Graflicher Park Bad Driburg

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Entrance to the Count's Park

The Gräfliche Park Bad Driburg is an English landscape garden with a size of 64  hectares in the East Westphalian town of Bad Driburg in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The park, which requires entry, is privately owned by the Graf von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff family and, due to its unusual location and design, is one of the anchor gardens in the European garden network .

The state-recognized spa Bad Driburg owes its fame above all to the carbonated medicinal and mineral springs that have been known since 1593 and are up to 70 meters deep. The pool and park form a unit with a building ensemble that has evolved over time , now known as the “Gräflicher Park Bad Driburg”. The Graeflicher Park Hotel und Spa is also located on the grounds of the park.

park

The Gräfliche Park Bad Driburg has a total of five kilometers of hedges, spacious, well-tended lawns and unique solitary trees. The origin of the rare trees goes back in part to the 18th century. Internationally renowned landscape architects have created and designed various areas in the Count's Park. The “great avenue” of chestnut, linden and oak between the city and the fountain runs on the east-west axis and extends into a promenade between the lodging and bathing houses.

In the center, the “Brunnenhaus” was built in the neoclassical style as a drinking and foyer above the main spring from 1822 to 1824. In front of these fountain arcades is the extended "fountain square" as an esplanade . An avenue meets this south as a central access and visual axis , which is framed by half-timbered buildings on natural stone plinths under mansard roofs in the fashion of the founding period from 1784. The basic structure of the center forms a "T". This center is surrounded on the south side by wide lawns with trees - planted solitary or in groups.

Ramona Countess von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff was awarded the "Golden Lindenblatt" by the German Society for Garden Art and Landscape Culture in 2001 for designing the park. In 2005 the Gräfliche Park became a member of the European Garden Network (EGHN).

Entry to the park is chargeable from April to October.

The history of the Count's Park

Sauerbrunnen with avenue in the Monumenta Paderbornensia from 1672

The prince-bishop of Paderborn Ferdinand von Fürstenberg laid the foundation stone for the Driburger Bad and the Gräflichen Park in 1669 when he laid out a double-row linden avenue to the “Driburger Sauerbrunnen”, the source of healing and mineral water. A leather wallpaper in the nearby Vinsebeck Castle shows the transport of the bottled mineral water around 1720, which was already seduced in large quantities to "London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Danzig, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Hanover, Cassel and other elegant places". With the exception of a polygonal fountain pavilion and a few meadows, which, in addition to cattle farming, were used to ensure that “the fountain guests want to have their process on it”, there were no other systems until 1782.

The Brunswick head hunter Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff saw the area for the first time on a trip in 1779 and finally bought it in 1781. In tough negotiations with the Driburg farmers and the city, Sierstorpff acquired "every piece of land and meadow that was somehow close" . He had the swampy terrain drained, paths laid and the lime tree avenue that was cleared during the Seven Years' War replanted, but this had to be enforced against the resistance of the Driburg citizens. Inspired by landscape gardens such as Richmond near Braunschweig, Kew in Great Britain and Wörlitz , von Sierstorpff designed an English park with winding paths and streams, in the course of which the artificially created park landscape could imperceptibly merge with nature. As early as 1791, the widely read “ Journal des Luxus und der Fashions ” spoke of Driburg as a “place of peace and rural pleasure”.

In addition to seating for the strollers and accommodation in the form of simple half-timbered houses for the bathers, Caspar Heinrich also provided a “company of very good Bohemian musicians” who gave concerts in the summer. Between 1783 and 1786, the chief hunter built the lodging house (now the Sierstorpff house) and the poor house (the current administration building). In 1793/94 the construction of a second bath and lodging house (now the Hölderlin house) began, which was joined by the Sierstorpff house in 1803. Caspar Heinrich's descendants still live in this “Count's House” today. The use of the rather rural half-timbered structure took place, among other things, to save costs, since the company of the still inexperienced client was uncertain. In order to at least make the bathing and lodging houses architecturally contemporary, the buildings were given mansard roofs . Shortly thereafter, Sierstorpff regretted "the cursed attic roofs that always rain through", but which he had now been tempted to do by an "unseelful fashion". The gable roof came into its own again for his own house .

The Napoleonic Wars caused the first turning point in the development of the spa, and after 1815 there was an economic boom. Driburg had meanwhile become Prussian , and Sierstorpff - who managed to get financial support from Prussia for the expansion of the spa facilities - wrote to Chancellor Count Hardenberg in 1820 that the number of visitors to the spa had increased to such an extent that many guests had to be turned away. At that time, another large lodging house, the current Vincke house, was built. Until then, all buildings had been built by insignificant builders in the area, but Sierstorpff, who has meanwhile been raised to the rank of count, had the plans for the new foyer , the crowning glory of the entire complex, drawn up by the renowned architect Peter Joseph Krahe .

In 1853 eastern Westphalia received a railway line that allowed bathers to get to Driburg more quickly and comfortably. Since 1864, however, a new line cut the Driburger Allee in two. Another innovation towards the end of the 19th century were the lawn tennis courts, which were laid out next to the coffee house. The adjacent areas were still used for agriculture. The imperial part of the park now had another newly created attraction, the curved pond. From 1923, under Count Rabe von Oeynhausen -Sierstorpff, the old parts of the park and tennis courts were given up in favor of the concert shell that still exists today and the avenue of lime trees was further shortened. As an extension of the park, the "rose garden" with thousands of roses, monopteros and Friedrich Wilhelm Weber memorials was built in the north-west in 1932 with a size of 3000 m² . Countess Ramona von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff also created other interesting points in the park, such as the garden chapel at the duck pond, the garden bridges and changing flower plants.

Despite ongoing modernization, the descendants of the spa founder, Caspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff, have always tried to preserve the historical substance, so that the ensemble of the spa still exudes the charm of the late 18th century without being destroyed.

Themed gardens

The Gräfliche Park in Bad Driburg has the following themed gardens and viewing stations:

  • The 3000 m² rose garden with Monopteros and Friedrich Wilhelm Weber memorial (created in 1932)
  • The lily meadow designed by the French landscape architect Gilles Clément
  • The small garden chapel and the peacock bridge at the duck pond
  • The hedge garden made of hornbeam with yin and yang water features by the English sculptor Angela Conner
  • The Hölderlin grove and the Diotima island
  • The 8 hectare game park with fallow deer with ha ha ditches and cairns
  • The duck pond with a large water fountain
  • The mausoleum of the Counts of Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff, located on the Rosenberg
  • The shrub and grass garden by the Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf
  • The maze

wildlife Park

On the north-eastern edge of the Gräflichen Park is the eight hectare game reserve , in which fallow deer live, which - separated only by the Ha-Ha ditch - can be observed and fed. As a special feature, a path leads through the game reserve. So it is possible to observe the game from anywhere without a fence.

Piet Oudolf Garden

Piet Oudolf Garden

In 2009, the internationally known Dutch horticultural artist Piet Oudolf laid out a perennial and grass garden in the historic landscape garden in the south-western part of the Count's Park. 16,000 coordinated plants were planted on 6,000 square meters. In the middle of the beds, Piet Oudolf added small walkable grass hills, from which the viewer can take different angles and perspectives on the plants and grasses. In addition - due to the high groundwater level - two catchment basins were built.

Diotima Island

On a small island in the duck pond of the Count's Park stands a statue of Susette Gontard, who was revered as " Diotima " by the poet Friedrich Hölderlin . This lies exactly on the line of sight to the "Hölderlin-Hain". The statue symbolizes the unfulfilled love between the poet and the banker's wife in the 18th century, who spent several happy weeks together in the Count's Park in Bad Driburg in 1796.

Mausoleum with obelisk on the Rosenberg

The grave of the founder of the spa, Caspar Heinrich Graf von Sierstorpff (1750–1842), is crowned by an obelisk on the Rosenberg . The mausoleum was later supplemented with the burial chapel and the family cemetery of the Counts of Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff. The Rosenberg, the first facilities of which date back to the late 18th century, was and is a scenic hiking destination, on which partly straight and partly curved paths lead and the top of which opens up a view of the Alhausen valley . There was also a large ice cellar on the edge of the Rosenberg.

The fountain arcades

Fountain arcades

The fountain arcades were built in 1822 according to the designs of the architect Peter Joseph Krahe and with the help of grants from the Prussian state. The hall with a length of 70 meters was clad with sandstone on the facade, below which half-timbering was used, which is still visible on the side of the building facing the park. Today the drinking cures are served here and classical concerts are offered.

Hotel Graeflicher Park Health & Balance Resort

The Hotel Graeflicher Park Health & Balance Resort was originally built as a spa hotel . In 2007, after planning by Veauthier Architects, a comprehensive renovation and expansion into a resort and conference hotel took place. The resulting 4-star superior hotel has a 1,800 m² garden SPA , a therapy center for health-oriented treatments in the historic bathing houses as well as an Ayurveda center and a F. X. Mayr center with Franz-Xaver -Mayr cure . Two restaurants - Caspar's Restaurant and the Pferdestall restaurant , which was built in the former stable in 1870 - as well as the café in the park in a former riding hall and the Oscar's Bar offer upscale gastronomy. Six different lodging houses have 135 individually furnished hotel rooms.

Famous guests in the Count's Park

The poet Friedrich Hölderlin spent several weeks in Bad Driburg with his muse Susette Gontard at the end of the 18th century. After he was hired in January 1796 at the age of 25 as the "Hofmeister" (private tutor) for the four children of the Frankfurt banker's wife Susette Gontard, he quickly felt a great affection and spiritual connection to the 26-year-old intelligent landlady. This intensified when Frankfurt was threatened by French troops and Susette's husband Jakob Friedrich Gontard sent his mother Madame d'Orville, his sister Margarethe, his wife, the children, a governess and Hölderlin to safety from Frankfurt via Kassel to Hamburg for two months .

After their stay in Kassel, the group traveled for several happy weeks to Bad Driburg, which at that time was only known to the initiated, as Hölderlin wrote to his brother on August 6, 1796: “Next week we will travel to the Westphalian region, to Driburg (a bath in near Paderborn) ". During this time, Hölderlin completed his letter novel “Hyperion” , which he dedicated to Susette Gontard with the words “Whom but you”. Her ideal figure as “ Diotima ”, named after a figure from Plato's “Banquet”, can be found in many of his works from then on. The poet and Susette spent the time with long conversations and walks, which took them to the bones mountain, through the avenues and to the then still unwooded Rosenberg. They enjoyed the healing water with "Brunnengeist", as carbon dioxide was called back then, and the down-to-earth food such as crabs and trout from the Weser Uplands . Holderlin noted: "I needed the bath a little and drank the delicious and cleansing mineral water and found and feel unusually good from it." But otherwise they lived in seclusion, as the owner of the bath Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff noted in a letter to his wife : "... only the Gontard family will stay here indefinitely, you hardly see them at all, they always stay in their rooms, an anecdote about it verbally." Hölderlin himself noted that "they made no acquaintances, and didn't need any, because we did." lived under beautiful mountains and forests and made the best circles among ourselves ”. The company returned to Frankfurt at the end of September. Under the impression of the summer days spent together, Hölderlin's verse tale "Emilie before her bridal day" was created . The sources from the Bone Mountain also found their way into the poem "To the Madonna" .

After returning to Frankfurt, Hölderlin left the Gontard family , the love story ended tragically with Susette's death in 1802. Today, a Diotima bust stands as a souvenir in the Gräflicher Park on the line of sight to the Hölderlin grove. In 2007, Annabelle Countess von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff founded the “Diotima Society” to commemorate Hölderlin's stay and to promote local cultural life.

Other famous guests in the Count's Park were Otto Graf Lambsdorff , Jette Joop and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. The poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff spent relaxing spa stays in 1816, 1818 and 1819. The lodging house “Droste-Haus”, which today houses hotel rooms, still reminds of them.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gräflicher Park Bad Driburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. [1]
  2. ^ Rolf Bothe: Bad Driburg In: Das Gräfliche Kurbad Driburg 1998, p. 38.
  3. ^ Rolf Bothe: Bad Driburg In: Das Gräfliche Kurbad Driburg 1998, p. 39.
  4. ^ Rolf Bothe: Bad Driburg In: Das Gräfliche Kurbad Driburg 1998, p. 43.
  5. Klaus von Krosigk: The spa gardens of Bad Driburg In: Das Gräfliche Kurbad Driburg 1998, p. 83.
  6. ^ Rolf Bothe: Bad Driburg In: Das Gräfliche Kurbad Driburg 1998, p. 40.
  7. Website of the hotel u. a. Proof of name and Ayurveda center. graeflicher-park.de, accessed on December 2, 2018 .
  8. Friedrich Hölderlin: Complete Works. Big Stuttgart edition. Ed. v. Friedrich Beissner. Vol. 7: Documents. Ed. v. Adolf Beck. Third part: documents 1822–1842. Stuttgart 1974, p. 552.
  9. Gunter Martens: Friedrich Hölderlin 1996, pp. 90f.

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 '3.8 "  N , 9 ° 1' 52.4"  E