Electoral palace in Kärlich

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Electoral palace in Kärlich

The electoral palace in Kärlich , also known as Kärlich hunting lodge , was built from 1654 to 1660 under the Trier elector Karl Kaspar von der Leyen near Kärlich . The building and its gardens, mainly used as a hunting lodge, were destroyed by French revolutionary troops in 1794 .

history

The Kärlich hunting lodge goes back to a moated castle from the 14th century, which was probably built under Baldwin of Luxembourg . Archbishop Johann II of Baden had it converted into a hunting lodge after 1550. After its destruction in the Thirty Years War , a good century later, from 1654 to 1660, under Karl Kaspar von der Leyen, a representative moated castle was built. Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony , who probably visited the castle frequently, went from here to Bonn on October 21, 1792 in front of the advancing French revolutionary troops, returned again and fled to Augsburg on October 5, 1794. The French troops under General François Séverin Marceau destroyed on 22./23. October 1794 the castle and the surrounding park; the ruins were used by the citizens of Kärlich and Mülheim to obtain building materials. The castle stood a few meters south of today's Kärlich elementary school. In 1804, the French state auctioned the land to four locals.

construction

The floor plan of the castle was square, the length of the sides was 23 meters. At each corner of the square there was a baroque tower and another square tower in the middle of the building. The castle had three floors with numerous halls and rooms and a small chapel on the third floor . Clemens Wenzeslaus had the approx. 20 meter wide moat surrounding the castle filled in in 1778 because of the “unhealthiness” it caused.

The palace garden

A first garden was created at the time of the new palace building under Karl Kaspar von der Leyen. Little is known about this system, however. In 1722 an orangery was built. Clemens Wenzeslaus was the first to push ahead with the expansion of the park. After 1783, an English garden was created under Joseph Heinrich Freiherr von Thünnefeld . Little by little, various buildings were built into the park landscape, such as B. around 1788 a tempietto based on plans by Johann Andreas Gärtner or around 1790 a classical temple (or pantheon ) by François Ignace Mangin .

literature

  • The art monuments of the Rhine Province. The art monuments of the district of Koblenz , ed. by Paul Clemen and Walther Zimmermann, Düsseldorf 1944, unchanged reprint 1981, pp. 154–157 (Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz. Sixteenth volume. 3rd section).
  • Winfried Henrichs: The former electoral palace in Kärlich and its garden , in: Mülheim-Kärlich, ed. by Winfried Henrichs, Andernach 1981, pp. 88-96.
  • Andreas Göller: The barren castle park in the 18th century. A contribution to garden art in Kurtrier , in: Koblenz Contributions to History and Culture, New Series 9/10, ed. from Görres Verlag Koblenz, Koblenz 2002, pp. 7-22.