Landgraves Castle Butzbach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The landgrave's palace is a palace complex in Butzbach in the Wetterau district in Hesse.

Landgrave Castle in Butzbach, view of the east and south wing with round tower and portal.
Valentin Wagner : Butzbach from the northeast (1631).
East side with round towers from the 15th century.
View of the Butzbach Castle, copper engraving from 1812. At that time the building still had numerous decorative elements that are no longer there today. On the left in the courtyard the polygonal tower, which was torn down a few years after the engraving.

history

Both castles in Butzbach, both the landgrave's and the Solms castle , were built on the site of a former castle complex on the southeastern edge of the old town of Butzbach. The place was first mentioned in a document in 773. It was built near the remains of a Roman fort at a fork in several old roads , including the Weinstrasse and the Lange Hessen . It is not certain whether this moated castle in a city location ( Stadtburg ) goes back to the Niederobligen von Buetsbach named 1243 , followers of the Lords of Hagen-Münzenberg , or whether it was built later by the Falkensteiners , who inherited the Münzenbergs.

In 1321 Philip IV of Falkenstein received city rights for the place and had a fortification built. With the extinction of the Falkensteiner in 1418, Butzbach fell to the Lords of Eppstein , half of them to "von Eppstein-Münzenberg" and "von Eppstein-Königstein". As a result, the property was further divided. In the 15th century, the Munzenberger Line sold a quarter to the County of Katzenelnbogen , which fell to Hesse in 1479 , and another quarter to Count Otto von Solms-Braunfels . The Königsteiner Line sold a quarter to Solms-Lich in 1479 and their last quarter to Hessen-Marburg in 1595.

The parts of the medieval castle that were formerly included in the city wall are likely to have largely fallen into disrepair by this time. Around 1462 Werner von Eppstein-Münzenberg had a large fruit store built next to the southern gate of the city wall, which in 1479 came to the Counts of Solms. They had it rebuilt in a representative way and supplemented with a fortified round tower in the style of the time. The resulting Solms Castle subsequently served as the official and widow's residence .

The Landgraves of Hessen-Darmstadt had a castle built at the beginning of the 17th century, incorporating a late medieval core building. The architect was probably Jakob Wustmann , who had also directed the renovation of the Darmstadt Palace . It served Landgrave Philip III. von Hessen-Butzbach as residence from 1609 to 1643, but fell back to the main line Hessen-Darmstadt with the death of the Landgrave. The art-loving Landgrave had numerous wall paintings and stucco applied inside, and an observatory was set up in the attic of the new wing. The astronomer Johannes Kepler was a guest here twice, in 1621 and 1627 . In 1629, however, the observatory collapsed.

When it was converted into a Chevaulegers barracks from 1817, the castle lost its splendid furnishings. In 1898 the castle was converted into an infantry barracks and was given the name Schloss-Kaserne . From 1951 to 1992 the barracks was used by the United States Army . After the withdrawal of the troops and the conversion , the castle is now used for civil purposes, the town hall of the city of Butzbach is located in the right wing.

( For the barracks see the main article: Castle barracks )

investment

The landgrave's castle was originally a two-winged building, also shown in this form in the city views by Valentin Wagner (1631) and Matthäus Merian (around 1655). The east wing is essentially late medieval and included two older (probably late 15th century) round towers. These now received mouth slits for the installation of cannons. The east wing was built in 1609/1610 after a fire in 1603. A slender, polygonal tower was leaning against the facility. However, it was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century. With the renovation in 1609/1610, the south wing ( new building ) should have been added in place of the older moat, although this also contains an older pointed arched gate on the ground floor. The baroque portal with double columns on wide consoles and allegorical figures still indicates the once splendid furnishings of the building. In the gable field there is a Latin building inscription with the year 1610.

The west wing was only built after an extensive barracks expansion in 1935/36 and is not a listed building. However, the ballroom in the west of the facility from 1633/34, which has been converted into a riding hall since 1818, is a listed building. The former pleasure garden with statues, planetary fountains and water features, which was located east of the palace, has not been preserved.

literature

  • Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments. Hesse II. Darmstadt administrative district. (Ed .: Folkhard Cremer and Tobias Michael Wolf), 3rd edition, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 129.
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 322f.
  • Gail Schunk-Larrabee / Winfried Schunk: New archaeological findings and finds on the castle grounds in Butzbach. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2003 Theiss, Stuttgart 2004 ISBN 3-8062-1912-5 , pp. 142–144.
  • Heinz Wionski: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wetteraukreis II, Part 1, Bad Nauheim to Florstadt. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Vieweg, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-528-06227-4 , pp. 354–356. ( Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ).
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 69.

Web links

Commons : Landgräfliches Schloss Butzbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dieter Wolf : Butzbach. A small princely residence during the Thirty Years War. In: Holger Th. Gräf and Helga Meise (eds.): Valentin Wagner. A draftsman in the Thirty Years War. Exhibition catalog Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-921254-92-2 , pp. 61–70.
  2. ^ Siegfried Rösch: Landgrave Philipp III. by Hessen-Butzbach and Johannes Kepler. Wetterauer Geschichtsblätter, Volume 24. Friedberg, Hessen 1975, pp. 99-108.
  3. ↑ Günter Bidmon: "Sententiae Latinae". Latin wall inscriptions in the old town of Butzbach. In: Butzbacher Geschichtsblätter. No. 288, January 22, 2015, pp. 3-4.

Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 58.9 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 28.6"  E