Edinburgh Palace
The Edinburgh-Palais on Coburg Castle Square , designed in the neo-renaissance style , ideally closes the ensemble of historical buildings between the State Theater and the arcades of the Hofgarten with its memorial. Located right across from Ehrenburg Palace, the Edinburgh Palais, formerly known as the “Wangenheim Palace”, is a masterpiece of the master builder Georg Konrad Rothbart . In 1865, Alfred , the son of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, bought it and used it as his residence. Today the palace belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Coburg .
history
From 1845 to 1846 Karl August Freiherr von Wangenheim had a two-storey palace built on the north side of Coburg Palace Square between Allee and Oberer Bürglaß in the style of early Italian mannerism , the front of which faces Ehrenburg Palace. The baron only lived there for four years; he died in 1850. At the same time, a villa for the state councilor and chamberlain Emil Freiherr von Pawel-Rammingen, which was later called the Kyrill-Palais , was built on the neighboring property to the north . Its entrance from the Upper Burglass is adorned by a small sandstone portal from Soldati's workshop from 1739, which came from a demolished building in Spitalgasse. After Wangenheim's death, the palace fell to the ducal family.
In September 1865, the British Prince Alfred von Edinburgh acquired the property and commissioned the builder Georg Konrad Rothbart , who is known in Coburg , to modernize the palace in the neo-renaissance style. It received a third storey, a simulated central projectile and an attached gable with a small obelisk . The first floor with the representative rooms emphasizes its function as a bel étage with flat arched cornices above the windows and the balcony. The renovation of the building was completed in 1866. It was then available as a guest house near the castle.
In 1881 the next renovation of the palace was due. Prince Alfred and his family had been announced as new residents. He was to succeed his uncle Ernst II , who had remained childless . The palace was extended by the architect Hans Rothbart with a four-story east wing on the avenue; the living space was increased by more than a third.
For Prince Alfred, his wife Maria Alexandrovna Romanowa and their five children, the palace and the neighboring villa were home until Ernst II's death in 1893, long enough to be called the “Edinburgh Palais” or “Palais Edinburgh” in general Coburg parlance "Or" Villa Edinburgh ".
The Edinburgh Palace did not stand empty for long. Duke Alfred died after only seven years of reign in 1900 without a successor, his first-born had died in 1899 after attempting suicide as a result of a gunshot wound and the dowager Maria moved back into her old domicile. She lived there until her death in 1920. In 1921, the palace passed to her third oldest daughter Alexandra, Princess von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and her husband Ernst. Victoria Melita and her husband, Grand Duke Kyrill , got the villa . Both lived in the property now known as “Villa Kyrill” for a time until the beginning of the Second World War . Alexandra and Ernst von Hohenlohe-Langenburg sold the palace to the Coburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1939 for 60,000 Reichsmarks .
In 1945 the American military administration confiscated the palace and used it first as an office building, then until 1952 as the America House, a cultural center for lectures and events. A library with American literature was also housed there.
Todays use
Since 1952 the palace has again been the seat of the Coburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Of the formerly rich interior, all that remained in a ground floor room of the main building was the wallcovering made of punched leather and the stucco ceiling, which was painted over with paint, and carvings of wall and ceiling paneling in some rooms on the first floor in the east wing. The state education authority was temporarily housed there. The exterior of the palace has remained unchanged since 1881. Only the obelisk on the gable has disappeared, a trifle which, however, disrupts the whole harmony of the front, since the gable no longer protrudes above the hipped roof . In 2009, a new entrance to Schlossplatz was created as part of a complete renovation.
literature
- Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown. Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg, 1974, pages 16-17
- Peter Morsbach, Otto Titz: City of Coburg. Ensembles-Architectural Monuments-Archaeological Monuments . Monuments in Bavaria. Volume IV.48. Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-87490-590-X
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′ 35 ″ N , 10 ° 58 ′ 5 ″ E