Linz country house

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Linz country house (2011)
patio

The Linz Landhaus is a building built in several stages between 1568 and 1658 in the Upper Austrian capital of Linz and is now the seat of the Upper Austrian Parliament .

history

The land was acquired by the estates in 1563. At that time the old Minorite monastery on Klosterstrasse was standing on it, and they had most of the original building demolished. The architect and builder of the official and conference building for the stands were Christoph Canevale or Canaval and Hans Canaval. Caspar Toretto and Peter Guet were at work as stonemasons. Other craftsmen and builders working on the construction are not (any longer) known. On top of it was a cloister of a Minorite monastery. The Minorite Church from this monastery is still preserved today.

The north portal of the Linz Landhaus was built in 1565/1566 and was modeled on the Swiss gate of the Vienna Hofburg, which was completed around ten years earlier . The north portal is one of the most important Renaissance portals in Austria. On the window parapet, the coats of arms of Austria under the Enns , Austria above the Enns and the Bindenschild are attached.

The tower, which was raised several times in the 16th century, was given a baroque copper helmet in 1801.
The sgraffito representations in the four fields of the sundial below the clock faces of the tower clock are by Fritz Fröhlich .

In the 16th century , the building developed into the center of economic and cultural life in this state. The Protestant landscape school was housed here from 1574 to 1629, and during this time many famous scholars came, including Johannes Kepler , who taught at the school for 14 years and praised the wonderful library, which later burned down. In 1626 the farmers rose under the leadership of Stefan Fadinger and the country house was besieged without success. When the Counter Reformation triumphed a few years later , the Protestant estates lost power and the school was forced to close.

The appearance of the Renaissance building was subsequently shaped by Baroque and Rococo artists, although most of the architectural gems were destroyed by the fire in 1800 that started in Linz Castle . Part of the country house was badly damaged, the library, archive and picture gallery destroyed. The building was rebuilt according to plans by Ferdinand Mayr and received classicist facades. The reconstruction was completed in 1802. The city moat with ramparts and city walls have now been removed and the promenade, which still exists today, was created, creating a recreational area for the people of Linz to go for a walk. The construction time was around two years.

Since 1861 the Linz country house has been the seat of the Upper Austrian Parliament, which was elected for the first time this year. City architect Johann Metz created a high, representative conference room with a gallery built on 3 sides by tearing down the ceiling of the council room . The hall of the parliament was furnished by the academic painter Ferdinand Scheck in neo-Rococo style.

As part of the preparations for the Linz Capital of Culture year , a comprehensive renovation took place from summer 2006 to May 2009 following planning work by the Linz architects and designers Radler-Kowatsch-Stiper. A total of 11.8 million euros were spent on the renovation and redesign of the Landhauspark. Since then, the new Citizen Service Center has been located in the entrance area of ​​the building , where applications are received and citizens are helped to fill out them. Furthermore, citizens' assessments of laws are collected and forwarded here.

description

State parliament hall with visitors on the parliamentary armchairs (1999)

The country house is picturesquely framed in the west and south by parks and gardens along the promenade. Today the complex consists of three inner courtyards and a gate that connects the promenade with Klostergasse.

The baroque south gate with the stone state coat of arms contrasts the relatively unadorned facade in the Empire style. The Latin inscription above the third floor recalls the reconstruction of the parts of the building that were destroyed by the fire in 1800.

The magnificent north portal made of red and partly brightly painted marble is a creation of the late Renaissance. The north and south gates are connected by the country house passage, an imposing barrel vault on broad granite pillars.

The country house passage, which has been closed to all traffic since 2009, leads to the Renaissance arcaded courtyard. In its center it has a planetary fountain adorned with a coat of arms, on whose central column the seven personified planetary figures of the Ptolemaic system are depicted. In summer, classical concerts are held in the open air in the arcade courtyard of the country house.

The country house tower with a richly structured helmet is located on the eastern side of the arcade courtyard and towers above the entire building ensemble.

The representative “Stone Hall” is located above the passage through the country house, which - with the exception of a structural shortening after the fire of 1800 - has been preserved in its original shape and beauty. The historic assembly room of the estates is equipped with powerful pillars made of red marble, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the “marble hall”.

On the upper floor on the south side, the Landtag session room, the brown room, the blue room, the small club room, the gallery room, the Elisabeth room, the green room and the government meeting room are lined up.

In front of the south portal there is a metal ring embedded in the floor. The diameter of this ring is 3.14 meters. This metal ring and a metal plaque with an inscription are reminiscent of the Pummerin , which was cast in the St. Florian bell foundry in Upper Austria in 1951 and placed in front of the country house in 1952 before it found its destination in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . To commemorate this event, the bell ring with the inscription was attached in 1956 .

In front of the country house are the Fadinger Column, the Hessian Monument and the monument to the state poet Adalbert Stifter .

gallery

Stone arch bridge

In the years 2007 to 2009 the Austrian Federal Monuments Office carried out extensive rescue excavations in front of the Linz Landhaus as part of the construction of the underground car park on the promenade . Not only were Roman finds from the ancient Lentia fort as well as the remains of a medieval cemetery and a former Minorite monastery found, but a complete stone bridge from the Baroque period was also excavated in May 2007 . The bridge had been hidden in the ground of the filled in former city moat since spring 1801 and has been freely visible again since 2009.

The bridge from the 18th century led from the south gate of the country house over the former city moat and once connected the country house with the southern suburb. The opening of a gate into the southern suburb, which the estates requested in 1570, was refused for a long time for reasons of defense. In 1632 a wooden bridge was built for the first time over the moat on the southern front of the country house. When the south portal was redesigned in 1769, it was replaced by a new, representative bridge 15 meters long and 6 meters wide. Investigations showed that the plastering of the bridge originally consisted of thin lime mortar and that the stone walls of the arches were whitewashed. The town fire in 1800, which started at Linz Castle and destroyed the south wing, spread to the country house and partially destroyed it. As a result, the south and east facades of the country house were redesigned and the city fortifications razed at this point and the city moat filled in with the fire rubble and the promenade laid out above it as a park.

literature

  • Nikolaus Hofer (editor-in-chief), Heinz Gruber, Wolfgang Klimesch and others: In the focal point of history: Landhaus and promenade in Linz. In: Find reports from Austria. Material booklets. Published by the Federal Monuments Office, Department for Ground Monuments. Series A, special issue 8, Vienna 2009, table of contents on bda.gv.at.
  • Heribert Forstner : The Linz country house. Political center of Upper Austria - yesterday, today, tomorrow. Linz 1982, 2007, 13th (extended) edition 2012.
  • Heinrich Teutschmann: The decorative figures of the Linz country house viewed from an intellectual history point of view. In: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 1985. Linz 1986, pp. 443–460, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at; the jewelry of the north portal, planetary fountain and stone hall is described in particular.
  • Justus Schmidt : The Linz country house. Outline of the building history based on the sources. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. Vol. 10, Issue 3/4, Linz 1956, pp. 95-107, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.

Web links

Commons : Linzer Landhaus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The Linz Landhaus - from its beginnings as a monastery until today. In: OÖN of May 9, 2009.
  2. a b c Hofer 2009, p. 56f.
  3. ^ Franz Pfeffer : The home of the evangelical landscape school in Linz. On the history of the Linz country house. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. Vol. 6, Linz 1952, pp. 129–145, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  4. City! Magazin.linz.wels.steyr No. 70, March 2008.
  5. The Linz country house and the country house park. In: OÖN of May 9, 2009.
  6. Pummerin's bell ring on linz.at.
  7. a b c Hofer 2009, p. 70f.

Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 14 ″  N , 14 ° 17 ′ 8 ″  E