Trausnitz Castle

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Trausnitz Castle
Trausnitz Castle, west elevation (2009)

Trausnitz Castle, west elevation (2009)

Creation time : around 1150
Castle type : Höhenburg, Spornburg
Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Standing position : Dukes
Construction: Keep, building and brick walls
Place: Landshut
Geographical location 48 ° 31 '54.6 "  N , 12 ° 9' 7.8"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 31 '54.6 "  N , 12 ° 9' 7.8"  E
Height: 500  m
Trausnitz Castle (Bavaria)
Trausnitz Castle

The Trausnitz Castle is a castle above the old town of the Lower Bavarian district capital of Landshut in the district Berg ob Landshut. The castle was incorporated into Landshut in 1928 together with the former municipality of Berg ob Landshut.

location

The Sporn - or Höhenburg is located in the center of the Lower Bavarian hill country at an altitude of over 500 m above sea level. NN , at the highest point, the spur of a steep slope called the Hofberg. The plateau is directly above the town of Landshut and the Isar , in the district Berg ob Landshut. The castle is surrounded by forests, to the east of the castle is the courtyard garden . This park was formerly the castle park and was opened to the population of Landshut as a public park in 1837. The Duke's Garden bordering to the northeast was redesigned in 1784 by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell and his brother Matthias in a classical style.

history

prehistory

During excavations on the castle grounds from November 2001 to April 2002, two older fortifications were found. There were also a few ceramic shards, probably from the urn field culture . It is therefore assumed that the first weir system was built in prehistory . Finds of ceramic shards from the 9th / 10th centuries. The second castle complex dates back to the early Middle Ages . These structures were probably made of wood, but it cannot be ruled out that a stone fortification wall was already in place.

The founding years

Part of today's castle complex was built before Landshut was founded and was mentioned around the year 1150 as Landeshuata (Landeshut = hat and protection of the country). In particular, it is a wooden watchtower from the 12th century, which was later used to name the newly founded city.

The oldest part of today's castle dates back to 1204, when Duke Ludwig der Kelheimer founded the city of Landshut . The exact year of the foundation of the castle is known from the annals of the abbot Hermann von Niederaltaich , in which it says in Latin: " Lvdwicus dux Bawariae castrum et oppidum in Lantshvt construere cepit " ( Ludwig, the Duke of Bavaria, began to build a castle and a Village in Landshut ). Around 1227, Elisabeth of Bavaria , daughter of Otto II and later Queen of the Holy Roman Empire , Sicily and Jerusalem , was born in the castle . In 1235, the castle was largely completed when Emperor Friedrich II was a guest in Landshut. During this time the castle became a center of imperial politics and the Hohenstaufen culture. Minstrels like Tannhauser and Walther von der Vogelweide were guests at the castle. A sculptor was brought in from Strasbourg to decorate and decorate the castle. Duke Ludwig and his son Otto II set up the first Bavarian State Chancellery .

Michael Wening Trausnitz Castle
View of the Wittelsbach Tower

The heyday of the Bavarian ducal court

In the 15th century, the so-called rich dukes of Bavaria-Landshut , Ludwig IX. and George the Rich expand the castle. Raised ring walls, the new Dürnitz and the defense towers were built.

In the 16th century, Landeshuata Castle was then renamed Trausnitz Castle (Traus nitz = Don't trust you) and was almost continuously the seat of the (Lower) Bavarian Wittelsbach family until 1503 . From 1516, Duke Ludwig X. had Trausnitz Castle converted into a Renaissance palace. However, little remains from this period. On the basis of a city model from 1572, which the carpenter Jakob Sandtner from Straubing made for Albrecht V , who lived in the castle with his wife Anna until he took office, one can see that the outer courtyard was very closely built up with farm buildings at that time , of which only the stables and cellars are left today. Until 1573 Hans Donauer the Elder worked on the frescoes in the knight's hall .

The castle experienced a further cultural boom through Wilhelm V , who from 1568 to 1579 brought numerous important musicians, artists and comedians to his court during his time as the Hereditary Prince. In 1573 he had the first Bavarian Hofbräuhaus built on the castle and brewed brown beer until 1590 , but on September 27, 1589 he commissioned the construction of the Munich Hofbräuhaus to supply the Wittelsbacher Hof and its servants. From 1568 to 1578, the complex was converted into a palace with a courtyard and three-storey court arcades for Duke Wilhelm V by Friedrich Sustris . Most of the wall paintings in the style of Florentine Mannerism that were created at that time were largely destroyed in the fire of 1961.

Trausnitz Castle, panorama of the inner courtyard

The Modern Age

During the Thirty Years' War on July 22nd, 1634 the city of Landshut and the castle were besieged by the Swedes . In the eastern part of the castle , a large breach was made in the castle wall through which the Swedes could gain access. Because of this incident, the gate at this point is still called Sweden Gate today .

From 1675 to 1679, Elector Ferdinand Maria had the paintings that were destroyed today expanded.

In the 18th century the rooms of the castle were no longer sufficient for the baroque taste of the electors . During this time, Trausnitz Castle served, among other things, as a barracks and prison for noble prisoners. A woolen and silk manufacture was established in 1762, but was only in operation for a few years. Since that time, the electoral rent office registry has also been located in the castle, from which the State Archives for Lower Bavaria, which existed on the Trausnitz until 2016, developed.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the castle was used again as a barracks and military hospital, until a cholera hospital was finally built on the castle from 1831. From 1869 to 1873, King Ludwig II had magnificent rooms furnished in the neo-renaissance style on the second floor of the Princely Building. The inventory was created by Anton Pössenbacher . Joseph Knabl created a figure of Mary for the George Chapel with the Infant Jesus as Patrona Bavariae and King Ludwig II kneeling in front of it as Grand Prior of the Order of St. George .

On November 18, 1901 died at the castle Joseph Edmund Jörg , a Bavarian politician, historian, journalist and archivist who. Managed his life since the government takeover of Louis II the Lower Bavarian State Archives and ordered what the nickname him later hermit on the Trausnitz earned . From 1924 Rudolf Esterer was the chief architect of the Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, responsible for the restoration of the castle. The castle belonged to the municipality of Berg ob Landshut until 1928 and was then incorporated into Landshut as part of it. The part of the municipality was officially abolished in 1961 (resolution of the government of Lower Bavaria, dated March 28, 1961 - No. II / 4 - 4055 L 1). In 2009, 62,400 visitors came, an increase of 25%.

investment

View of the main building from the south

The main castle is located on the south-western edge of the mountain . The farm is the so-called Pfaff Stoeckl and the Doppelturmtor that has been structurally changed later, the lock keepers house, the dungeon is called the Wittelsbach Tower, Princes, the former palace , the Italian cultivation, the chapel, the Dürnitzbau of the upper chamber and ladies Stock circumscribed. A kennel with towers extends to the south and south-west . The outer bailey with the Hofstall building and the cellar building is in front of the east. In the southeast of the outer bailey is a gate kennel that used to have four castle gates.

Most of the medieval fortifications have been preserved. The oldest part of the main castle from the period from 1204 to around 1230/40 is built in the so-called Cistercian Gothic style. The building stock of this epoch includes the ring wall , the keep, the palace, the late Romanesque St. George's Chapel, which is one of the most important examples of sculpture from the 13th century in Bavaria, the 245 m² large and two-aisled Alte Dürnitz and the double tower gate, all of which are later have been reshaped several times.

From the 15th century, the core buildings were expanded. The Kleine Dürnitz was built and above the Alte Dürnitz the approx. 240 m² large, two-storey White Hall , which was intended as a large ballroom, but was probably never fully completed, as the wall paintings customary at the time were missing. In 1456 and 1458 the external fortifications were also built. In 1494 the castle got a new keep.

Under Duke Ludwig X, extensive interior work was carried out between 1516 and 1545 for representative purposes.

From 1575, under Prince Wilhelm, the Trausnitz was converted into a castle in the style of the Italian Renaissance, the facades of the gallery floors of the inner courtyard were provided with wide arcades and the joint masonry used throughout was structured with flat pilasters . Wilhelm V. commissioned the German-Dutch painter Friedrich Sustris , who had previously worked for the Fugger in Augsburg and had previously received extensive training at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence, to design and manage this work .

Sustris had the Dürnitz building veneered with a three-storey facade and open galleries on the upper floors. He also adopted this concept when rebuilding the prince's building, a shorter wing of the castle that adjoins the southern part. He had a staircase built between the two facades in the courtyard, which is also opened by arcades. A rectangular extension, the so-called Italian extension, was built on the west side of the prince's building, which houses a staircase and, on each floor, a cabinet with a coffered and painted vault in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The stairwalls of the spiral stairwell were painted by Alessandro Scalzi, called Paduano, using a fresco technique based on designs by Friedrich Sustris between 1575 and 1579 and decorated with life-size figures from the Commedia dell'arte . It is also referred to as the fool's staircase after the comedic depictions .

Trausnitz Castle, Fool's Staircase

The Söller, already mentioned in 1493, was brought into its final form with round arched arcades. The ceiling was decorated with turned rosettes , a small stair tower was built on the east side and a music podium was built on the south side.

During the Thirty Years' War, the outer walls and fortifications were reinforced because of the attacks by the Swedes on Landshut and the castle. In the course of storming the castle on July 22, 1634, a large part of the farm buildings in the outer bailey were so damaged that they had to be demolished afterwards. There was no reconstruction. The Schwedenwiese is located in place of these buildings today .

On October 21, 1961 the Fürstenbau burned out. Almost all of the wall paintings, the furniture and fittings in the hall, as well as the sumptuous rooms that King Ludwig II had furnished, fell victim to the fire. The investigative commission stated that the cause of the fire was an immersion heater that a cleaner had forgotten to turn off. The Fool's Staircase in the Italian annex and the George Chapel have been preserved. The Landshut State Archives were located in the rebuilt prince's building until 2016 .

At the end of 2011, a room in Ludwig II's apartment was partially restored with original furniture that had been kept in the depot in Herrenchiemsee and made accessible to the public.

From the old town the so-called prince's staircase leads up to the outer courtyard , also known locally as the ox piano . This is a way out of brick with stone crossbars, which was built to allow horses to go up the mountain.

Since September 2004 the "Kunst- und Wunderkammer Burg Trausnitz" has been on display in the restored Damenstock as a new branch museum of the Bavarian National Museum. In a reconstructed form, it shows the collection of Duke Albrecht V , which was originally located in Munich on the 2nd floor of the Marstall building and was mainly used for representation purposes.

Movies

In 1953, the fairy tale film The Golden Goose was made on the castle grounds , showing the property before it was partially destroyed by fire. Parts of the four-part television film "Wallenstein" were shot in 1978 in the rooms of Trausnitz Castle. In 2008 the castle was the location for the film 1½ Knights - In Search of the Adorable Herzelinde .

literature

  • Herbert Brunner, Elmar D. Schmid: Trausnitz Castle Landshut. Official leader; (Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes). 9., revised. u. newly designed edition, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-932982-51-7 .
  • Kristina Deutsch: A king as the savior of the castle: Ludwig II's "relegation quarters" on the Trausnitz in Landshut. In: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria. Volume 137 (2011).
  • Gloria Ehret: Chamber of Art and Curiosities. The new museum at Trausnitz Castle , in: Weltkunst 74 (2004), 13, pp. 30–31.
  • Peter Röckl: The musical life at the court of the heir to the throne Wilhelm at Trausnitz Castle from 1568 to 1579 , in: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria, 99 (1973), pp. 88–127.
  • Susan Maxwell: The court art of Friedrich Sustris. Patronage in late Renaissance Bavaria . Farnham 2011.
  • Henning Mehnert: Commedia dell'arte. Reclam (Stuttgart) 2003 (therein: interpretation of the so-called "fool's staircase")
  • Irmgard Biersack: The court of the "rich dukes" of Bavaria-Landshut (1392-1503). Hofgesinde, catering, building measures, in: Communications of the Residences Commission of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, 15 (2005), 2, pp. 17–45. available online (PDF; 1.6 MB)
  • Felix Mader: The art monuments of Lower Bavaria. City of Landshut. Including the Trausnitz . Unchangeable Reprint of the Munich 1927 edition. 1980.
  • Hans-Günter Richardi : Castles in Bavaria. A romantic guide. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-7991-5731-X , pp. 57-60.
  • Hans-Günter Richardi, Alfred A. Haase: Castles, palaces and monasteries in Bavaria ; Karl Müller Published by Erlangen 1991; Pp. 100-104.
  • Hans Georg Oswald: "Captivity at Trausnitz Castle and execution." In: "When the brothers moved into the country." Pfeffenhausen 2010, ISBN 978-3-931351-16-8 , pp. 171-195.

Web links

Commons : Trausnitz Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. reve-archaeologie.de
  2. Homepage of the city of Landshut
  3. Kristina Deutsch: A king as the savior of the castle: The "Absteigequartier" Ludwig II. On the Trausnitz in Landshut, in: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria, 137 (2011).
  4. A brief historical overview - burgtrausnitz.de ( Memento from March 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Herbert Brunner and Elmar D. Schmid: Landshut Castle Trausnitz, official guide . Ed .: Bayer. Palace and lake administration. 7th edition. No. 124 . Munich 1981.
  6. br.de: Major fire at Trausnitz Castle
  7. The "dump" of the king in Welt am Sonntag of October 30, 2011, page BY4
  8. bayern-online.de
  9. imdb.de