Augustusburg hunting lodge
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The Augustusburg hunting lodge was built between 1568 and 1572 above the town of the same name on the Schellenberg 516 m above sea level. NN on the northern edge of the Ore Mountains (Germany) built in the Renaissance style. The castle complex, visible from afar, represents a landmark . It is located 12 km east of Chemnitz and 21 km southwest of Freiberg in the Free State of Saxony .
history
With the new building of the castle, Elector August not only wanted to create a representative domicile for his hunting trips, but also to underline his leading position in the region. The immediate reason for the construction goes back to the victory in Grumbachschen Handel . The Albertine Elector August was able to secure his supremacy over the Ernestines by enforcing the imperial ban on his Ernestine rival Johann Friedrich the Middle and the outlawed knight Wilhelm von Grumbach , who found refuge with Johann Friedrich. He was also given the offices of Weida , Ziegenrück and Arnshaugk , which later belonged to the Neustädter Kreis . Due to the good economic development of the electoral Saxony under Moritz and August, the financial prerequisites for the construction of the castle were given. The complex was connected to the Dresden Residence by the so-called Fürsten- or Herrenweg via Grillenburg and Freiberg .
prehistory
Former Schellenberg Castle (Schellenburg)
Up until the hunting lodge was built, there was an older castle complex belonging to the Reichsministerial von Schellenberg. Schellenberg Castle is said to have been in the possession of the Lords of Waldenburg for a time. The castle was built around 1210/30 and after the so-called Schellenberg feud in 1324 it was loaned to the Wettins and further expanded in the late 14th century. So a kennel wall and a cistern with cistern houses were built. The castle was badly damaged by fire and lightning in 1528 and 1547. An image in the altarpiece of the castle church could represent the Schellenburg at that time, but it is not documented. However, the Wildeck Castle in Zschopau was the main hunting lodge for the Wettins in the region . Before the Augustusburg hunting lodge was built, the remaining parts of Schellenberg Castle were demolished. Here also the then existing had to keep the tradition be brought down to.
Building history
The design for the new hunting lodge in 1567 was for a long time attributed to the master builder , merchant and mayor of Leipzig, Hieronymus Lotter . What is certain, however, is that when Lotter was appointed, a finished model of the castle already existed. As far as we know today, he is only allowed to play the role of chief builder who built according to finished designs and was in charge of the top construction supervision. The two plans he made are based on the already finished wooden model. The elector largely rejected the proposed amendments. The stairs (instead of the usual spiral staircases ) and details in the design of the roofs are attributed to his influence, based on the Italian model with straight runs . Lotter also advanced the construction costs. The designs of parts of the north portal and the chapel of the hunting lodge by Erhardt van der Meer, the chief works foreman Lotters, can be verified. Paul Widemann was the first foreman on the construction site until his death in 1568 .
As far as we know today, the overall concept was most likely created at the court of Elector August under the supervision of the master builder Hans Irmisch . Since there are gaps in the sources regarding the authorship of the drafts for the Augustusburg Castle, this is attributed to August himself. There is evidence of the elector's great interest in questions of construction and architecture . His library contained many architectural writings and sample books of building elements. Also, the architecture of the castle did not have any traditional reference to the castle buildings in the rest of the Electorate of Saxony . Rather, it can be assumed that the elector was inspired by the theoretical writings in his library for his model. The art of palace architecture in Italy and France provided inspiration.
The laying of the foundation stone was to begin in 1567 after Schellenberg Castle was demolished. However, due to the early onset of winter, only the construction pit could be dug. The masonry work did not begin until March of the following year. In the first year of construction, the summer house was built with a completely covered roof.
The rest of the corner houses, the rabbit , linden and kitchen houses and the castle chapel were built in the following year, 1569.
The north and south portal and the associated connecting tracts were completed winter-proof with an emergency roof in the third year of construction. Lotter also started the gallery wing connecting the summer house with the rabbit house in 1570. August, disappointed at the slow progress of the construction project, ordered the linden , summer and kitchen houses to be ready for occupancy by the end of the year. At the same time he instructed the court painter Heinrich Göding to start painting the interior. At the end of the year, two of the palace's six picture ceilings and 23 rooms were colored.
Very upset about the progress of construction, despite the completion of the gallery wing, the church and the gateways, and the sharp rise in construction costs, the elector Hieronymus Lotter dismissed the construction process in 1571 and handed over the further supervision of the construction activities to the Florentine Count Rochus Guerrini , who was in his service . The castle chapel, bordered on three sides by galleries, is an excellent example of the Renaissance style. The altarpiece painted Lucas Cranach the Younger .
The festive inauguration took place on January 30, 1572. In the course of the year, the builders and painters did the rest of the interior work and erected a clock and bell tower over the south portal. The bridge and guard houses in front of the north gate were built a year later.
After many unsuccessful attempts to bring water to the Schlossberg, the Freiberg mountain master Hans Planer dug a well into the rock from 1568 to 1577. The hard work was carried out first by miners and later by captured poachers . Water could only be found at a depth of over 130.6 m - today's well depth. This well is the second deepest in Saxony after the Königstein Fortress .
use
The castle was abandoned as a hunting seat in the 18th century and was the official seat of the Augustusburg Office . From 1790 to 1849 it served as a prison. In the 1920s a youth hostel and an Erzgebirge museum were established. From March 1933 to December 1935 there was a satellite camp of Sachsenburg concentration camp in the castle . On June 24, 1933, Augustusburg also became the seat of a Gauführerschule for the NSDAP - Gau Sachsen . For this reason, the Erzgebirgsschau of the Erzgebirgsverein , which had been located there until then, was closed.
description
The Augustusburg building complex crowns a high, isolated hilltop near the town of Flöha near Chemnitz. The castle complex itself consists of the core castle laid out on a square floor plan around a courtyard, the gatehouse on the main access side in the north and farm buildings in the south, which originally lined three sides of a second, long rectangular courtyard behind the main building. Today only the two longitudinal wings are left of them. The front gatehouse is followed by a walled enclosure that partially surrounds the main castle.
The central castle consists of four corner buildings on a square floor plan, which are connected by the castle chapel, which protrudes like a risalit on the field side, and three other intermediate wings of small depth. Today the buildings are two-story on the courtyard side up to the eaves; On the field side, the two full floors rise above high substructures that also accommodate a basement. All outer walls are unstructured and have simple rectangular windows. The facades are kept strikingly simple, the architectural decorations are reduced to the two magnificent portals.
Instead of today's simple, hipped roof shapes, the Augustusburg had a complicated system of roof houses and tower-like central structures above the current eaves line, which was originally closed with a circumferential open walkway of the rabbit house was reconstructed. From 1789 to 1801, the roof area was simplified according to plans by the master builder Christian Traugott Weinlig .
Inside the core lock, the original room structure has largely been preserved on the two lower, with one exception, fully vaulted main floors, and there are even original doors and many chimneys from the time it was built. Parts of the wall paintings executed in many living rooms at that time have been gradually uncovered and supplemented according to different concepts, especially in the so-called rabbit house on the southwest corner. in other rooms the layers of paint are still under later paint. Especially in the roof areas that were changed two hundred years ago and withdrawn from residential use, an unusually large number of building details have been preserved without later changes. In the rabbit house, around 100 picture friezes show an upside-down world, in which rabbits go hunting or court instead of people.
The old interior division of the commercial wing (now the youth hostel) on the side of the second courtyard in the south has largely been lost. In the stable building on the west side there are still many original findings, especially ceilings, floors and doors.
Current
In addition to restaurants and a youth hostel, the castle currently houses a motorcycle museum , a carriage museum and a museum for hunting animals and ornithology . The Saxon Eagle and Hunting Falconry moved to Wolkenstein at the end of 2017. The castle linden tree on the northeast corner of the castle complex is remarkable . It was planted in 1421 and is one of the oldest trees whose planting is documented. In the stairwell of the Museum of Hunting Animals and Ornithology there is a sandstone figure of a hunter with a dog. It was created around 1600 by Conrad Buchau († 1657) for the Saxon Jägerhof in Altendresden , where other original figures are in the foyer of the Museum of Saxon Folk Art , and was placed at Grillenburg Castle from 1900 to 1952 . In the staircase to the observation and exhibition tower there is a picture board explaining the history of the castle. Special exhibitions take place regularly.
Augustusburg Castle along with Scharfenstein Castle and Castle & Park Lichtenwalde as the worthwhile attraction Three markets. The hunting lodge Augustusburg is a selected site of the UNESCO World Heritage s Ore Mountain Mining Region .
Personalities
- Sophie Sabina Apitzsch (1692–1752), impostor, was arrested here in 1714
- Ludwig Würkert (1800–1876), Protestant pastor, writer and revolutionary, was imprisoned here in 1849
- Hans Seifert (1889–1948), NSDAP politician, SA-Oberführer, head of the Gau training castle on the Augustusburg, where he also lived
- Fritz Rößler (1912–1987), NSDAP politician, head of the Gauschulungsburg on the Augustusburg, later under the name of Dr. Franz Richter Member of the Bundestag
gallery
Distant view of Augustusburg Castle
Inner courtyard and portal
View of the gatehouse in front of the castle
Inner south gate from the inside
South gate from the outside
Supraporte at the heraldic gate
Well house
Interior with model
Carriage collection
Detail of the castle church
literature
- Augustusburg, castle and office on the Schellenberge. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 2, Leipzig 1732, column 2195.
- Augustusburg, the castle . In: August Schumann : Complete State, Post and Newspaper Lexicon of Saxony. 14th volume. Schumann, Zwickau 1827, pp. 220-224.
- Peter Geipel: The Augustusburg and its landscape. Series Deutsche Berge Bd. 4, Chemnitz 1926
- Britta Günther : Augustusburg Castle. Series Saxony's most beautiful palaces, castles and gardens Vol. 2, Verlag Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-361-00483-7
- Paul Heinicke: History and sights of the Augustusburg castle. Verlag Heimatland Sachsen, Chemnitz 1992 (reprint of the original edition from 1920)
- Hans-Joachim Krause: Augustusburg Castle 1572–1972. Building history and monument preservation restoration. Augustusburg 1972
- Erika Ranft: Augustusburg - Castle of Fate. Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2010
- Friedrich Wilhelm Renkewitz: Brief description of the Augustusburg Palace and its surroundings . Verlag Karl Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1836 ( digitized version )
- Tonio Schulze, Franz Rappel: Augustusburg Castle: the crown of the Ore Mountains ... famous for its museums and collections. Official guide , 2011
- City of Augustusburg (ed.): Schellenberg - Augustusburg. Contributions to 800 years of history. Augustusburg 2006
- Richard Steche : Augustusburg. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 6th booklet: Amtshauptmannschaft Flöha . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1886, p. 7.
Web links
- Website Schloss Augustusburg
- Hunting lodge Augustusburg at Welt-der-Wappen: description and photos, focus on heraldry
Individual evidence
- ^ Hunting lodge Augustusburg (near Chemnitz). Mirko Seidel, accessed on July 4, 2018 .
- ↑ Volkmar Geupel / Yves Hoffmann: The excavation of Schellenberg Castle . In: City of Augustusburg (ed.): Schellenberg - Augustusburg. Contributions to 800 years of history. Augustusburg 2006, pp. 161-202.
- ↑ Stephan Hoppe : The functional and spatial structure of early castle construction in Central Germany. Examined using examples of sovereign buildings from the period between 1470 and 1570. Cologne 1996, pp. 292–361.
- ^ A b Carina Baganz: Augustusburg . In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 2: Early camp, Dachau, Emsland camp. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52962-3 , pp. 25-26.
- ↑ Overview of special exhibitions
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 47.6 " N , 13 ° 5 ′ 57.1" E