Weissenfels escort house
The escort home is the former escort office in the Great Castle Road from Weissenfels and now houses the Gustav Adolf Museum and an Irish pub .
History of the house
The escort house is the first secular building built entirely from stone in Weißenfels. It was built in 1552 in the Renaissance style by Hieronymus Kiesewetter , who as Chancellor had to follow his Duke to Dresden in 1553. The house then stood empty until it became the Electoral Saxon Escort Office in 1555, where travelers could hire armed soldiers to offer them protection and escort to the next quarters. In addition, customs duties and road tolls had to be paid.
A few days before the battle of Lützen (November 6, 1632), Pappenheim spent the night on the first floor of the escort office. On November 7, 1632, the body of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf , who was killed near Lützen, was dissected and embalmed here by the pharmacist Casparus König , so that he could be transferred to Sweden and buried there. During the autopsy, u. a. After the organs were removed, legend has it that some of the king's blood came to the wall at the entrance.
After 1660 the house served as a lodging house for Duke August von Sachsen-Weißenfels . From 1725 it was used as a courthouse, since 1912 it has been used as a residential building.
In 1932, on the 300th anniversary of the battle, a museum in honor of Gustav Adolf was set up on the first floor. For this purpose, the Weißenfels pedagogue Max Brauer set up a diorama that recreates the battle of Lützen with 10,000 tin figures. In addition, the autopsy room was opened to the public.
Today the museum has eight rooms. The exhibits deal with the Thirty Years War and its effects on the Weißenfels population, as well as Gustav Adolf's fame and controversy during his lifetime and after his death.
The Irish pub "Battlefield" has been located on the ground floor since 2006.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 57.4 ″ N , 11 ° 58 ′ 24 ″ E