Chattenburg

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Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 49 ″  N , 9 ° 30 ′ 11 ″  E

The ruins of the Chattenburg (left), 1850

The Chattenburg was a monumental residential palace in Kassel that was begun by Elector Wilhelm I of Hessen- Kassel . It was intended to replace the city ​​palace , which was largely destroyed by a major fire in 1811 and demolished in 1816 . When Wilhelm I died in February 1821, only the shell of the ground floor was finished, and his son and successor Wilhelm II had construction stopped.

location

The building was at 156  m above sea level. NN , at the site of today's regional council above the banks of the Fulda , where the city palace of the Landgraves of Hesse and Hesse-Kassel had previously stood.

history

The Kassel City Palace was largely destroyed by a major fire on the night of November 24, 1811, during the French rule of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813). King Jérôme moved to Bellevue Palace and showed no interest in rebuilding. Elector Wilhelm I, who returned to his country in November 1813 after the expulsion of the French from Kurhessen, was also not interested. He had more ambitious plans. Although he did not succeed in being raised to the title of “King of Chats ” at the Congress of Vienna , he wanted at least to build a castle that was worthy of a king. In December 1816 he not only had the rubble of the almost completely destroyed north-west wing of the city palace removed, but also had the three other wings, which were also damaged but still standing, torn down in order to realize his huge new building plan for the "Chattenburg", which his master builder, Heinrich Christoph Jussow , had designed.

The dimensions and expense of the planned classical building went far beyond the usual framework of a royal residence . In June 1817 the preparatory and foundation work began, which dragged on for a very long time. The foundation stone was only laid on June 27, 1820 . The facility extended from west-northwest to east-southeast high above the Fulda floodplain. A four-wing building about 50 × 60 m in size enclosed a large inner courtyard, and in the east, two side wings, each about 50 m long, joined the main wing in a U-shape. The entire facility was to be three-story.

When the client, Wilhelm I, died on February 27, 1821, at the age of 78, only the shell of the first floor was built. After that, the work was stopped because his son and successor, Elector Wilhelm II, preferred his palace on Friedrichsplatz , had it expanded and expanded considerably by building the Red Palace , and had other priorities with regard to the use of his own and state finances - primarily his Mistress Emilie Ortlöpp and her welfare.

The red sandstones of the basement were removed between 1840 and 1870; they were used in the construction of the Neue Galerie, which lies immediately to the south, from 1871 to 1874.

Successor buildings

After the Prussian annexation of Kurhessen in 1866, the new Prussian administration was initially housed in the Palais Hessen-Rotenburg on Königsplatz from October 1867 . However, the premises there were too limited from the start, and the location of the former and unfinished Chattenburg was soon considered for the construction of a new service building. After the remains had been completely removed in 1870, the government bought the site with the foundations and cellars that were still there from the general administration of the electoral family affide commissioner and, from 1875, built a new three-storey government and justice building in the monumental style of the Wilhelminian era . It was completed in 1882 after seven years of construction and was already referred to by contemporaries as an “oversized brick box”.

The building was badly damaged in the devastating air raid on Kassel on October 22, 1943 . The ruin was demolished from 1949 to 1953. Between 1957 and 1960, today's office tower of the regional council was built on the same site .

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