sandstone bridge has spanned the moat in front of the gate on the south side since 1768/69 . Access was previously secured by a drawbridge . Next door, a rectangular Renaissance bay window with a pent roof enriches the architectural image. The rather sober southern front of the ensemble is particularly enlivened by the visible framework above the gate. A typical Franconian motif is the frieze made of numerous small curly St. Andrew's crosses under the window area.

There are three coats of arms reliefs on the east facade of the main wing . The coat of arms of Prince Bishop Johann Philipp von Gebsattel is on the second floor . The third floor bears the coats of arms of Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn and the bishopric . The high medieval sculpture of a basilisk , which is dated to the first half of the 12th century, is inserted into the south wall .

The modern addition of a staircase and elevator tower in the north of the east wing is highly controversial . This steel and glass construction was made necessary by the conversion of the castle complex into the museum center.

inside rooms

East wing

The main building in the east of the castle is separated into two parts by a continuous transverse wall. The northern part is slightly larger than the southern part. The barrel-vaulted cellars date back to the 14th century. The ceilings of the two halls on the ground floor are supported by sandstone pillars.

The flat ceiling of the northern area rests on a round pillar and a wooden beam. The southern part was subsequently vaulted, so that a two-aisled hall was created from four bays, which are spanned by cross vaults. A corridor used to lead from there to the Lady Chapel. Fragments of Secco paintings (painting on dry plaster) from around 1400, which stylistically depend on contemporary Bohemian art, have been preserved on the walls of the hall . One fragment shows the portrayal of King David . Like the paintings in the other halls, these paintings are among the most important Gothic murals in southern Germany .

The chapel was originally located in the south of the first floor . The vaults were broken out in the early modern period; the hall was divided with a partition. The wall paintings of the former sacred space were largely preserved and refer to the original function and division. One recognizes, for example, representations of the prophets, the adoration of the kings , the Annunciation and the Last Judgment . Two pictures of profane content were interpreted by H. Kehrer as allusions to the weak King Wenzel . The paintings were apparently done by different masters. The Adoration of the Magi has its models again in Bohemian art. The Last Judgment , on the other hand, is assigned to the latest Forchheim style, which led to the Nuremberg painting of the early 15th century. The northern hall is closed off by a flat ceiling like on the first floor, but there it rests on a wooden support.

There is also a two-aisled, flat-roofed hall with a wooden central support on the second northern floor. Jakob Ziegler created the architectural paintings in 1559/60. The south room is also a two-aisled hall. The flat ceiling is supported by an octagonal central support. The murals with different themes are also by Jakob Ziegler . One of the pictures shows Saints Heinrich and Kunigunde with a model of Bamberg Cathedral (marked 1599, south wall).

The third floor was designed as a storage room and is currently used as a museum depot. The old stair tower hides a stone spiral staircase that opens into the north part of the east wing.

West wing

The west wing, the former side wing, serves as the administrative building for the palace museums. No notable historical interior fittings have been preserved there.

literature

(in chronological order)

  • Paul Oesterreicher: Historical representation of the old royal court Forchheim - together with a list of all known royal courts. (= New Contributions to History, Volume 2). Wesché, Bamberg 1824 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  • Hugo Kehrer: The Gothic wall paintings in the Kaiser-Pfalz zu Forchheim - a contribution to the question of the origin of Franconian painting. (= Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class: Treatises, 26.3). Munich 1912.
  • Katharina Sitzmann: City of Forchheim ( Monuments in Bavaria , Volume IV. 53/1). Schnell & Steiner, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7954-1006-1 .
  • Daniel Burger : Forchheim Castle and Fortress. (= Castles, palaces and fortifications in Central Europe, Volume 19). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2004, ISBN 3-7954-1658-2 .
  • Förderkreis Kaiserpfalz (Ed.): The wall paintings in the Kaiserpfalz Forchheim. Förderkreis Kaiserpfalz, Forchheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-020231-5 .
  • Tillman Kohnert: The Forchheim castle called the Pfalz. History and building history of a prince-bishop-Bamberg city castle. (= Writings of the German Castle Museum, Volume 4). Imhof-Verlag, Petersberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-86568-334-2 .
  • City of Forchheim (Hrsg.): Pfalzmuseum Forchheim - guide through the collections. City of Forchheim, Forchheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-927806-37-5 .
  • Barbara Beckett: The Gothic wall paintings in the east wing of Forchheim Castle - inventory and restoration history. Dissertation Uni Bamberg 2013 ( online ).
  • Verena Friedrich: Castles and palaces in Franconia. 2nd Edition. Elmar Hahn Verlag, Veitshöchheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-928645-17-1 , pp. 50–51.

Web links

Commons : Burg Forchheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files