Artificial ruin (Pillnitz)
The artificial ruin near Pillnitz, also known as the Gothic ruin , is located on a hill above the Friedrichsgrund north of the Dresden district of Pillnitz . It was built in 1785 in neo-Gothic style on the site of an earlier, lost medieval fortification . As a symbol of the transience of everything created, it serves as a deliberate addition to the baroque Pillnitz Castle , located about 500 meters to the south .
history
In a deed of donation from Margrave Wilhelm von Meißen from 1403, two castle-like mansions, a lower and an upper one, are mentioned in the Pillnitz area. The former was located below a certain castle hill and later became the predecessor of today's Pillnitz Castle. According to a survey sheet from 1600, the upper manor was located on the Schlossberg at the place of the later artificial ruin, referred to as "the old castle".
The area north of Pillnitz Castle remained structurally untouched until the end of the 18th century. That changed in 1780 when the Friedrichsgrund was used as a hiking area for the Elector and later first King of Saxony, Friedrich August III. , was expanded. At the end of this work , the ruins were built in the neo-Gothic style , most likely under the direction of Johann Daniel Schade . When the “Gothic ruin” was built, parts of the old castle may have been used, creating a conscious connection to this former medieval fortification. The construction was carried out strictly according to the specifications of the garden theorist Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld , who described the construction and the formal elements to be used of such a neo-Gothic ruin in his theory of garden art published in 1780 . According to this, an artificial ruin should always achieve the effect of real, previously used architecture that has been abandoned by humans. He also recommends placing “these Gothic ruins ... very wisely on the edge of the largest hill in the entire country estate”, because “one has a boundless view from here ...”. A copper engraving by the Dresden architect Christian Friedrich Schuricht , which is also included in Hirschfeld's work, shows a fictional ruin architecture that is almost identical to the Pillnitz building, except for the tower.
The ruins served the nature-loving prince and his entourage as a hiking destination, where food and drinks could be prepared thanks to a built-in kitchen. Meals were served in the ruin hall, which was still roofed at the time. Another use took place at evening events. An open fireplace served to heat the hall. It still works today.
The work on the Schlossberg, now also often called ruin mountain, was finished around 1790. Further structural changes were only made in 1872. At that time, a column of honor was erected a few meters from the neo-Gothic ruins on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the marriage of the Saxon King Johann and his wife Amalie Auguste .
Members of the Wettin family used the area until 1918 . The Schlossberg, which was always open to the public, remained a popular hiking destination afterwards.
In 2018 and 2019 a fundamental backup and repair took place. In addition, a viewing platform with a spiral staircase was built at the rear. This was financed from taxpayers' money of 450,000 euros.
construction
The orthogonal plan of the ruin is about eleven meters long and about eight meters wide. The building rests on a pedestal directly on the edge of the south-western mountain slope. At the eastern corner of the facade, fragments of a tower base are indicated, and at the western corner there is a round bay window . Quarry stone was used as building material , as well as bricks and sandstone blocks. The southwest facing side facing Pillnitz Castle, which is visible all year round, is broken through by three ogival wall openings.
The interior, often referred to as the hall, measures about ten and a half meters in length and about seven meters in width. This formerly roofed room served as a dining room and was designed in a braid style. In addition to an empire fireplace , it also included various pieces of furniture to make the elector's summer stays pleasant.
The round corner bay, which is about one and a half meters wide and four meters high, was once accessible through a three-step staircase over the former roof of the ruin. On the south-eastern wall of the interior there is a fireplace in the middle, which is flanked on the right by a straight arched opening and on the left by a round arched wall opening. The straight arch opening on the right leads to the fragments of a smaller square room, the area of which was about six square meters. Most likely, this smaller room was a kitchen that, according to a photo from 1918, had two rectangular windows and a door. The arched wall opening to the left of the fireplace connects the hall with a niche-like extension that possibly served as a cloakroom and storage room for kitchen supplies and the fireplace's firewood.
A few meters south-east of the ruin there is a platform-like arch construction to fortify and expand the mountain plateau.
Location and access
The artificial ruin is located on the south-western slope of the Schlossberg above the Friedrichsgrund, about 500 meters from the park walls of Pillnitz Castle. On the one hand, it can be reached by a serpentine path that leads from the village of Pillnitz up to the mountain plateau. A second path leads from today's Wünschendorfer Straße, past the memorial, to the ruin. According to a drawing by Adrian Zingg from 1792, the latter route seems to have been the original access, although the current Wünschendorfer Straße was then shown as a mountain path.
Others
In the film “ Goethe! “By Philipp Stölzl , the artificial ruin as a medieval robber baron's castle forms the scenic background for an encounter between the young Goethe and Charlotte .
See also
Web links
- The artificial ruin at Art Stories Dresden Blog
Individual evidence
- ↑ Donation of the Pillnitz property by Margrave Wilhelm von Meißen to the wife of Heinrich von Karras on August 5, 1403, see Hans-Günther Hartmann: Pillnitz Castle. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 2008, ISBN 978-3-86530-099-7 , pp. 14–15.
- ↑ Measurement sheet Matthias Oeder. In: Hans-Günther Hartmann: Pillnitz - Castle, Park and Village. Hermann Böhlaus successor, 1996, ISBN 3-7400-0995-0 , p. 28.
- ^ Hans-Günther Hartmann: Pillnitz Castle. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 2008, ISBN 978-3-86530-099-7 , pp. 39–40.
- ↑ Barbara Bechter among others: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Saxony. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1996, ISBN 3-422-03043-3 , p. 196.
- ^ Christian CL Hirschfeld: Theory of garden art. 3rd volume, Leipzig 1780, p. 58ff. Online version vol. 3.
- ^ Christian CL Hirschfeld: Theory of garden art. Volume 3, Leipzig 1780, p. 116. Online version, Vol. 3.
- ^ Christian CL Hirschfeld: Theory of garden art. Volume 4, Leipzig 1782, p. 127. Online version, Vol. 4.
- ^ Igor A. Jenzen: Pillnitz Castle and Park . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1998, p. 22.
- ↑ a b Stefanie Melzer: 17th Elbhangfest: Look at the beautiful gardens Zier - The Pillnitzer Friedrichsgrund. In: Elbhangkurier. Issue 5/2007, p. 3.
- ↑ Restoration of the artificial ruins above Pillnitz Castle completed on medienservice.sachsen.de on December 17, 2019, accessed on January 6, 2020
- ↑ a b c d Andreas T. Gosch: The artificial ruin above the Friedrichsgrund in Pillnitz by Johann Daniel Schade . Bachelor thesis TU Dresden, 2009.
- ^ Hans-Günther Hartmann: Pillnitz - Castle, Park and Village. Hermann Böhlaus successor, 1996, ISBN 3-7400-0995-0 , p. 138. See Fritz Löffler: Das Alte Dresden. 16th edition. Seemann, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-86502-000-3 , p. 335.
- ^ A b Hans-Günther Hartmann: Pillnitz - castle, park and village. Hermann Böhlaus successor, 1996, ISBN 3-7400-0995-0 , pp. 138-140.
Coordinates: 51 ° 0 '47.8 " N , 13 ° 52' 35.9" E