Klause Kastel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 49 ° 34 ′ 5.1 "  N , 6 ° 34 ′ 14.7"  E

Sepulcher chapel for John of Bohemia

The Klause Kastel ( Klause bei Kastel ) is a refuge carved into the rock face of sandstone by monks on a plateau above the valley and offers a wide view over the Saar valley .

history

The Inklusentum flourished in Europe from the 9th to the 17th century. The origins of the Klause in Kastel go back to the 13th century and the Crusades. At that time, two chambers were carved into the sandstone rock to remind of Golgotha . At the same time, the parish church in Kastel was built, where pilgrims venerated St. Helena , mother of Emperor Constantine .

Around 1600 the Franciscan Roméry had a two-story chapel built. Your upper floor was connected to the upper rock chamber. In this time arose also a way which came along the south side of the rock massif, a grave niche arcosolium and relief and various spring pool. The facility fell into disrepair after the French occupation of 1794.

In 1833, the future King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, received the ruins as a gift. On his behalf, a burial chapel for Johann von Böhmen (later called "The Blind") was built there by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1834/35 . On August 26, 1838, John's bones were buried in a sarcophagus in the chapel; they remained there until 1945. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. had received the bones that had been stored in Mettlach from Jean-François Boch , to whom they had entrusted monks of the Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg during the turmoil of the French Revolution , to protect them from revolutionary troops to bring to safety.

“On August 26th, it was extremely lively in the romantic surroundings of the village of Castel an der Saar, 1 ½ hour from the district town of Saarburg. One expected the earthly remains of King John of Bohemia, which had previously found a place and asylum with the factory owner Boch-Buschmann in Mettlach and now in the municipality of Sr. Königigl. The Highness of the Crown Prince was cleverly transformed into a chapel, the former Roman camp, near Kastel, should be solemnly buried. The day was chosen on which King John had met a notable death in the battle of Crecy almost 500 years ago (in 1346) . The government councilor Nobiling, commissioned to do this, had gone to Mettlach the day before to take over the royal corpse of Mr. Boch-Buschmann and to accompany him to Kastel, his new resting place. Already early in the morning the heights of Kastel were enlivened by many inhabitants of this area, Saarburg and Trier, which the solemnity had brought about. Around 11 o'clock in the morning a ship, which was seen slowly descending the Saar and approaching the landing site at Sta [a] dt, below Kastel, was greeted by the pollern posted on the heights . It carried the royal corpse and his company, the government councilor Nobiling, the factory owner Boch-Buschmann von Mettlach and the Count of Villers von Burg-Esch , who had wished to attend the ceremony. The royal corpse was landed at Sta [a] dt, and from here to the chapel of the Kastel hermitage was carried alternately by four young men from Kastel and an equal number from Saarburg, who had volunteered to do so. At the height above Sta [a] dt it was attended by the district president von Ladenberg , the district administrator of the district of Cohausen , and the mayor Scheuer, as well as by the clergy, the local cathedral capitular Müller , the vicars Blattau and Schneider, the pastors Herber von Kastel, Göbel von Serrig, and the Vicar Lehnen from Saarburg received and guided them to the church of Kastel. The first blessing took place here in the open space and the cathedral capitular Müller gave a speech corresponding to the celebration. The corpse was then carried to the chapel of the hermitage. The chapel is built in the Gothic style on the remains of the former Roman camp and is illuminated by colored windows that cast a dull light into this solemn place. In the middle of the chapel one can see a marble sarcophagus on which there is a bronze plate in which a biographical sketch of the life of King John of Bohemia is carved in Latin . Arrived at this point, Mr. Boch-Buschmann gave the district president von Ladenberg the key to the coffin in which the royal remains had hitherto been; whereupon such, after the coffin was opened, were recognized as far as possible by Mr. Boch-Buschmann and Count von Villers, who had seen them several times before. The coffin was then locked, and after the sarcophagus had previously been consecrated in the usual place, placed in it under the prescribed ceremonies, whereupon the blessing of the royal corpse and the closing of the sarcophagus took place. "

- Report on the funeral in Der Adler from September 2, 1838

Schinkel used the remainder of the old building, had stained glass windows inserted and built a chapel with triple arcade windows and an Italian-style bell gable above it. The king's bones were placed in a classical sarcophagus. The Bohemian coat of arms on this sarcophagus is held up by lions who also support an inscription tablet showing the Bohemian royal crown. In 1842 an altar was added, which had been designed according to the proposals of the Prussian king. The ancestral table of the royal family was integrated into the chapel as a fresco. On the 500th anniversary of the death of Johann von Böhmen, a rod cross was placed on the platform in 1846 . The complex is not only a testimony to the romantic disposition of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, but also a demonstration of power by Prussia, which took over rule in the Rhineland in 1815 and replaced the Luxembourg dynasty. The descendants board on the west wall of the burial chamber ends in the houses of Hohenzollern and Wittelsbach (the family from which the wife of Friedrich Wilhelm IV came).

In 1945, at the instigation of the State of Luxembourg, the bones of King John were kidnapped from the burial chapel in a night-and-fog operation and brought to Luxembourg in the crypt under the Cathedral of Our Lady , where they remain to this day.

  • Klause with rock chapels and burial chapel

  • Interior view of the burial chamber

  • Descendants board on the west wall of the burial chamber

  • View from the hermitage near Kastel-Staadt to Serrig, northern part

  • View from the Klause near Kastel-Staadt to Serrig, southern part

  • Access to the hermitage and burial chapel

  • Information board about the history of the hermitage

  • View of the cemetery of honor and the burial chapel

  • The hermitage on an etching by Peter Becker (1857)

Surroundings

Not far from the hermitage and the old church there is a natural fortification ( oppidum ) that protected the fourth side from enemies on three sides by means of red sandstone and a wall. The Celts already settled here. Numerous traces of Roman settlement have also been preserved.

Above the hermitage and behind the old church there is a cemetery of honor for those who fell in the Second World War .

Web links

Commons : Klause Kastel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Burial of the earthly remains of King John of Bohemia. In:  The eagle. World and national chronicles; Entertainment newspaper, literary and art newspaper for the Austrian states / Der Adler / Vindobona. Stadt-Wien , September 12, 1838, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / adl

Remarks

  1. ↑ Munificenz comes from the Latin munificentia 'charity, charity, generosity' , see munificence . In: Herders Conversations-Lexikon . Volume 4, Freiburg im Breisgau 1856, p.  266 .
  2. ↑ Pöller is synonymous with Böller , see Pöller . In: Universal Lexicon of the Present and Past . 4., reworked. and greatly increased edition, Volume 13:  Pfiff – Reidsville , Eigenverlag, Altenburg 1861, p.  284 .