Ortenburg (Bautzen)
| Ortenburg Hród |
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 View from the east of the castle complex |
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| Creation time : | at 928 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Receive | |
| Standing position : | Nobles | |
| Place: | Bautzen | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 10 '59.3 " N , 14 ° 25' 13.6" E | |
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The Ortenburg ( Upper Sorbian simply Hród , "castle") is located in the old town of Bautzen on a rocky plateau above the Spree . For centuries it was the tribal castle of the Milzener and the main fortress of Upper Lusatia and was owned by the respective sovereigns. The most striking building in the castle complex is the late Gothic Matthias Tower .
In front of the gates of the fortress , the castle leaned on to the east . In this settlement originally lived the nobles who belonged to the castle garrison. The Burglehn was outside of the Bautzen city law . The houses or land there were given as fiefs by the sovereign .
Castle history
The rocky spur, which is surrounded on three sides by the Spree and on which the Ortenburg is located, was settled as early as the Bronze Age due to this location . The first wall was raised during the Iron Age . After King Heinrich I conquered the Slavic territory of the Milzener, a state castle was founded in the bend of the Spree for the new Gau . Under Henry I a began construction curtain wall started its construction under his son I. Otto was terminated. In addition to the ring wall, Otto I also had the Ortenburg built on the steep right bank of the Spree.
In the area of this first Ortenburg, there was probably the oldest Christian institution in Upper Lusatia, a Marienkapelle, presumably in the form of a rotunda , the rectorate of which, interestingly, was held by the Halberstadt diocese . According to presumptions, this strange circumstance was based on a relationship between the wife of the Milzener prince Dobromir and the Halberstadt bishop Bernhard von Hadmersleben (923–968). It was not until 1327 that Johannes, rector capelle sancte Marie in castro Budissinensi, renounced his rights to the chapel, the patronage of which Albert von Nostitz had handed over to the Bautzner collegiate church three weeks earlier. That Albert von Nostitz had received the patronage from the King of Bohemia as a fief, probably due to the office of burgrave on the Ortenburg, which his ancestors, the noble free von Kittlitz had . The development of the Marienkapelle was evidently completely independent of the later St. Georg castle chapel and finally the chapel will have been given up after later war effects. The memory of the chapel, which was also called the Jewish temple or the temple of idols because of its shape , lives on in the legend of the Bautzen Venus , which turned the Christian church into a place of worship for an (invented) pagan goddess. In all probability the legend originated in the course of the Reformation.
After years of disputes over the ownership of Upper Lusatia, the Peace of Bautzen between the Holy Roman Empire and Poland was concluded here in 1018 . In 1158, Upper Lusatia became a fiefdom of Bohemia . The "Castrum Budissin" (the Bautzen Castle) was regarded as its administrative center.
The Ortenburg castle was first mentioned by name in 1405.
From the end of the 13th to the end of the 17th century, the castle was the seat of the governor . In 1326, Johannes de Boudissin , the ministerial dynasty of Baudissin who served at the castle , was mentioned for the first time. From the end of the 17th to the 19th century, it housed the Oberamtsregierung of Upper Lusatia and today the Saxon Higher Administrative Court . The Sorbian Museum is also housed in a building in the Ortenburg.
The second court handbag at the Electoral Saxon and Polish courts during the Augustan period, Baron Gottfried Schmiedel , was appointed adjunct (deputy) to the castle's bed master first appointed in 1708 and as castle inspector from 1755 until his death in July 1756 . He wrote a poem about the Ortenburg in 1754, which also traces the history of Upper Lusatia up to 1635.
construction
The castle received its strong fortifications, which are still preserved today, before the Hussite Wars in the 15th century. After the city fires in 1401 and 1441, major expansion work was also carried out. After the Peace of Olomouc (1479), through which Lusatia was awarded to the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus , the Ortenburg was rebuilt in Gothic style on his behalf by the governor between 1483 and 1486 . The Matthias tower with the relief named after the king also dates from this time.
During the Thirty Years' War , the Ortenburg was set on fire and badly destroyed during two Swedish sieges (from 1620 and from 1634) in 1621 and 1639. Reconstruction began as early as 1635. After 1648 the castle was completely rebuilt, although in 1672 only half of the roof was covered. This construction phase was completed in 1698 with the completion of the three distinctive Renaissance gables. These were built in 1698 according to plans by Martin Pötzsch . The heavy stucco ceilings, especially in the former chamber chamber (with nine scenes from the history of Upper Lusatia up to the handover to the Saxon elector), were made by Italian traveling artists, probably Bartolomeo Cometa and Giovanni Vanetti. With the reconstruction of the castle, the main building on the city side was reinforced with strong walls. In front of these walls was the moat, which the street name Schloßgraben still reminds of today .
The castle was accessible from Schloßstraße through the Matthias Gate. In addition to the Matthias Tower, one of the striking parts of the defenses is the castle water tower. Originally there was a defensive tower at the southern end of the wall facing the city, but it collapsed in the 17th century and was not rebuilt. In 1649 the court judge's house in the northern part of the castle was completed.
In the middle of the courtyard there is a 16 meter deep castle well , which was carved out of the rock. This well was fed exclusively by collecting water, which is why the castle water tower was necessary to supply the crew.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the moat was filled in (1782), the castle wall to the castle lean was broken (New Gate) , the granary on the south wall, a storage building and the salt house were built. In 1869 the salt house was rebuilt as a jury building. The salt house has been used by the Sorbian Museum since 1971. In 1907 the wall facing the city was partially removed.
During the Second World War in 1945, the fron fortress of the castle water tower, the warehouse building and the granary were badly damaged.
The castle was renovated in the 1990s. In 2003 the construction of the new Burgtheater (puppet theater of the German-Sorbian People's Theater ) on the site of the destroyed Kornhaus was completed. The Rietschel gable erected here is particularly interesting .
Only the castle water tower, the Matthias tower and the wall remained of the medieval structure.
Matthias Tower
The Matthias Tower was built between 1483 and 1486 on the basis of the Matthias Gate in the late Gothic style . The tower was named after the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus , who owned the castle from 1469 to 1490 as sovereign of Upper Lusatia .
Even before the Matthias Tower was built, a palace chapel was set up on the second floor of what was then the Matthias Gate. It was consecrated as patron saint to the knight Georg and was given the name St. Georgenkapelle. During the Thirty Years' War the palace chapel burned down in 1639 and was not restored.
On the city side of the tower there has been a monumental sandstone relief by Briccius Gauske since 1486 , depicting King Matthias. Replicas of this original representation are in Budapest (Hungary), Szeged (Hungary) and Kráľova Lehota ( Slovakia ). The prince's coat of arms of Sigismund Jagiello , governor of Upper Lusatia from 1504 to 1506 and later King of Poland, is also placed in the gateway .
Castle water tower
The castle water tower ( Upper Sorbian Hrodowa wodarnja ) is located on the extreme western edge of the rock plateau on which the Ortenburg is built.
The castle water tower had two functions for the castle complex. On the one hand, it was a main bulwark that was pushed in front of the castle wall and was supposed to protect the west side of the Ortenburg against attackers from the Spreetal and the Protschenberg opposite . In its architectural layout it belongs to the genus of late medieval battery towers or gun turrets and as such is one of the few surviving examples in Saxony. Its second function was to supply the castle with water , for which there is a well in the base of the tower. In this double function, the castle water tower is a unique example of late medieval defense architecture. The lower part of the castle water tower probably dates from the early 14th, the upper part from the 15th century. It is the oldest part of the castle complex.
In 1535 the Spree was reburied, which meant that the castle water tower lost its original meaning. As a result, the tower was only used as a defense tower. There is a connecting building between the tower and the castle courtyard, which has served as a feast since 1740 . For example, from 1800 to 1803 the robber captain Johannes Karasek and from 1813 to 1815 the leader of the Lusatian robber gang Wenzel Kummer were imprisoned in this religious festival. The prison was closed around 1900. In 1945 the interior and the roof of the castle water tower were destroyed in the Second World War . In 2000 the destroyed roof was reconstructed.
Hofrichterhaus
In the course of the reconstruction of the Ortenburg, the court judge's house was built in 1649 .
Next to the court judge's house is a port of departure that was created in 1639 during the Swedish double siege. The Osterweg, which served the guards of the Fronfeste as a post route, begins at the exit gate. The Osterweg leads around the castle to the passage in front of the new gate of the Ortenburg.
Salt house
The salt house was built in 1782.
The reason for the establishment of this salt magazine was an order from 1779, according to which a salt depot should be built in Budissin . The salt bar was moved to the Bautzen town hall in 1834 .
In 1835 the district directorate , the Royal District Office and the Royal Saxon Court of Appeal in Budissin were established in the building. The Royal Saxon Court of Appeal was the highest judicial authority in Upper Lusatia .
In 1869 the building was rebuilt. The appellate court was renamed the district court in 1879 . Since then, the building has also been known as the jury building. The Bautzen Regional Court remained there until 1907.
During the National Socialist era , the Gestapo set up a seat in this building.
In 1971 the Sorbian Museum was established in the salt house.
From 1986 to 1989 the salt house was extensively restored.
The former hearing room of the jury's court is decorated with classicist wall paintings.
Trivia
After entering the courtyard of the Ortenburg through the gate in the Matthias Tower you can see two stone heads walled in on the left hand side of the outer wall of the Ortenburg under a window. These are probably the remains of two statues that were found in the rubble after the heavy fires when the castle was rebuilt in 1483–86. According to a legend, a monk from the Franciscan monastery in Bautzen and a nun from Prague are said to have been walled up alive at this point. These two are said to have felt a deep affection for one another as young people, but were separated by their parents and sent to different monasteries. Still, they both found a way to see each other. After the relationship between the two was discovered, they were walled in at the said place.
literature
- Joachim Meffert: The Ortenburg in Bautzen - The state of archaeological research and the excavations from 1999-2001. Work and research reports on the preservation of soil monuments in Saxony 44, 2002, 75–177 .
- Kai Wenzel: The late Gothic new building of the Bautzener Ortenburg. In: Tomasz Torbus (Hrsg.): The art in the Markgraftum Oberlausitz during the Jagiellonian rule . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7995-8403-6 , pp. 85-102.
- Cornelius Gurlitt : The castle (Ortenburg). In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 33. Booklet: Bautzen (city) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1909, pp. 170-193.
- Dr. Helmuth Gröger: Castles and palaces in Saxony, Heimatwerk Sachsen publishing house, Dresden, 1940, article on the Bautzener Ortenburg with illustration on pages 166–168
Web links
- The Ortenburg - history, information and pictures ( Memento from August 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Christa fights: history of the Ortenburg. Saxon Higher Administrative Court on sachsen.de
- Interactive panorama from the stucco ceiling in the audience hall
- The area of the Ortenburg Bautzen on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ^ See Early Churches in Saxony , Publications of the State Office for Archeology, Volume 23, Kommissionsverlag / Konrad Theiss Verlag Stuttgart, 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1094-2 , page 26ff.
- ↑ See Herbert Ludat : An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 .
- ^ Walter Frenzel : The Lady Chapel in Budissin Castle , Bautzener Geschichtshefte 4, 1926, page 76ff.
- ↑ Johann Georg Theodor Grasse : The treasure of legends of the Kingdom of Saxony , 1855, No. 634 "The Venus in Budessin." , P. 473; 2nd edition 1874, 2nd volume, p. 143 ( digitized on Wikisource ).
- ^ Document of March 10, 1326 in the Saxon Main State Archives
- ^ Johann Gottfried Graf (= Baron Gottfried Schmiedel ): Des Königl. Pohln. and Churfürstl. Saxon. Orttenburg Castle in Budissin, located in the margravate of Ober-Laußitz. Its origin, construction, and how both Marggrafthümer […] came to the […] House of Saxony, From various old news […] collected by Johann Gottfried Graff, de Schmiedel, Königl. Pohln. and Churfürstl. Saxon. appointed Ober-Jagd-Commissarium and Castle Inspector of Orttenburg Castle in Budissin . Meyer, Cottenberg 1754 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Matthias Donath : Castles and palaces in Saxony. Imhof, Petersberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86568-768-5 , p. 63.
- ^ Richard Reymann : History of the city of Bautzen , printing and publishing: Gebrüder Müller, 1902, page 210.
- ^ Richard Reymann : History of the city of Bautzen , printing and publishing: Gebrüder Müller, 1902, page 214.
- ^ Kai Wenzel: A Polish prince in Upper Lusatia. The coat of arms of Sigismund Jagiello in the gate passage of the Bautzener Matthias tower. (pdf)
- ^ A b Johann Georg Theodor Grasse: The treasure of legends of the Kingdom of Saxony , 1855, No. 618 "The stone heads at the Ortenburg" , p. 460f .; 2nd edition 1874, 2nd volume, p. 127 ( digitized on Wikisource ).
Ancient water art (Stara Wodarnja) | Gerber's Bastion (Garbarska bašta) | Lauenturm (Lawska wěža) | Matthias Tower (Maćijowa wěža) | Monk's Bastion (Mniša bašta) | Mlynská (Mlynská bašta) | Mill Gate (Mlynske Wrota) | Nicolaiturm (Mikławska wěža) | Ortenburg (Hród) | Imperial Tower (Bohata wěža) | Röhrscheidtbastei (Röhrscheidtowa bašta) | Students tower (Šulerska Węża) | Wendish Tower (Serbska wěža)