Langheimer Amtshof

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The Langheimer Amtshof is a two-winged, former monastery courtyard of the Cistercians , which today houses numerous research and educational institutions and has a decisive influence on the townscape of Kulmbach .

South facades of the Langheimer Amtshof in Kulmbach , on the right behind the red tower of the city wall.

history

Almost 700 years ago, a Chapel of St. Catherine on the southern slope of the Burgberg in Kulmbach became the nucleus of the later Langheimer Amtshof. After many new buildings and renovations, the magnificent baroque building of the Cistercian monks in the otherwise Protestant Kulmbach was erected in 1692–95. The official business for the Langheim Monastery in the margravial area was carried out by the bailiff and the Father Hofmeister zu Kulmbach from the 16th to the 19th century. The courtyard was destroyed in the Second Margrave War in 1553, but was rebuilt as a half-timbered building immediately afterwards.

The current buildings were built towards the end of the 17th century. Probably according to the plans of Leonhard Dientzenhofer , the facility was significantly expanded and redesigned from 1692. A monastic office, apartments for the administrative staff, guest apartments and large granaries were built. The client was Abbot Gallus Knauer from Langheim Abbey near Lichtenfels .

When Langheim Monastery was destroyed by fire in 1802 and secularization began immediately afterwards , the official court fell to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1806, French and Bavarian troops occupied the Amtshof, which was sold to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810 along with the city of Kulmbach . Subsequently, it served as a rent office , later until 1965 it was the "most romantic tax office in Germany". After that, it remained unused until the mid-1980s.

The building

The large, sandstone building is located on the northern edge of the old town of Kulmbach on a ledge of the southwestern fortress mountain. Its façades face the city, the rear parts of the building are built deep into the fortress mountain. While the entrance to the south is at ground level, the building, once known as Mönchshof, can be entered from the north through a door on the second floor. The entire facility is four-story, with a very massive basement carved deep into the rock at the bottom. Two wings erected at right angles to each other are crowned by a huge, steep and dormer-like roof. The north wing has four axes and is extended to the west by the seven-axis tithe barn. This Zehntstadel was the monks' grain store and tapers more and more to a uniaxial west side.

The façade of the prelate building is flanked on the corners of the ground floor by two arched portals. On the southern courtyard wall, this is a high, rusty gate, the keystone of which is adorned with an angel's head in the archway under a classic gable. Above it, the oval coats of arms of Langheim, an abbot's staff stuck in a chalice, and of Gallus Knauer can be seen in a frame , above which an angel's head with a miter hovers.

The huge gable roof is covered with slate and is adorned by a multitude of pointed dormer windows (hipped dormers ). A winged angel's head adorns the top of the magnificent gable facing the city. Above the western tithe barn, the roof structure has three levels, which once served as storage. The roof structure is two-story above the prelate building. There was a guest room here, of which the two larger ones with alcoves and painted wooden walls can still be seen today.

Inside the courtyard, rich stucco decorations adorned the halls and chambers of the prelate building. You can still find stucco from the 17th and 18th centuries with bandwork , heart-shaped frames, many framed cartouches and numerous other pleasing stucco shapes. Nothing has survived from the once rich painting and the furnishing of the rooms with pictures, carpets and furniture.

The Langheimer Amtshof still has numerous hidden and "secret" rooms that are only partially accessible. Two underground cellars are located below and behind the building. The tunnel system in the Kulmbach conglomerate consists of a main corridor towards the north with seven secondary tunnels. Currently about 250 meters in length are accessible. The passages largely follow natural fissures.

The building can only be viewed once a year on the occasion of an open house. However, its sight and its baroque figure decorations attached to the facade are very worth seeing. The facade of the prelate building is richly decorated with figures, flowers and fruits made of sandstone and is framed by two portals also decorated with figures. The building is illuminated by large spotlights at night.

The garden

To the east of the prelate building is the garden of the court yard. This area, located on a brick-built sandstone terrace, was accessible either from Rentamtsgäßchen via the pompous eastern portal or from the official courtyard through the portal of the Katharinenkapelle. Today, the garden presents itself as a modern lawn with a paved circular path and is loosened up with bushes, trees and seating. It was laid out in the 17th century as a baroque complex with French characteristics with herb beds and a small broderie parterre . Against the fortress mountain, a sandstone wall supports a second garden level in the north, which is still accessible today via a stair tower. The garden is surrounded on all sides by high walls. On the east facade of the Amtshof there is a colored sundial from the 18th century, which can only be seen from this garden.

Todays use

In 1981 the district of Kulmbach and the city of Kulmbach made a forward-looking decision with the establishment of the Sanierungs- und Verwaltungs GmbH for the Langheimer Amtshof. The company renovated the Amtshof until 1986 in cooperation with the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation and has ensured that all parts of the building have been rented out on an ongoing basis ever since. Today the Amtshof houses the Academy for New Media and a vocational school for pharmaceutical-technical assistants as well as two research centers of the University of Bayreuth for spatial planning and human resources . A branch of the Academy of the Bavarian Press is also located in the building.

literature

  • Rüdiger Barth: Kulmbach: City and Altlandkreis (=  Historical Atlas of Bavaria, part of Franconia . I, 38). Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7696-6554-3 , p. 374-381 .
  • JWA Fickenscher: An attempt at a history of the so-called Mönchshof zu Culmbach, which belonged to the former Cistercian Abbey Langheim, now belonging to the House of Brandenburg . Kulmbach 1804.
  • August Gebeßler : City and district of Kulmbach (=  Bavarian art monuments . Volume 3 ). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1958, DNB  451450973 , p. 29-30 .
  • Ferdinand Geldner : Langheim - the work and fate of a Franconian Cistercian monastery. (= Die Plassenburg, series for local history research and cultural maintenance in East Franconia, Volume 25) Kulmbach 1966.
  • Holger Peilnsteiner: The Langheimer Amtshof in Kulmbach - On the history of a former monastery courtyard of the Cistercians from Langheim , ed. v. Langheimer Amtshof Sanierungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Kulmbach 2011.

Web links

  • Side of the city of Kulmbach to the Langheimer Amtshof: [3]
  • Internet presence of the PTA school Kulmbach: [4]
  • Internet presence of the Academy for New Media Kulmbach: [5]
  • The Netradio Kulmbach from the Langheimer Amtshof: [6]
  • Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Geokataster Bavaria, tunnel system under the Langheimer Amtshof [7] (PDF; 186 kB)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A woodcut by Hans Glaser from 1553 shows the Kulmbach burning on November 26th, 1553 [1]
  2. ↑ Peilnsteiner, Holger: The Langheimer Amtshof in Kulmbach - On the history of a former monastery courtyard of the Cistercians from Langheim, p. 14.
  3. ↑ Gebessler, August: City and County Kulmbach, Bavaria out of line art monuments, Munich 1958, p 29 f.
  4. ↑ Peilnsteiner, Holger: The Langheimer Amtshof in Kulmbach - On the history of a former monastery courtyard of the Cistercians from Langheim, p. 25.
  5. ↑ The tunnel system behind the Amtshof is Geotop [2] (PDF; 186 kB)

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 27.4 ″  N , 11 ° 27 ′ 35.2 ″  E