Gothic tower
The Gothic Tower in Karlsruhe was a chapel-like building with a tower and was located in the southeastern part of the former Hereditary Prince Garden , today's Nymphengarten .
history
Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden had the building erected in 1802 by Friedrich Weinbrenner in memory of his son, Hereditary Prince Karl Ludwig von Baden , who died in Arboga ( Sweden ) .
The tower was called " Gothic " because the shape of the pointed arches on the windows and doors was reminiscent of this architectural style. A staircase with 128 steps led to the platform of the tower. From the top of the tower could be seen to the foothills of the Black Forest .
A bath house, the bath cabinet of the widowed Margravine Amalie von Hessen-Darmstadt , a room with drawings and engravings about the life and death of Karl Ludwig, and a chapel with the tomb of the Hereditary Prince were attached to the round tower . All parts of the building were designed in a uniform, old German style, the so-called Neo - Gothic . The now defunct Amali castle was located near the Gothic tower .
In the course of the urban redesign and the extension of Lammstrasse, the tower had to be demolished in 1866. In 1871 the last remains of the building were destroyed in a fire .
Tomb
The tomb in the form of an ancient ash coffin, in front of which a grieving female figure sat, was located in the chapel used as a mausoleum. At its top was a medallion image of the deceased, surrounded by the symbols of death and sleep and two grieving genii . The base contained the inscription:
“Karl Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Baden, b. Feb. 14, 1755, d. December 15, 1801. To the beloved, painful, immortal memory and the sweetest of all hopes, that of reunion. "
After the demolition of the Gothic tower, the grave monument was moved to the pheasantry near today's Pheasant Castle , not far from Karlsruhe Castle .
literature
- Karl Zahn - Graves, Grüfte, Mourning places (Volume 24 of the publications of the Karlsruhe City Archives), edited by the City Archives Karlsruhe by Ernst Otto Bräunche, Karlsruhe 2001 ISBN 3-88190-282-1 .
- Julian Hanschke: Friedrich Weinbrenner's Gothic Tower in Karlsruhe. New insights into an early example of neo-Gothic architecture in Baden. In: Yearbook of the State Art Collections in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 48/49 (2013), ISBN 978-3-422-07171-1 , pp. 41-60.
Web links
- Gothic tower. In: arch INFORM . (brief architectural description)
- The website of the Association for the Care of Cemetery and Funeral Culture in Karlsruhe on the Mausoleum at the Gothic Tower ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 49 ° 0 '21.4 " N , 8 ° 24' 1.4" E