Hagen Castle in the Bremen region
| Hagen Castle in the Bremen region | ||
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 Exterior view of the castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Burghagen | |
| Creation time : | around 900, first mentioned in the 12th century | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg , location | |
| Conservation status: | Today's brick building 1502 to 1507 | |
| Standing position : | Clericals, nobles | |
| Construction: | Brick | |
| Place: | Hagen in Bremen | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 21 '9.1 " N , 8 ° 38' 20.7" E | |
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The Hagen Castle in Bremen , also called Burghagen , is a castle in the municipality of Hagen in the Bremen district of Cuxhaven in Lower Saxony . It is one of the numerous fortress structures built by Bremen's archbishops in the vicinity of the city of Bremen . Mentioned as early as the 12th century, today's two-story brick building was erected in the early 16th century. The oldest paintings date from this period. The building was restored from 1985 to 1988 and now houses a cultural center.
history
The episcopal fortress
The first church in the vicinity of the castle, the Bramstedter Church, was built between 900 and 1000 . The place Dorfhagen is mentioned for the first time in 1110 in a document.
The castle was probably built under Archbishop Hartwig II (1184–1207) to fight the rebellious Stedinger farmers. It was initially referred to as "Castrum Hagen", popularly it was called Burghagen . This differentiated it from the neighboring town of Hagen , which was called Dorfhagen .
Its location on the edge of the Geest , but already in the Drepte river valley , allowed the area to be completely flooded, making the castle almost impregnable. An approximately 140 m long road was built for this purpose, between 5 and 10 m high. At the end of the path a circular thunder was raised , with a diameter of around 100 m. Compulsory farmers had to cart clay and silt rock from the area around Lehnstedt and from the Wesermarsch , on which today's castle stands, and dig a 5 m wide moat around the Warf. The excavation was used to build a high wall, which rose 4 m above the surrounding meadow. A stream, the floodplain coming from Dorfhagen, supplied the ditch with water, which could be crossed by means of a drawbridge . In addition, the Drepte flowed through the surrounding meadows very close, so that, in combination with palisades , the castle was well secured like an island in a lake.
In 1212, the rebellious farmers in Osterstad besieged the castle, which was probably still a half-timbered building . It is unclear whether it was conquered. After the archbishop had to cede the fortification of Witteborg on the Weser, built after 1200, to the city of Bremen on March 28, 1221, the Osterstader peasants in 1233 and the West-Stedinger farmers in 1234 were defeated in the battle of Altenesch .
The first brick castle was probably built in the first half of the 13th century. It was already 30 m long and 10 m wide. A village settlement was established near the castle, which was initially called Dammhagen. Today's Hagen emerged from it. In 1987 piles were found during an excavation, the oldest of which were from 1333. Gerhard II appointed a bailiff at this castle , who was responsible for administration and jurisdiction. He enlarged this bailiwick by acquiring the Bramstedt Börde and its bailiwick rights for 150 silver marks from Count Gerbert II von Stotel in 1248 . They later formed the core of the Hagen office. As Oberdeichgraf in Osterstade, the Vogt also exercised market jurisdiction .
Now the house was used by the archbishops for their hunting stays. The archbishop's bailiff lived nearby, in what would later become the forester's office. The old oak there , the Staleiche (Staleke), is mentioned in a document from 1248. This document was drawn up to settle the dispute with the Counts of Stotel. This year they had to cede the Bailiwick of Bramstedt to Archbishop Gerhard II. The document “iuxta castrum Hagen prope quercum vulgariter staleke nuncupatum” was given (actum), that is, “near the castle near the oak tree popularly known as“ Staleke ”.
A number of bailiffs have come down to us, for example from the family of the neighboring " von Wersebe " in Cassebruch. In 1307, when the people of Bremen drove the nobility of the archbishopric from the city, they also took the castle.
In 1389 Archbishop Albert II (1359–1395) had to pledge the castle to the Count of Oldenburg , for which he received the considerable sum of 500 gold guilders . Archbishop Albert, a son of Duke Magnus von Braunschweig , had already pushed the administrator of the archbishopric, Moritz von Oldenburg , out of office in 1362 . He withdrew to his seat at Hagen Castle. Similarly, in 1434 Archbishop Nikolaus , Count of Oldenburg, was ordered to live in the castle after his bankruptcy . However, Nikolaus preferred to go to Delmenhorst .
The first stone tower was built in the 14th century. The rising damp caused the castle owners to keep putting in new floors and to raise the cellar.
Today's castle
Today's castle was built between 1502 and 1507 at the latest. The client for the new building was Archbishop Johann Rode , who lived at the castle from 1506 to 1511.
A steep tiled roof rises over two floors around 4 m high and a cellar. The basement walls are 1.60 m thick and around 1.30 m higher up. The great hall is on the second floor . It faces south and overlooks the adjacent garden. There was originally a chapel in the eastern gable . The interior decoration, which has been partially preserved and has been visible again for a number of years, was created from 1535 onwards. These Gothic paintings around the windows and in wall niches were followed by curtain paintings in white, gray and black around 1570. There was also an outside staircase that led into the chapel through one of today's windows.
In front of the entrance there is a large horse chestnut , possibly from the 16th century, and thus one of the oldest representatives of this tree species, imported from Constantinople in 1553 .
The castle was besieged several times in the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547) and in the Muenster feud (1547).
The 25-year-old Archbishop of Bremen, Heinrich von Sachsen-Lauenburg , was one of the first bishops to confess Protestantism and wanted to be the first to marry. He chose the castle for his marriage to Anna von Broich , the daughter of Cologne's second mayor, on October 25, 1575. The corresponding document was signed by the castle preacher Gade. The curtain painting in the chapel is possibly to be understood as part of the wedding preparations, possibly also the no longer existing wooden stairs. The wedding took place in a very small circle, especially since as a multiple Catholic bishop he was not entitled to marry. Heinrich had been bishop of Osnabrück since 1574 , and in 1577 he also succeeded in becoming archbishop of Paderborn , which was Protestant at the time. Only the intervention of Pope Gregory XIII. it was due to the fact that he did not also become bishop of Munster . But in 1585 the controversial owner of several dioceses, both Catholic and Lutheran, fell from his horse and died in his residence in Beverstedtermühlen . Clergymen accused his wife of poisoning him, but she was acquitted.
By 1600, lived in the castle next to the bailiff, who now bailiff was called a steward, guards, porters, fishermen, servants and shepherds. 86 Erbmeier belonged to the castle. The two attics served as a storage facility for their duties, which were mainly paid in kind. Behind the gable bay window on the east side there is another winch wheel for the crane. There was also a large tithe barn , which was demolished in 1948. Today's outbuilding was created from the remains.
Sweden
In 1644, four years before the end of the Thirty Years War , there were 200 Swedes in the castle. Imperial troops conquered them and took the Swedes prisoner. The fortress had long since become unusable due to modernized siege technology. It became the seat of a Swedish bailiff after Queen Christina of Sweden gave the castle to her favorite Andreas Güldenklau (also Gyldenklou, Anders Mansson Gylle, 1602–65) in 1647. He was probably never present himself and had the estate run by a local administrator.
In 1680 the Swedish crown revoked the donation and sold the castle to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1720 . An office building was built as early as 1698, and official business was now carried out there. The castle was converted into a prison, but services continued to take place in the chapel.
Kingdom of Hanover
In 1720 Hagen became an electoral Hanoverian office and kept the Staleke in the coat of arms until the Prussian era . The place was now called "Amthagen". The castle served as a courthouse and prison, and as an apartment for sub-officials. He didn't live there himself. He did not live in the castle again until 1846, after a new official building with a prison had been built between the staleiche and the castle. This was due to the separation of administration and jurisdiction that had been enacted in the kingdom . The castle became the official residence of the magistrate.
The windows were enlarged, the paintings whitewashed. The path to the castle, which was later lined by oaks , was cut down in the 1830s and the felled trees were replaced by linden trees. From 1846 to 1978 the castle housed apartments for the employees of the Hagen district court in Bremen . From 1820 the domain chamber did not employ its own preacher and only prayer was held in the chapel .
Prussia
In 1866 the area came to Prussia , and in 1886 the chief forester of Axstedt near Lübberstedt took his official seat in the office building next to the barn oak. In 1897 a neo-Gothic church was inaugurated next to it . The castle and park were inaccessible to the public and were preserved by the justice administration of Lower Saxony . Walls were erected in the castle, ceilings were put in and heating systems were installed.
Restoration and cultural center
In 1976 the district court was dissolved and the castle was to be sold. On the other hand, there was a connection from the state of Lower Saxony, the district of Cuxhaven and the joint municipality of Hagen, but above all from civic associations such as the Heimatverein Burg zu Hagen im Bremischen e. V. and the regional newspaper Unter der Staleke , which appeared for the first time in spring 1965 and reported in several series on the restoration of the castle. From 1985 to 1988 the castle was restored for five million marks . On January 1, 1990, the district of Cuxhaven took over the sponsorship of the castle. It houses a cultural center with changing exhibitions.
literature
- Franz Buchenau : Dammhagen. A contribution to north-west German regional studies , in: Treatises, published by the Natural Science Association in Bremen , Vol. 18, Franz Leuwer, Bremen 1906, pp. 1-14.
- Axel J. Behne: The castle Hagen in the Bremen. History, building history, art history , Hagen 1994. ISBN 3-930914-00-X .
- Under the staleke. Local newspaper for the integrated community of Hagen , No. 62, 66, 70ff, 86, 88, 134.
- Rolf Augustin (Ed.): Im Schatten der Burg Hagen , Kiel 2012, ISBN 978-3-86342-279-0 .
Web links
See also
Remarks
- ↑ This and the following according to Franz Buchenau: Dammhagen. A contribution to Northwest German regional studies , in: Treatises, published by the Natural Science Association in Bremen, Vol. 18, Franz Leuwer, Bremen 1906, pp. 1–14, here p. 3.
- ↑ Franz Buchenau: Damm Hagen. A contribution to Northwest German regional studies , in: Treatises, published by the Natural Science Association in Bremen, Vol. 18, Franz Leuwer, Bremen 1906, pp. 1–14, here: p. 6.