Palais Papius

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Palais Papius - outside view of the inner courtyard

The Palais Papius is a simple baroque, two-story palace in the old town of Wetzlar in the Lahn-Dill district . It is located at Kornblumengasse 1.

history

The central building was built around 1740 by Johann Conrad Heeser von Lilienthal , Procurator at the Imperial Court of Justice .

In 1756 it was expanded considerably by the assessor Johann Hermann Franz von Pape , known as Papius . He had it extended to today's four-wing complex with a rectangular inner courtyard. Some of the rooms in the palace still have the same furnishings.

At the end of the 18th century, Baron von Hammerstein took over the building and continued to rebuild and expand it. During the second major court appeal (1767–1776) Egon von Fürstenberg and his later successor Franz Gundacker von Colloredo-Mansfeld lived in the palace. In 1816 the building was auctioned to private owners. The property has been owned by the city of Wetzlar since 1860, which initially set up a school there: from 1905 to 1923 as a lyceum and from 1923 to 1938 a Catholic elementary school was housed here. During the Second World War and the first post-war years, the Wetzlar Economic Office was located. In the 1950s and 60s the palace was used by a commercial vocational school. The palace has been used as a museum since 1967. From 1975 until the death of Irmgard Freiin von Lemmers-Danforth in 1984, the palace was also her residence. In 2007 the museum was relocated. After renovation and remodeling, the palace reopened on May 4, 2012.

Building history

Palais Papius - exhibition space of the museum
Palais Papius - exhibition space of the museum

The spacious mansion shows a simple, brightly plastered facade facing the street, which is structured by a large, round-arched gate passage set in with shell stone . The following inner courtyard is dominated by the main facade opposite the entrance with its large, sheltered dwelling. The building gets its special architectural value from its elaborate interior. In the stairwell and the rooms facing the garden you can still find stucco ceilings and doors with lush rocailles . A special feature are the fillings, which reflect the rococo shapes of the ceilings from the period shortly after the middle of the 18th century. The large salon in the part of the building adjacent to the street was only provided with wall and ceiling stucco towards the end of the 18th century. Flat, fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals support the entablature, above which there is a cove with an egg stick and palmette frieze . The stucco in the adjoining corner rooms takes up the slightly older forms of the Directoire .

Current usage

Today the house is primarily used as a museum . It shows the collection "European living culture from the Renaissance and Baroque", started around 1928, the basis of which was created during the National Socialist era and compiled by the Wetzlar honorary citizen Irmgard von Lemmers-Danforth (1892–1984). The exhibition has been housed in the Palais since 1967. It shows princely furniture from the 15th to the early 18th century from Italy , France , the Netherlands and Germany .

Since February 2015, after extensive restoration, a 3 meter by 2.5 meter wall hanging made of silk brocade has been shown again from the collection. The piece dates from between 1450 and 1470 and was probably made in Italy. The main motif of the curtain made of silk velvet pile with incorporated metal threads is a pomegranate bud bursting open.

The collection is supplemented by exhibits such as paintings, clocks, exquisite ceramics and works of art of the goldsmith's trade , and thus shows an overall picture of European living culture from the Renaissance and Baroque .

The palace is also used for the city's festive receptions.

Web links

Commons : Palais Papius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.wetzlar.de/index.phtml?NavID=370.3&La=1 (different content)
  2. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Palais Papius In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  3. ↑ Rarity from the fund of European living culture in FAZ of February 12, 2015, page 51

Coordinates: 50 ° 33 '11.9 "  N , 8 ° 30' 7.9"  E