Gandersheim Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inner courtyard of Gandersheim Castle with palas and stair tower

The Gandersheim Castle is a former moated castle in Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony , in whose buildings the Bad Gandersheim District Court has its seat today. The Brunswick dukes had the castle built in the 13th century as a counterweight to the Gandersheim monastery .

description

The main entrance to the moated castle led from the north over the Gande , whose water flowed around the castle or fed the moat. The castle complex was located within the former city ​​fortifications and is now north of the old town. The gate tower facing north to the Gande and the two-storey palace , to which a rectangular stair tower is attached in the inner courtyard, are still present from the castle complex. In the 15th and 16th centuries the dukes Heinrich the Elder and his son Heinrich the Younger carried out renovations and extensions, including around 1530 at the Palas. The district court has been housed here since 1859. In the castle courtyard there are still remains of the castle walls. The moats have been filled in over time. In 1854, a prison was built on the site of the knight's hall .

history

Merian engraving of the complex around 1654

Gandersheim Castle was first mentioned in documents in 1318 as "Castrum nomine Gandersheym". In 1347 the complex was referred to as a slot ( castle ), in 1350 as a hus (house) and in 1360 as the Borg to Gandershem . The abbot Sophia II tried to take financial action against the Guelphs ' claim to power over the city, which had become evident through the construction of the castle . Since this far exceeded the financial possibilities of her pen, she had to accept her excommunication . In the 14th century, the Vogt for the Gandersheim Abbey sat at the castle . Around the 15th and 16th centuries the castle was the residence of the Brunswick dukes, with which they strengthened the political center of their southern territory. In the late Middle Ages , the ducal office of Gandersheim had its seat in the castle.

In the 16th century, the castle played a role in an affair between Duke Heinrich the Younger of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and his lady-in-waiting Eva von Trott . When the relationship became known in 1532, the Duke made it appear to disappear. He sent the noble lady from Hesse home from the ducal seat in Wolfenbüttel. On the way, the lady-in-waiting in the ducal castle of Gandersheim explained that she was afflicted by the plague and thus faked her death. Her alleged coffin was buried in the church of the Franciscans, who had already converted a knight's court into a date in 1385 and who were now celebrating the exequies . This took place while she went to the lonely Stauffenburg , where she continued the relationship with the Duke.

In the 20th century, the Bad Gandersheim social therapeutic institution was located in the castle area until 2006 as a department of the Sehnde correctional facility .

More castles in Gandersheim

Tummelburg

In the Papenkrieg, the Gandersheim Pfaffenkrieg as a dispute between members of the monastery in the middle of the 15th century, the city built the Tummelburg in 1468 east of the collegiate church opposite the abbey. The name comes from the fact that armed canons romped around in the square in front of the collegiate church for years, as a dispute between two abbotesses about their claim to the position of abbot of the abbey smoldered. The Pope had forbidden the construction and commissioned Johann Brüggemann, provost and dean of St. Alexandri with the enforcement. But since the citizens pushed through the building, the whole city was excommunicated. In 1471 she gave in and vowed to demolish the building within four years. The city ultimately did not comply, so that the multi-storey building remained standing until 1821. In the 18th century it was used as a girls' school under the same name and has been retained as the street name to this day.

Wilhelmsburg

Meanwhile in a stable position in the city, Duke Wilhelm had another castle built in the style of a representative city palace on property south of the collegiate church in 1495. He also had this expanded as the seat of his wife Elisabeth, so that the building was called Wilhelmsburg.

Immediately next to the Wilhelmsburg, Wilhelm founded the local Franciscan monastery in 1501. Expanded by Heinrich I , the monastery church also served the duke as a court church. Heinrich II had the monastery, which had been damaged by the princes of the Schmalkaldic League , repaired in 1542 , but Vollrad von Mansfeld destroyed it again in 1552.

After the Reformation , Julius decided to build a pedagogy illustrious on the site for the purpose of expanding the secondary school system in 1570 , for which the Wilhelmsburg was to serve as an auditorium. Nikolaus Selnecker inaugurated the facility in 1571. Andreas Cludius was one of the students. A few years later, Julius dissolved the facility due to structural considerations and instead founded the University of Helmstedt .

The building decay associated with the dissolution of the Franciscan monastery and the relocation of the sovereign center resulted in the construction of a new stone representative building in 1895, the exterior of which was based on the Renaissance building recognizable in the Merian engraving from 1654. It was called Wilhelmsburg again and is now used as the city's registry office.

literature

  • Karl Steinacker : The architectural and art monuments of the Duchy of Braunschweig , Volume 5, Gandersheim district, 1910
  • Hans Adolf Schultz : Castles and Palaces of the Braunschweiger Land , Braunschweig 1980, Die Burg Gandersheim , pp. 114–116, ISBN 3-87884-012-8
  • Hans Maresch, Doris Maresch: Burg Gandersheim in: Lower Saxony's castles, castles & mansions , Husum Verlag, Husum 2012, ISBN 978-389876-604-3 .
  • Markus C. Blaich , Sonja Stadje, Kim Kappes: Alte Burg in Bad Gandersheim in: The Heldenburg near Salzderhelden, castle and residence in the Principality of Grubenhagen , (= guide to the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. 32) Isensee Verlag , Oldenburg, 2019, p 129-130.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein : Spiritual women in the struggle for city rule and against the Guelph state rule - the women's foundation Gandersheim in the 15th and 16th centuries, in: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 88, 2016, p. 73ff
  2. ^ Arend Mindermann: Adel in der Stadt des Spätmittelalters , 1996, p. 358
  3. ^ Hermann Mitgau : Common Life, 1, 1955, p. 117
  4. ^ Friedrich Karl von Strombeck : Some remarks, in: Braunschweigisches Magazin, Volume 19, 1806, p. 321ff
  5. ^ Karl Steinacker : Die Kunstdenkmale des Kreis Gandersheim, 1978, page 14
  6. ^ Wilhelm Görges : Patriotic Stories and Memories of Prehistoric Times, B. 3, 1845, p. 223
  7. ^ Theodor Hagemann, Christian August Günther: Archive for theoretical and practical legal scholarship, Volume 3, 1789, p. 50
  8. ↑ Philipp Walter: Universität und Landtag (1500–1700), 2018, p. 544
  9. ↑ Kurt Kronenberg : House Chronicle of the City of Bad Gandersheim, 1983, p. 393
  10. ↑ Maresch, Hans and Doris: Lower Saxony's palaces, castles & mansions as a book title with table of contents from the Husum publishing group

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 ′ 18.8 "  N , 10 ° 1 ′ 40.5"  E