Rear (new) Küps Castle

Hinteres or Neues Schloss Küps

One of three existing former aristocratic residences in the town of Markt Küps in the Kronach district in Upper Franconia in the Free State of Bavaria is referred to as the New or Rear Palace .

Geographical location

The Küps market is located in the middle of the extensive valley landscape of the central Rodach . Slavs immigrated from the east are considered to be the founders of the settlement on the mountainside on the left bank of the Rodach . Prehistoric finds also point to an earlier settlement of the area by Celts . The favorable location of the place on the Rodach, which served as a transport route in the Middle Ages , established the establishment of four aristocratic seats.

So in 1151 the beginnings of the old or middle castle were built , around 1400 their first buildings Am Plan 14. Before 1521 a fortified courtyard ( Hofgut Melanger ) and before 1540 the upper castle on the highest point of the place is proven.

While the Hofgut Melanger was already described as abandoned in 1668, the three other aristocratic residences in the locality still exist. Six more were built between the 13th and 18th centuries in the immediate vicinity of Küps: the castles in Oberlangstadt , Hain , Schmölz , Theisenort , the moated castle in Tüschnitz and the old bower in Nagel. All are or were in today's Küps market area.

150 meters southwest of the parish church of St. Johann in Küps is the Am Plan square and in its western part the New Castle of the Barons of Redwitz .

history

At the beginning of the 14th century the first buildings of a fortified courtyard were built in place of today's New Castle by the knights Johannes and Hermanus von Redwitz, who also had the first church built in Küps in 1302. In 1495 Heinrich von Redwitz gave the estate to Friedrich II of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach as a fief.

The property was badly damaged in the Peasants' War in 1525 . The Brandenburgers then exchanged it in 1538 for Streitberg in Franconian Switzerland , which was owned by the Bamberg Monastery. Shortly afterwards, in the Second Margrave War (1552 to 1554) , the castle was largely destroyed. It was not until after 1600 that tentative rebuilding began, initially in the form of four towers. After the fiefdom with the Bambergers had been dissolved, Carl Siegmund Philipp von Redwitz initiated the construction period in 1730, which gave the current structure its appearance and the name of the New Palace.

Towards the end of the 18th century, financial constraints and inheritance disputes within the family led to the sale of Redwitz's possessions. The New Palace was divided in 1811. Half went to the Vicarius General of Ansbach , Joseph von Redwitz, who immediately sold his share to Günther, the bailiff at the time. A few years later, the second half went back to the Redwitz-Küpser men. In 1877, of the twelve castles that were once owned by the von Redwitz between the Main and the Franconian Forest , only the New Castle in Küps was owned by the family, with some land. Today Alexandra von Herwarth, daughter of the last lady of the castle, Elisabeth Freiin von Redwitz, owns, lives and manages the property.

buildings

The palace complex essentially consists of the main wing facing south-west, which can be reached through a connecting structure from the right-angled side wing. On the side wing, in which the passage to the castle courtyard is located, there is an enclosure wall that separates the almost square interior from the castle forecourt as well as the servants' houses and a farmhouse south of the castle. Two defensive towers are set into the wall.

Main wing

The narrow, four-story main wing with its two by seven window axes stands with its northwest side directly on the steep slope towards the Rodach. The originally late medieval building was described as a "noble residence of the nobles von Redwitz-Küps with towers and surrounding walls with a forecourt, vie houses, stables, Voigthaus and garden" before it was rebuilt in 1730. Of the defensive towers mentioned , two have been preserved as stumps on the Rodach side, and another as the foundation wall of the “ice tower”.

In the course of the renovation and expansion measures initiated by Baron CS Philipp von Redwitz in 1730, he had an attic storey added to the existing three-storey building . At the same time, the four round corner bay windows were raised hexagonally over the eaves and closed off with curved hexagonal domes. During this renovation, all windows were given uniform, profiled sandstone frames.

In the middle of the courtyard side of the main wing is the entrance portal, in whose split segment gable a relief plaque is inserted. It shows the coat of arms of CS Philipp von Redwitz and that of Dorothea Eleonora von Künsberg and Maria Rosina von Guttenberg , with whom the baron was married one after the other.

Between 1730 and 1740 Johann Jakob Vogel (plasterer) and his son Franz Jakob created outstanding stucco work for a number of interiors , which in terms of craftsmanship and artistic design are not inferior to their previous work in the Bamberg Residence and in the Seehof , Wiesentheid and Greifenstein castles .

The ceiling of one of the corner rooms on the first floor has a ribbon and latticework supported by allegorical busts of the seasons in the four corners . Another room shows similar régence ornaments with virtuoso bird allegories and in the music room on the second floor there are covings with instruments protruding from them, while the ceiling is decorated with ribbon, foliage, flowers and birds. Numerous hunting scenes with forest animals are carved out in the stucco ceiling of the large hunting room on the same floor.

Side wing

Side wing

The side wing, set free-standing at a right angle to the east in front of the narrow side of the main wing, is also known as the "gate building". The core of the two-storey hipped roof was built around 1400 and is therefore to be regarded as the oldest surviving part of the New Palace. The gateway to the inner courtyard is located in a strongly projecting central projectile with a classicistic triangular gable on the castle forecourt side (Am Plan).

A chapel adorned with shellwork was built into the eastern gateway around 1730 , which was put to secular use in the 19th century. There are barrel-vaulted cellars under this former chapel as well as under the southern part of the main wing . According to tradition, they should belong to an underground system of corridors, which in the 15th century connected the original New Palace with other Redwitz properties in the area.

Since around 1730, the main and side wings on the first floor were connected by a narrow, bridge-like transition. In 1916, today's two-storey connecting building between the two parts of the castle was built in its place.

Enclosures

"Plan tower"

"Ice tower"

The castle courtyard is surrounded by a formerly higher wall made of sandstone blocks. In 1963, the north-eastern section of the wall, including the “Planürmchen”, was moved 100 meters to the south-west, which significantly increased the size of the “Am Plan” palace forecourt. The octagonal "Plan turrets" at the eastern corner of the enclosure is deceptive with its loopholes before the substructure valor. The upper floor with its slated tent roof, which rests on narrow parts of the wall with stone half-figures of bearded men, looks more like a late Renaissance pleasure pavilion . The creation of this upper part of the tower dates from an embedded coat of arms of Emmeran Ernst von Redwitz to 1610 to 1615.

In the northern third of the southwest wall, this is interrupted by the "ice tower". The upper part of the three-storey round defensive tower with a T-shaped loopholes dates from around 1610, as the alliance coat of arms of Emmeran Ernst von Redwitz and Catharina von Streitberg suggests. An eight-sided, curved tent roof covers the "ice tower", which is the symbol of Küps and is shown in the city coat of arms. The north-eastern side wing connects directly to the north-eastern courtyard wall and the main wing connects to the western part.

literature

• Tilmann Breuer: Bavarian art monuments, district of Kronach . Volume XIX, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1964.
• Albert Elstner: The von Künsberg: the story of a Franconian. Noble family . Heim Verlag, Darmstadt 1972.
• Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown, 2nd volume . Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse GmbH, Coburg 1978, pp. 141–146.
• Heinrich Pöhlmann: History of the market town Küps . Schulze Verlag, Lichtenfels 1908.
• Hans Schleicher: The history of the market Küps . Frank de la Porte publishing house, Küps 1996, ISBN 3-932416-00-7 .
• Albrecht von und zu Egloffstein: Palaces and castles in Upper Franconia: a manual . Wolfgang Widlich Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 978-3-8035-0344-2 .

Web links

Commons : Hinteres Schloss (Küps)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.kueps.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown ; Volume 2; Neue PRESSE printing and publishing company; Coburg; 1978; Page 141
2. ^ Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles around the Franconian Crown ; Volume 2; Neue PRESSE printing and publishing company; Coburg; 1978; Pp. 141-143
3. ↑ Bavarian Office for the Preservation of Monuments: Architectural and ground monuments in Küps (PDF; 145 kB)
4. ^ The Imperial Barons of Redwitz ( Memento from December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown ; Volume 2; Neue PRESSE printing and publishing company; Coburg; 1978; Page 143
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown ; Volume 2; Neue PRESSE printing and publishing company; Coburg; 1978; Page 144
7. ^ Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles around the Franconian Crown ; Volume 2; Neue PRESSE printing and publishing company; Coburg; 1978; Page 145

Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 25 "  N , 11 ° 16 ′ 35.7"  E