Hardwick Hall

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Hardwick Hall, built 1590–1597
Hardwick Hall Gallery in the 1890s
Hardwick Hall has six dormer windows with Bess of Hardwick's initials "ES" in the balustrade.
Hardwick Old Hall

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is a country house in England and an important example of Elizabethan architecture . Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick , one of the most prominent members of the nobility of your time, the mansion was designed by the builder Robert Smythson , an architect of the English Renaissance . Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of this architectural style, which at the time slowly spread across Europe from Florence . His arrival in England happened at the time when it was no longer necessary or permissible to fortify private houses. Ownership of this mansion passed to the National Trust in 1959 . Today it is open to the public.

history

16th Century

Hardwick Hall is on a hill between Chesterfield and Mansfield , overlooking the Derbyshire countryside . The house was designed by Robert Smythson in the late 16th century . The manor was commissioned by Bess of Hardwick , Countess of Shrewsbury and ancestor of the Dukes of Devonshire , and remained in the property of their descendants until the mid-20th century.

Bess of Hardwick was the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I at the time and her house was intended as a clearly visible symbol of her wealth and power. The windows are exceptionally large and numerous for a time when glass was still considered a luxury. At that time it rhymed "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." (Eng .: Hardwick Hall - more glass than walls.) The chimneys of the country house are built into the inner walls to leave more space on the outer walls for the huge windows without weakening them.

The construction of this house shows not only new concepts in the construction of private houses, but also a more modern way of living in a large house. Hardwick Hall was one of the first English houses to have the great hall built on an axis through the center of the house rather than at right angles to the entrance.

Each of the three main floors has a higher ceiling height than the one below, whereby the ceiling height was a measure of the importance of the residents: the simplest lived on the lowest floor, the noblest on the top. Before that, the nobility lived close to those who served them; From then on, servants and masters had their clearly delimited areas.

A wide, curved staircase leads up to the parade rooms on the second floor. These rooms included one of the longest galleries in an English house and also a slightly altered, tapestry-hung parade bedroom with a spectacular stucco frieze showing hunting scenes.

Hardwick Hall was only one of the Countess of Hardwick's many homes. Each of her four marriages had brought her greater wealth. She was born in Hardwick Old Hall , which is now in ruins next to the "new" Hardwick Hall.

17th century

After the Countess's death in 1608, the house fell to her son William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire . Her grandson William was made the first Earl of Devonshire in 1694. The family made another Bess of Hardwick home, Chatsworth House , their headquarters. Hardwick Hall thus became a recreational seat for the occasional hunt and sometimes a staging area .

As a second home, Hardwick Hall escaped modernization and only underwent few changes after completion.

19th century

From the beginning of the 19th century, Hardwick Hall's antiquated atmosphere was intentionally preserved. A low wing for the servants was added to the rear.

20th century

In 1950 the unexpected death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire and the ensuing inheritance taxes of 80% forced the sale of much of the family's real estate and other property. At that time Evelyn , the widow of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire , lived in the country house. The family decided in 1956 to transfer the property to HM Treasury to settle their tax debts . The Treasury gave the country house to the National Trust in 1959 . The Duchess was allowed to continue to dispose of Hardwick Hall until her death in 1960. But she was hostile to the National Trust and so the old lady rarely visited the house in the last year of her life. She had done a lot to keep the fabrics in the house and was the last resident of Hardwick Hall.

today

Hardwick Hall contains a large collection of embroidery , mostly from the late 16th century, many of which are also on the 1601 inventory. Some of the sewing work on display in the country house shows the monogram "ES" (for "Elizabeth of Shrewsbury") and was probably made by Bess himself. There are a large number of fine picture knitwear and furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is noteworthy that a large part of today's furniture and other furnishings are recorded in an inventory list from 1601. The '' Sea Dog Table '' is a particularly important piece that was created around 1600, and the '' Eglantine Table '' shows inlay work that is interesting for music historians.

Hardwick Hall is open to the public. The manor house has a beautiful garden with a perennial garden , vegetable and herb garden and orchards . Hardwick Old Hall is located in the extensive park , a country house that was built a little earlier than the new manor house and, after its completion, was used as a guest house and house for the servants. Hardwick Old Hall is now in ruins. It is administered by English Heritage for the National Trust and is also open to the public. Many of the rooms in Hardwick Old Hall were decorated with plasterwork , particularly over the open fireplaces. Remarkably, one can still admire impressive fragments of this stucco work today. They are provided with protective paint and rain protection roofs because most of the building no longer has a roof.

Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank selected Hardwick Hall as one of five country houses for Britain's Best Buildings , a BBC documentary series that aired in 2006. The building, innovative in its day, served three centuries later as the inspiration for the enormous Great Exhibition Hall of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Hardwick Hall was an ideal model for a building that was to combine historicism with large glass surfaces, which at the time, as a result of the enormous success of the Crystal Palace at the World's Fair in London in 1851 for the main exhibition halls of international fairs and exhibitions.

In film and television

Hardwick Hall appeared on the television series Connections to illustrate the long series of changes that occurred in the construction of private homes as a result of the Little Ice Age .

The outside scenes of Malfoy Manor for the films Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 were filmed in Hardwick Hall .

The country house also featured in the television series Mastercrafts , episode 6, about the stonemasonry , where apprentices vie to make suitable sundials for the Hardwick Hall garden.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Another version reads: "more window than wall" (Eng .: "more windows than walls") . Sir Nikolaus Pevsner writes: "The little rhyme is: 'Hardwick Hall, more window than wall.' Nikolaus Pevsner: A History of Building Types . Thames and Hudson, London 1976, p. 324, remark 80.
  2. ↑ Chatsworth: Home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire . Derbyshire Countryside, 2005, p. 56.
  3. ↑ Mark Girouard: Hardwick Hall . National Trust, London 2006, ISBN 1-84359-217-7 , p. 72.
  4. ^ Dan Cruickshank: Britain's Best Buildings. on: BBC Four. Accessed June 3, 2008.
  5. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: A History of Building Types . Thames and Hudson, London 1976, p. 248.
  6. ↑ Harry Potter scenes shot at Derbyshire's Hardwick Hall. on: BBC Derby. November 24, 2010, April 10, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Hardwick Hall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 7.7 ″  N , 1 ° 18 ′ 31.7 ″  W.