Great Palace (Meiningen)

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Great Palace - street side

The Great Palace in Meiningen is a palace of the Dukes of Saxony-Meiningen from the 19th century. It is also known as the "Wittumspalais" or "Erbprinzenpalais".

location

The Große Palais is located at the beginning of Bernhardstraße in the city center not far from the old town on the edge of the English Garden . The small palace , which was built at the same time, was built by the architect Schaubach diagonally across the street. Directly opposite is the villa of the famous banker Gustav Strupp as an equivalent building . To the north is the former Jewish department store, which is now the home of the Neue Kammerspiele . The Hotel Sächsischer Hof , built in 1798, is south of the palace .

Building

The Great Palace is a three-storey building with a richly structured facade in the French neo-Renaissance style . It has a central projectile facing the street with a balcony on columns in front of it. On the ground floor there are rustic irons and marbled support columns in the foyer . From there, an elaborately designed staircase leads to the first floor, where all the walls of the stairwell are structured with pilasters that take up two thirds of the height of the room and end on a surrounding ledge. As a continuation of the pilasters up to the stucco ceiling, the walls are provided with statues in the form of caryatids and herms . The ceilings and walls of almost all rooms have lavishly designed stucco work , which during the GDR era were "hidden" with suspended ceilings and projecting walls. They date from the time of the renovation and have been restored. Today the palace is used as a health center with a doctor's office , pharmacy and therapist. The total usable area is 1630 m². In the large rooms of the practices, room-in-room systems with glazed walls and ceilings are installed, which allow a clear view of the richly decorated stucco ceilings.

history

The palace was built from 1821 to 1823 in the classical style by the architect Johann Andreas Schaubach as a Wittumspalais for the Duchess Luise Eleonore . In 1863 a renovation and an expansion took place under the direction of senior building officer Otto Hoppe and the building received its dominant and representative shape in the style of the neo-renaissance that still exists today. After Duke Bernhard II's forced abdication in 1866 , the Great Palace became his residence. In 1890 the Hereditary Prince and later Duke Bernhard III took over the palace . his residence. Even after the end of the duchy in 1918, it remained in the possession of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen until 1945.

The Great Palace survived the Second World War unscathed. After the expropriation of the ducal estates, a teacher training institute first had its domicile here. Then the district office of Meiningen moved in . The building, which was called the Council of the District from 1952 to 1990, fulfilled this function until 1999. After a few years of vacancy, the Great Palace was extensively renovated from 2007 to 2009. Since then, there has been a "health center" with several medical practices and other health facilities.

photos

  • Before the renovation around 1840

  • Park side 1903

  • Park side 2012

  • Foyer with stairs

  • Street side 2009

literature

  • Alfred Erck (Ed.): Meiningen. Lexicon on city history. Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809504-4-2 .

Web link

Commons : Großes Palais  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Open Monument Day: Großes Palais in FW Meininger Tageblatt of September 10, 2009.
  2. ↑ Article: Großes Palais, Meininger Tageblatt of September 9, 2009.

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 18 ″  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 58 ″  E